History of Kern 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, Part 20

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682

USA > California > Kern County > History of Kern 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 > Part 20

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The Eagle Creek gusher on section 31. 31-23, brought in in April, 1910, at 1600 feet, has the distinction of having thrown up a good portion of the vertebrae of some deep-buried saurian monster. When the Eagle Creek first came in the Santa Fe, just across the section line, stopped flowing for a time, and then started in at a greater rate than ever as though in rivalry with its new neighbor.

Effect on the Oil Game

The story of Kern county oil gushers might be indefinitely prolonged. They continue to come in to the present day, and some of the later arrivals rival in interest and output the American Oilfields 79 and the Lakeview itself. But the stories related are typical of all the gushers in a general way, and the partial list of big wells that were brought in in the first few months of 1910 will suggest the fever of excitement and expectancy which spread not only over Kern county but throughout the state wherever people read newspapers and bought oil stocks.

The fact that nearly all the gushers were brought in in territory which but a few months before had been miles away from the proven oil belt gained credence for the promises of the wildest of wildcat oil promoters and there was a rush of tenderfeet into the oil game, quite regardless of the fact that the product of the gushers was beating the price of oil to the bankruptcy level,

LAKEVIEW NOI GUSHER MARICOPA CAL SMUL PHOTO.

Lake View Gucher, Maricopa, Cal. Flowing 48000 Bbls. per day

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

and that seasoned operators were growing more and more pessimistic as the stocks of oil on hand increased.

Fortunately for the old producers and unfortunately for the tenderfeet, a great proportion of the drilling begun in the latter half of 1910 proved unproductive. Gradually the prospect holes started in the Elk hills were abandoned, and the companies that began pushing the line of development far out on the Maricopa flat went broke or got tired of paying assessments. By the end of 1911 most of the drilling still going on was by old hands in the business who had contracts to fill or who had capital sufficient to carry them over the period of low prices.

In addition to proving the productiveness of a portion of the Maricopa flat and practically all of the Midway valley, the drilling since the beginning of 1910 has demonstrated that oil underlies the gas formation in the Buena Vista hills; that if there is oil in the Elk hills it is not so easy to find as the first prospectors hoped; that there is a considerable amount of barren or excessively deep territory north of McKittrick; that just north of this seem- ingly barren territory is the Belridge anticline where excellent wells of light oil are brought in at shallow depths and that still farther north in the Lost Hills country is another shallow formation carrying light oil and large quan- tities of gas.

To the Union Oil Company fell the lot of demonstrating the unprofitable- ness of the territory between the McKittrick field and Belridge. It drilled a number of deep holes without finding oil in paying quantities, but the big concern went about the job in a quiet, systematic, businesslike way that be- comes a strong organization that takes the lean with the fat and so there was little romance and only a passive public interest in its operations there.

The same is true of the development of Belridge, which was as profit- able as the Union's North Midway venture was unprofitable. The Belridge operators were stockholders in the Associated Oil Company and other sea- soned oil men, and they staked out the land, sunk some prospect holes. found the oil and exercised options on a great amount of land surrounding their strike before the public in general knew what was going on.

The Lost Hills Field

Martin & Dudley, who were the dominant factors in the discovery and development of the Lost Hills field, followed the same plan, but their opera- tions were attended by more picturesque features, and the Lost Hills, although no more important than Belridge in the matter of production, perhaps, at- tracted vastly more attention from the outside world.

The story of the Lost Hills field really dates from 1899, the year in which the Elwoods found oil at Kern river. Orlando Barton, son of one of the oldest of the Kern county pioneers, prospected the lonesome desert country in the northwestern part of the county from the Devil's Den to the swamp, includ- ing in his general survey the present Lost Hills field. In 1907 he helped form the Lost Hills Mining Company, and located the section of land on which the Lakeshore well, the well in which the Lost Hills discovery was made, is now situated-section 30, 26-21. A contract was let to Los Angeles parties to drill the section, but it was allowed to lapse without action. The news got about in the south, however, that there was government land on which oil might be found, and shortly all the government land in the township was filed upon by homesteaders.

The Square Deal Oil Company of Hanford made an unsuccessful effort

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to reach the oil sand on section 18, and this failure discouraged the home- steaders, most of whom abandoned their claims. The Lost Hills Mining Company worked its claims for gypsum, and Barton personally remained in possession of the land practically all of the time until the Lakeshore well was brought in.

The Discovery Well

In December, 1909, Barton interested Martin & Dudley, real estate men of Visalia, and after looking over the field they acted on the advice of Barton, who told them that they would find oil at less than 600 feet. Barton picked the location of Lakeshore No. 1, and very early in 1910 Martin & Dudley began to drill.

