History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 42

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362

USA > California > Fresno County > History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I > Part 42

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As suddenly as the craze was started up as suddenly ended the swarms that passed Firebaugh's Ferry in the spring of 1865 "like unto a battalion of soldiers-some in wagons, some on horse and mule back and many on foot, all bound for the land of petroleum"-at any hour of the day "with squads of two, four and six" coming from the remote counties and "all wending their way toward the oil region." The prophet was wrong in his vision that this portion of the county "will shortly be thickly settled" and as the oil excitement soon abated groundless also his fear that there would "ere long be a great many applications for admittance to the insane asylum at Stock- ton."

The existence of petroleum in California had in fact been known for years before. The Indians made use of asphaltum for various purposes. The padres used it for roofing the mission and other buildings. It is tradition that Andreas Pico distilled petroleum on a small scale for the- San Fer- nando mission, using crude oil from Pico Canyon near Newhall in Los Angeles County. He was probably the first refiner. In 1856 a company commenced crude oil refining at La Brea ranch in Los Angeles. In 1857 another attempted at Carpinteria in Santa Barbara to produce illuminating oil from the crude. Similar attempts were made in localities prior to 1860 but with no success.

Prof. B. Silliman made in 1865 the first scientific report on petroleum in California. The decade following "was marked by a considerable oil ex- citement in California." Many companies were formed. Most of these achieved no success. Pioneer oil men had not the drilling machinery of the present day and little or no knowledge of the geological conditions. Dis-

COALINGA IN 1900

0001

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tillers expected to obtain the same results as eastern distillers. They were disappointed in products from fractional distillation. The development in time of the Coalinga field in Fresno County as one of six in four counties is one of the remarkable features in the history of the oil industry.

In 1887 when the State Mining Bureau made reconnoissance only four companies were operating. In July, 1900, there were 250 producing com- panies and some 1,500 producing and 470 prospect wells. The first com- mercially successful refinery was that of the California Star Oil Company near Newhall in Los Angeles, followed by the Pacific Coast Oil Company at Alameda and by the Union Oil Company at Santa Paula. Today there are ten or more. The most bewildering figures might be cited in the com- parison of the Fresno field and the state growth of the oil industry to em- phasize the immensity and value of the petroleum yield of California, today the country's largest producer. A few generalities must suffice. As indica- tive of the enormity of the industry, it may be cited that in April, 1910, as an instance, for the companies listed on the California Stock and Oil Ex- change in San Francisco the dividends were $710,368, while the total paid on all stocks to the end of that month was the large sum of $2,958,276.

Beginning with 1907, petroleum has exceeded the gold output. Califor- nia has produced a total of about $1.547,967,468 in gold since 1848. This gold would weigh 2,580 tons and to move require a train of fifty-two freight cars, each holding fifty tons. Expert authority is that the production is being swelled annually at the rate of about $20,000,000 and likely to become more rather than less for some years. The largest production for any year was in 1852, $81,294,700, and the next largest in 1854 with $69,433,931. The year 1852 was the one of most active development of the superficial placer areas. Thousands were at work with pan, rocker, Long Tom and sluice, and even the hydraulic in a small way had been introduced. Petroleum leads by a wide margin in the output for 1911 with 84,684,159 barrels, valued at $40,- 552,088 ; gold $19,738,908, and cement third with $9,085,625 among the min- eral products of the state. Statistics on this line might be multiplied.

The productive fields opened and developed in the San Joaquin Valley are in the Coast Range foothills and the lowermost Sierra foothills at the southern extremity. At Oil City, near Coalinga, an oil remarkable for its low specific gravity has been obtained from formations underlying rocks containing fossils of the eocene (Tejon) age. According to the geological story, these rocks were deposited when the California coast line was east of the area now occupied by the Sierra foothills and the valley was covered by the ocean and the Coast Range only partly above the water. The eocene period was one of land depression with deposit of shale formation over much of the tertiary deposit. During the later neocene epoch, there was a marked period of elevation.

It was about 1900 that the importance of the state's petroleum possibili- ties was recognized. The question of petroleum as fuel assumed special importance because the discovered coal deposits in the state were found to be inadequate to the steadily increasing demand for fuel. Exclusive of asphal- tum and gas, the value of the industry is represented in the extraction and handling of the oil by the price for that which is exported and by the value of that which is consumed at home, the latter as fuel constituting the bulk of the output and a factor in commercial economy. There is a tradition that the earliest mention of the valley oil fields was by Father Garces, the intrepid missionary, in the region about the neighborhood of the present Maricopa in Kern County. This was in the spring of 1776 when Washing- ton was such a conspicuous figure on the world's stage. More than a cen- tury passed and yet, while the deposits in the Coast Range were long defin- itely known and in Fresno County at least as far back as 1865, general de- velopment of the oil deposits was not commenced until about 1888-89, and most of it during the decade following in the rich valley section.

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Fortunes did not always reward the drilling companies or the individual in the Coalinga field. Riches were more often the result of lucky strokes in real estate. The fact is well substantiated in numerous instances. The late W. J. Dickey took up a section of sheep land for debt security at a small valuation per acre, held on to it because he could not well dispose of it and when discoveries were made around him sold the land for $450,000. The late H. H. Brix loaned a small sum of money on a homestead in the proven field and during the boom when every one was wild over oil realized nearly a million. The rise in land values was phenomenal as in the days of farm coloni- zations, values went up by jumps.

A syndicate of Fresno capitalists bought land around Coalinga for twelve dollars and fifty cents an acre and sold 600 for fifty dollars an acre and later 200 of adjoining same land for $600,000. These spectacular leaps marked all the oil towns. Nowhere though were the results so material as in the phenomenal building up of the surroundings of Coalinga as the town on the West Side that jumped in population, wealth and possibilities during the field development to a place in the county next to Fresno. The site of the Bank of Coalinga valued as much as the corner lot, which sold for $14,000, was offered in 1894 for twelve and one-half dollars. The site was one of two lots offered once for $375 and bought by the owner for $275. Prices of oil land in the Coalinga oil field ranged in 1910 from $500 to $7,000 an acre. A feature of the times was the invasion of British capital, notably the investment of four and one-half millions in May for Section 2-20-15, adjoining the famous Coalinga-Mohawk well on the east side anticline.

CHAPTER L

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA OIL DISTRICT IS ONE OF THE STATE'S GREAT WEALTH PRODUCERS. EARLY DRILLING METHODS WERE CRUDE. TALES OF FRENZIED FINANCE, DISAPPOINTED HOPES AND UN- LOOKED FOR RETURNS MARK EARLY DEVELOPMENT DAYS. DIS- COVERY SHOWINGS WERE SMALL COMPARED WITH LATER BROUGHT IN WELLS. PICTURESQUE FEATURES OF THE FIRST EFFORTS IN THE EXPLOITATION OF THE WEST SIDE FIELD. A STORY AS INTERESTING AS THAT OF THE GOLD PERIOD OF THE ARGONAUTS. PROVEN SUCCESS OF THE FIELD MARKS A NEW ERA OF PROSPERITY AND CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY IN THE COUNTY.

The Central California oil district stretching from southwestern Fresno County at Coalinga to the Kern River at Bakersfield in a half moon, so to speak, is one of the great wealth producers of California. It has put forth a product more profitable than its gold. The rise of this industry is astound- ing. From 3,600 barrels in 1870 worth $3.125 to 56,982,070 barrels in 1909 worth thirty-three millions. The story of this industry is as interesting as that of the gold period of the Argonaut days. There were failures, many of "dry holes," and of companies insufficiently equipped financially and ven- tuiresome at most that went down during the hard times before 1907. There was also shameful wild catting but it was a time for money gambling as in the wildest days of Comstock mining gambling in the exchanges of San Francisco, of poor men made rich, rich men made poor, stockholders en- riched or impoverished, fortunes made and lost.

Early oil drilling methods were crude, tools less efficient and where failure consequently was recorded often flowing wells were opened by later and more experienced operators. The money did not flow alone into the lap

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of the well or stock owner. As in the days of gold, everything that was touched in the oil field turned into money. All reaped the general harvest. Those who made their piles invested in real estate and erected fine residences and business blocks in Fresno and elsewhere. Coalinga's rise was one result in a bustling, modern, well built up city which was the wonder of the visitor. To it once for the lack of drinkable water the fluid was conveyed in tank cars and peddled out and distributed at so much per pail. With the notable increase of the assessment roll on account of the development of the field, Fresno practically dates from then its most recent constructive era, the day of sky-scrapers and big buildings and general improvement of the city on lines broader and more ambitious than before.