On March 8, 1910, the well was down 160 feet, and there was so much oil in the hole that drilling was stopped, and arrangements were begun to take advantage of the strike which the Lakeshore Company felt sure was coming. Other rigs were secured, titles to land in the vicinity were looked up, and the plans were laid which made Martin & Dudley the complete masters of the sit- uation when the field came in some months later.

The Lost Hills were far out in the midst of the lonesome west side desert, but oil prospectors see far, and even out there it was necessary to use the utmost caution to prevent premature publicity of the important find. Along in May some more drilling was done in the Lakeshore well, and by June 3d so much gas was developed that drilling was again stopped to await the progress of the other features of the program. The place was fenced and guards were left to see that inquisitive people did not get near enough to the well to smell the gas.

In July work was again resumed and on July 26th, at a depth of 463 feet, the gas threw the water out of the hole and over the derrick top. After that the drillers had frequent shower baths of mud, water and oil, and on July 29th, at 527 feet depth the oil was struck and rose within 80 feet of the top of the casing, and refused to be lowered more than a dozen feet by the most rapid baling.

The oil sand was not penetrated and the casing was far from the bottom of the hole, but Martin & Dudley did not bother about finishing their well in the most scientific fashion. They put a cap on it, instead, moved away the derrick, obliterated all traces of oil, left a guard to keep strangers outside the fence, and began taking options on all the land they could tie up in the district.

How successful they were was demonstrated when the news of the strike came out. Martin. & Dudley were the big men in the new field, and the hundreds of oil men and tenderfeet who rushed to the Lost Hills dis- covered that the men from Visalia had some sort of claim on practically every piece of land that was worth a prospect hole. Martin & Dudley arranged with the Associated Oil Company to take up their options on a great body of land along the Lost Hills anticline, and the Associated was the first of the big concerns in the new field. The Universal and the Standard also secured considerable tracts of land there, and most of the development has been done by the three companies.

But it took time for prospectors and would-be prospectors to find out how thoroughly Martin & Dudley had preempted the ground. Scores of men who had overlooked the opportunity to get in on the ground floor when the other oil fields were opened up, resolved not to sleep on their chances in the

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Lost Hills, and after the first profound skepticism concerning the genuine- ness of the new strike gave way to conviction, the dust got no chance to settle on the road between Bakersfield and the little ridge of sand that was understood to mark the apex of the Lost Hills anticline. It was proclaimed as a poor man's field. The territory was wonderfully shallow, and a well could be drilled with a light, portable rig and stovepipe casing, according to popular report. So there was presently a string of portable rigs headed toward the Lost Hills. Also there were men with shotguns and rifles to hold the claims against the rival prospectors, and later on there were law- suits to determine the relative value of homestead filings and mineral claims. Then winter came on, and showers of rain amounting to half an inch or less made the alkaline roads almost impassable. The Associated built a standard rig a little west of the anticline and drilled for weeks and months without finding any oil so far as the public knew. Water and fuel were difficult to get, and the portable rigs were not efficient. So the tenderfoot operators got out with as little loss as they could manage, and the field was left to the big concerns.

With a number of good walls brought in a little to the south of the Lakeshore, the big companies soon put Lost Hills in the list of producing fields, and the output continues to increase with a few strong concerns doing all the development.

A Field Not Yet Arrived

One other oil excitement punctuates the history of the industry in Kern county. In the fall of 1912. Dr. A. H. Liscomb, a pioneer operator of the Kern river field, and a number of his friends, and Harry C. Rambo, a rancher of Semitropic, and a number of his friends formed a theory that the con- necting link between the West Side oil formation and that of the Kern river field was via the ridge of land that runs northwest past Lerdo and Semitropic in the general direction of Lost Hills. They were strengthened in this theory by the assurance of a Mrs. Brown, who used an instrument in detecting the presence of oil and minerals hidden in the earth. They tested Mrs. Brown's powers by having her expert land in proven fields and checking her figures against the logs of drilled wells, and finally they secured options on a large body of land at prices based on its probable value for agriculture. and began drilling two wells. The Liscomb well made the most progress, and early in January, 1913, a reported strike of exceedingly light oil started a miniature oil boom over all the territory between Wasco and the swamp. If any oil was found in the Liscomb well, however, it was drowned by water. and the well had to be abandoned. The Rambo well was a failure for the same reason, and although one or other of these parties have been drilling almost steadily throughout the year, neither has yet made a strike that the oil public accepts as of any value.