Conspicuous among the corporate enterprises is the California Oil Fields Ltd., one of the largest operators in the field, having the best camp in it. It is an English concern capitalized at $2,000,000 and for years has yielded dividends ranging from thirty to forty percent. It bought up hold- ings which one time were considered undesirable. The Union Oil Com- pany is another large independent operator. The Standard and the Shell also have extensive holdings, as has the Southern Pacific, and all with many producing wells. Clarence J. Berry, whose name is associated as a grub staker in Alaska in the wild days of the Klondike, made more money in oil. He invested in Fresno real estate and farm land and becoming a modern Monte Cristo dared finance a baseball nine. He placed money in Coalinga and McKittrick holdings, in the latter making a big thing of the C. J. lease, a close corporation, paying its owners more than $25,000 a month. Upon return from Alaska, he owned the heart of McKittrick and sold out early all but forty acres for $50,000. W. F. Chandler, H. H. Welsh, G. L. Warlow. H. H. Brix and others, living and dead, enriched themselves not only by drilling for oil and striking, but in real estate and investment enter- prises, in the oil transportation lines and sales agencies, and in the public utility companies.

Tales of frenzied finance and remarkable and unlooked for returns are told of the days of development almost unbelievable. The Peerless for in- stance owning originally 160 acres in the Kern River field bought in 1897 Coalinga and Sunset properties which improved cost about $500,000 yet re- turned to stockholders in dividends $810,000, equal to more than $5,000 an acre on the original tract.

The Sauer Dough of Coalinga was a wonderful dividend payer. It held thirty acres only, capitalized at $300,000, yet by 1910 had returned $517,303.50 in dividends.

The Lucile of Coalinga was another record maker. Drilling for two years against every difficulty, shares selling as low as four cents and taking pay in shares, $42,727 was paid in dividends on 26,704 shares when they "struck oil" and stock was quoted at fifteen dollars per share.

Joseph H. Canfield for years president of the Associated Oil Company with C. A. Chanslor were the early successful developers of the Coalinga field, and their returns were enormous-no one knows how much.

Greater efficiency of methods used and the more substantial basis on which the business was conducted are illustrated in the twenty-year well record of the state from 1888 to 1908 showing 5,611 wells and 1,017 dry- successes eighty-one and nine-tenths, failures eighteen and one-tenth percent., very low indeed compared with the United States record since the beginning in 1859. The 1908 record of California was 617 wells, 323 drilled-successes ninety-six and three-tenths, failures three and seven-tenths percent. The town of Coalinga, sixty miles south and west of Fresno, in 1900 numbered some twenty habitations with Whiskey Row in the foreground; in 1910 its horizon had greatly extended and it had an estimated population of 5,000.

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The field is regarded as probably the greatest in untapped possibilities of development, transportation facilities and fixed output. It has been worked since 1896 and with the resuscitation of the industry in 1907 the output has made the semi arid territory the richest in the state. In 1910 it numbered 654 producing wells with probably 150 companies operating, the field tapped by five pipe lines with daily capacity of 95,000 barrels, ap- proximately double the output of the region. At the then rate of develop- ment, it was figured that it would take fifteen years to cover the absolutely proven ground. As evidences of the faith in the future, buildings in Coalinga were of best modern construction, oil camps were laid out as small towns on sanitary and architectural lines, pipe lines and machinery of a type to last were installed at high cost. Coalinga, purely an oil city, passed the stage of the frontier type of town of its early career and its floating popula- tion vanished.

The proven territory of the field covers 20,520 acres and figuring a well to every six the total in expectancy is 3,420. Completed wells in 1910 were 650, leaving according to figuring 2.970 to be drilled, estimating 200 per year. These figures are only an index as to time for drilling and no indica- tion as to the producing life. The Coalinga district adjoins on the north the Kreyenhagen, partly east of the western boundary of Fresno and Kings Counties. The Oil City field is north of the north fork of Los Gatos Creek and the Alcalde between Alcalde and the north fork of Los Gatos. Oil City is about nine miles north of Coalinga.

The first Coalinga district well was drilled about 1890, 163 feet deep, yielding green oil, twenty barrels pumped up by windmill in two days and seven on the third. Rowland and Lacy of Los Angeles drilled four wells in 1891-92 and one of these 400 feet deep yielded on testing nine barrels daily. The others were never pumped. In 1893 there were five wells full of oil and plugged. In 1895 the Producers' and Consumers' Oil Company of Selma (J. A. McClurg and others) sunk a 695 and a 700-foot well on Section 20-19-15, southeast of Rowland & Lacy. They yielded fifteen and twenty barrels daily of thirty-four degrees B gravity oil. In 1896 the Producers on Section twenty brought in a sixty-barrel well. Chanslor & Canfield and the Home produced in 1896 oil of thirty-four degrees from depths of 500 to 600 and small wells on Section 17-19-15. The P. and C. of Selma was drilled 300 feet east of the other wells, and at 890 struck oil, yielding 300 barrels a day. In 1897 the Home Oil of Selma organized by G. W. Terrill and others drilled on the N. E. 14 of Section 20-19-15 ranging in depth from 900 to 1700. Other wells were drilled in endeavor to extend the limits of this pool but excepting sixteen on property of the Home and of the Coalinga companies were failures-thirty dry holes, each probably averaging $25,000. The next strike was in 1898 by the Independence on 29-19-15 on Hanford Oil Com- pany leased land, a good well on the EastSide field. Late in 1898 the Con- fidence which had drilled three dry on 25-19-14 brought in a sixty-barrel and shortly a 200-barrel well, making the first strike on the West Side field. The third Blue Goose at 1,400 completed in 1898 produced from 900 to 1,000 barrels a day. In 1899 there were many to commence operations without re- sulting successes; the year after there was more exploiting further east and in the early development there was much inconvenience from the lack of water. The 1899 output was of 439,372 barrels and an eight and one-half inch pipe line was laid from Coalinga to Ora station. The above were some of the discovery wells from which as centers development work was extended to open up the proven territory covering an area fourteen miles long and from one-half to two and one-half wide and with oil ranging in gravity from fourteen degrees in the shallow West Side to thirty-four and one-half degrees in the Home pool and averaging respectively sixteen degrees and twenty-two degrees.

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Many of these discovery showings are small compared with the later productions. Verily the industry had a day of small beginnings. In 1910 the number of new wells spudded in had not been large for the fore half of the year but much was being done in the deepening of some old wells and the redrilling of others, the history of which would indicate that im- proved methods of working would have better results. In some instances this drilling was done to a depth of several thousand feet at great cost and with necessarily elaborate equipment. With this in mind, it is recalled what expectations and how much satisfaction resulted from the small pioneer dis- covery showings and what encouragements they were. It recalls the jubila- tion of the Coast Range Oil Company of Los Angeles in 1890, when at a depth of 163 on 20-19-15 that greenish light gravity oil was struck, and that wind mill pump brought up ten barrels in two days, less than ten after the third and the yield thereafter lessened gradually. Two years later, Rowland & Lacy of Los Angeles brought in the first deep well in the field at 400 feet with an initial record of nine barrels. The real "first big well" in the district was in 1896 by Chanslor & Canfield at 890 and 300 barrels a day -the reward to these pioneers.

The field has produced some notable wells. Recalled with thrills by oilmen are the "gushers." The original Blue Goose (Home No. 3) on 20-19-15 was a wonder of wonders in 1897. The Independence on 28-19-15 made good showing for a time in March, 1904, and in 1905 California Oil- fields No. 25 on 27-19-15 was a big one for those days. Blowout caught the perforator in the hole preventing finishing the well but later it came under control and made about 600 barrels a day. The next big one was W. H. Kerr's Missouri-Coalinga in the summer of 1906 on 34-19-15, production estimated to have been from 10,000 to 18,000 a day. It shot itself to pieces.

In the fall of 1904 Art Anderson in Section Seven Oil Company's No. 1 well on 7-20-15 brought over 400 barrels in a day. It came under control and yielded over 1,200,000 barrels. In February, 1905, No. 1 of the P. M. D. & O. made over 100 barrels per hour for ten days. Anderson drilled in this well, controlled it and it yielded over 770,000 barrels and continued a good yielder at about 200 a day. A spectacular well of the spring of 1905 was Guthrey No. 1 brought in by H. B. Guthrey on 31-19-15. It made over 7,000 barrels one day when it was at its best. Gas pressure was so great that well cut itself to pieces and it became dead.