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

CHAPTER XV

Progress of the County From 1900 to 1913

The events of larger and more permanent importance which have trans- pired in Kern county between 1900 and the summer of 1913, when this chron- icle closes, range themselves under four heads: Development of the oil fields, the beginning of a new agricultural development through the agency of pump irrigation, a great advance in permanent construction in Bakersfield, including a better class of dwellings, business structures, public buildings and paved streets, and a steady improvement in civic standards coincident with the transition of the county from a field of speculation and transient resi- dence to one of investment and permanent homes.

First honors are due to the oil development, for it occupied the most conspicuous place in the public interest and because, to a very large degree, it made all the other developments mentioned possible. Because of their importance and for the sake of continuity in the narrative, the discovery and development of the county's oil fields have been given a chapter to themselves Second place in logical sequence belongs to the development of pump irriga- tion and the new agricultural and horticultural enterprises which it opened up.

Development of Pump Irrigation

A history of the efforts of the first pump irrigators would be but a dreary and disheartening tale. As other portions of this narrative have shown, the waters of Kern river were early appropriated by the owners of the delta lands that lie in the lower portion of the valley, leaving only the scanty rainfall-averaging between six and seven inches per season-to wet the equally rich lands along the mesa and the higher or more distant portions of the plain. The efforts of the dry grain farmers demonstrated that the mesa lands were not only fertile but easy to work. Many of the grain farmers installed windmills to pump stock and domestic water, and the surplus was used to irrigate vegetable gardens and small family orchards. This demon- strated, first that good water wells were to be found in any part of the valley or the mesas at depths varying with the elevation of the surface; second, that comparatively little water was necessary to make the soil productive, and third, that on the higher lands the growing season was even longer than in the trough of the valley, and the winter frosts were less severe. The magnificent area of the dry plain and mesa lands offered a tempting prize for successful pump irrigation, but the difficulties that faced the first experi- menters were practically insurmountable.

These experimenters lived before the day of gas engine efficiency, and sttitable fuel for steam engines, prior to the development of the oil fields, was not to be had. The steam engines used for threshing grain burned straw, and some of the first pump irrigators lifted their water with these straw- burners. Others used for fuel the sage brush which they cleared from their land. Both methods were laborious, expensive and generally unsatisfactory.

The early pumps were inefficient, and when a fairly successful combina- tion of pump and engine was effected the irrigator had trouble with his well. The first wells were well suited to windmill power, but when greatly in- creased drafts were made upon them by larger pumps great quantities of

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sand were sucked out with the water, and presently the walls of the well near the bottom caved in, choking off the supply of water with quantities of falling clay. Not a few of the early pump irrigators became insolvent trying to construct wells that would not cave in, and the general pessimism as to the possibility of obtaining water in any considerable quantities by this means increased.

Simultaneously all these discouraging experiences were suffered in the vicinity of Delano, at Rio Bravo, in what is now the Wasco country, and on the mesa southeast of Bakersfield. Gradually the pump irrigators learned to make the perforations in their casing so small that only the finer grains of sand could be drawn through, and also to attach one pump to several wells so that the suction on each well would be reduced.

A great boost was given to pump irrigation by a lowering in the price of gasoline and distillate that followed their manufacture in the Kern county oil fields, and by the production of a light oil at Coalinga that could be used in the gasoline engines without refining.

In the spring of 1902 pump irrigation had reached about this stage of development and was being taken seriously by the people of Delano where Ben Thomas, Frank Schlitz, R. W. Lockridge and several others were suc- cessfully operating plants. At Rio Bravo, about this time, H. S. Knight was making about the same progress, and the Kern County Land Company had installed several pumps at Rosedale and Stockdale and was operating them with electricity to supplement canal irrigation in dry seasons. But the new means of irrigation made progress very slowly so far as practical results were concerned and in the succeeding five years the area made productive by this means did not materially increase.

Experiments at Wasco and McFarland

With the founding of Wasco colony in the spring of 1907 the success of an entire community was staked on pump irrigation for the first time in Kern county. And the outcome for the first two years was full of doubt. Most of the colonists were short of funds and had to make payments on their land in addition to meeting their living expenses and the constant demand for buildings, fences and implements that goes with the founding of a new farm. For this reason the mutual water company which the colonists formed to sink wells and install pumping plants practiced a frugality far in excess of true economy. Second-hand pumps and engines were purchased, cheap ditches were built, and the inevitable poor service brought hard times to the irrigators and fomented one storm after another in the stockholders' meetings.