The Standard Oil Company in 1906 had a blow out on 28-19-15 after striking a gas pocket in the water sand. Blowout rose so high in the air that it was visible in Coalinga. Greatest gusher was Well No. 1, the Silver Tip on Section 6-21-15 brought in by Z. L. Phelps September, 1909, making 4,000 barrels a day while under full control. The Section 7 No. 1 well pro- duced 1,000 barrels a day for a year and had to its credit in 1910 over 1,500,- 000 barrels. Two 1907 wells of the K. T. O. on 25-20-14 are credited with 1,000,000, No. 23 of the California Limited of March, 1905, initial production 14,300 barrels for twenty-four hours fetched up at 1,115,000, Coalinga-Pacific No. 1, on 7 of August, 1904, over 750,000, Pittsburg No. 1 on the Califor- nia Limited, 390,000 in thirteen months, Lucile No. 1 of September, 1908, 450,000, Sauer Dough No. 3 nearly one million, P. M. D. O. Company No. 1 of April, 1904, over 500,000, American Petroleum twenty-eight wells drilled after December, 1908, averaged 300 barrels to well. Silver Tip with 36,000 barrels tanked in seventy-two hours flowed normally 300 in a day.

The history of the oil business has its fantastic side as in the develop- ment of the East Side field with the coming in of the Mohawk "gusher" in what was considered to be wild cat territory. W. H. Kerr drilled in 1904 on 34-19-15 in the Pittsburg-Coalinga of four years before but abandoned on account of water. Kerr drilled with money of his own and of R. H. and J. E. McCleary and at 2,640 opened a well that yielded 500. to 800 barrels daily for a year. The California Oil Fields came in with Twenty-three, start-

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ing off with 4,000 barrels a day and this until the Silver Tip was con- sidered the greatest well in the field. The Coalinga-Mohawk started a well in a corner of 12-20-15 in 1907, drilling 4,100 feet with indifferent success, re- drilled to 3,960 and struck a 1,400-barrel producer.

The Standard Oil Company has become one of the dominant factors in the Coalinga field and according to its bulletin the proven acreage in all California fields for 1916 was 86,550 acres, Coalinga ranking second with 14,611 acres and Midway-Sunset first with 39,404. Total state production for the year was 91,976,019 barrels.

According to figures of the California Independent Oil Producers' Agency the 1916 shipments were 104,312.905 barrels. Petroleum stocks were reduced by 12,336,586 barrels, a figure unprecedented in the California industry. The year's daily output averaged 251,989 against a 1915 total vield of 89,725,726 and daily average of 245,824 with 18,000 daily estimated shut in. A banner year also was 1914, with 102,871,907 and daily average of 281,841. Above reported 1916 shipments figure a daily average of 285,789 compared with 1915's total 92,007.715 or daily average of 252,076, while 1914's total record was 94,470,989 or daily average of 258,825. In round figures 1916 exceeded 1915 by over 12,000,000 barrels and 1914 by nearly 10,000.000. Reported pro- ducing wells were. in 1916, 6.542: 1915. 6.016: 1914. 5.867; and abandoned wells, 18, 15 and 11; and there was a drilling of 238, 153 and 222 for the re- spective years. The demand for the California crude oil product in 1916 exceeded the supply by 35,822 barrels daily, with the result of a decline in stocks, for the year ending December 31, 1916, of 13,110,861 barrels. No two reporting agencies absolutely agree in their figures, some including in the output the quantity used in the field and estimated at 5,000,000 gallons an- nually.

Producing wells reported in March, 1917, for the state were 7,427 with a daily production of 262,528 barrels-Coalinga with 941 and 42,486 barrels. For California in 1917 the proven area is shown to have been 88,745 acres. It should be stated that in the determination of these area figures the boun- dary lines of proven area are drawn 200 to 300 feet outside the proven field. In outlying single wells, the field is credited with about fifteen acres. The figures presented are of actual proven area, no consideration being given to territory regarded as proven and not fully drilled. For instance large areas of undrilled territory are in the Buena Vista Hills which regarded as proven are not included. Coalinga field is credited with 14.771 proven acres.

California is the largest petroleum producer in the United States, and the latter leads in the world's production, supplanting Russia which holds second, having led for nearly half a century. Overproduction in 1914 in the California field reduced activities to the lowest practical minimum in 1915, estimated production 89,000,000 barrels. New wells drilled during 1915 were 240 compared with 400 in 1914. The latter year's product of 102,881,907 bar- rels was valued at $47,487.109 ; average price in counties 46.1 cents, a reduction of 3.2 cents over 1913.

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History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 42

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1362

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362