Despite discouragements, however, the sturdy Wasco colonists gradually replaced their poor pumping equipment, laid cement ditches and conduits, and in 1911. when the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation began cover- ing the farming districts of the county with transmission wires, they sub- stituted electric power for gasoline. From that date the advancement of the colony was very marked, and in a couple of years more it had come to be one of the show places of the county's farming districts, outranking in attractive- ness and evidences of prosperity the rich delta districts where cheap canal water had been available for many years.

McFarland colony, founded a year later than Wasco, went through less hardships in its earliest infancy because Wasco's mistakes were largely avoided and better equipment gave good results from the start. To McFar-

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

land and Wasco, almost equally, is due the credit of having lifted pump irrigation from the slough of doubt and discredit and made it generally recog- nized in the county as one of the greatest factors in the county's agricultural development.

Development of the Citrus Belt

What Wasco and McFarland did with pump irrigation in the alfalfa and deciduous fruit districts, the Edison Land & Water Company is doing in. the citrus belt. The company began sinking wells at Edison in the winter of 1908, and planted its first orange trees in the spring of 1909. It was for- tunate in possessing ample capital, and all the improvements were of the best character and workmanship. Deep well pumps were installed and electricity was secured from the power generating plant in Kern river canon. An abundance of water was obtained where a few years previous it was sup- posed no considerable amount of water could be developed. The orange trees did well from the start, and the following year many orange growers from the southern part of the state became interested. In 1911 and 1912 the acreage planted was greatly increased. The unprecedented frosts of 1912-13 checked planting at Edison as in every other part of the state, but the sun- mer of 1913 demonstrated that the trees in the Kern citrus belt had suffered 10 more than in the most favored citrus districts and that the full extent of the damage would not exceed the loss of a year's growth of the trees.

Meantime pumping plants were being installed at intervals all over the great belt of mesa land that stretches south and southeast from Edison, around Delano and all along the high sloping lands to the east and southeast of that place. At Rio Bravo the same progress is being made, and the new colonies of Shafter and Lerdo are laying good foundations for a similar success.

Pumping Plant Extension in 1912

The Lerdo colony was founded in 1912 by a corporation controlled by the same men who are the dominant factors in the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation, and one of the purposes in mind was to furnish a market for electrical power which the latter concern would supply. Wells were sunk and pumps and electric motors installed before any land was offered for sale. Active selling began in the spring of 1913. Shares in the wells and pumping plants go with the land, which is sold on long time payments.

The Lerdo colony proposes to make a specialty of hemp and ramie culture. George W. Schlichten, inventor of an improved decorticating ma- chine, is taking the lead in this enterprise and promises to furnish a market for the product of all the lands planted to ramie as well as to assist in fur- nishing the plants necessary to get the ramie fields established.

The Shafter colony is a venture of the Kern County Land Company. A number of wells have been sunk on the Shafter lands, but this is only for the purpose of demonstrating the water supply, The company does not propose to sell wells and pumping plants with the land, but it will let each buyer develop his own water.

On the mesa south of Edison are the Sunflower colony, the Citrus Foot- hill Farms colony, and numerous small centers of development all estab- lished within the past three years.

As a result of all these successes and promises of success the people of the county, who were very doubtful of the practicability of pump irrigation a very few years ago, have come to believe that eventually every acre of arable

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land in the valley portion of the county not irrigated from canals will be reclaimed by means of pumping plants.

Conservative estimates place the number of pumping plants in operation in Kern county at the present time at not less than 1500. Of this number about. 275 are run by electricity and the remainder by gasoline engines. The San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation supplies current for 250 of the pumps and the remainder is furnished by the Mount Whitney Power Company, whose lines extend into the country about Delano.

The engines and motors average about ten horsepower each, and with the average lift they are capable of raising water to irrigate about 45,000 acres in the aggregate, or about thirty acres for each ten horsepower.

Of the total number of pumps about eighty per cent were installed within the past five years, and about 500 were installed during the past year. At present about fifty are in process of installation, and between ten and fifteen well-drilling outfits are kept busy developing water for prospective pump irrigators. This summer Miller & Lux are preparing to install pumps and motors which will utilize about 700 horsepower of electricity in raising water to irrigate the old swamp land north of Buena Vista lake reservoir. This will be the first extensive use of pumping plants in this section, and their installation is due to dry seasons just past when Miller & Lux's share of the waters of Kern river have been inadequate for their needs.

In addition to the activities of its allied corporation at Lerdo, the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation is actively aiding the extension of pump irrigation by a liberal policy of extending its transmission lines into new . territory where there is any prospect of building up a market for power. The company also is promoting experiments in the most economical use of water. Rates for electric power still remain at the seemingly exorbitant figure of $50 per horsepower per year, but the pumpers are looking forward to a sub- stantial reduction in rates when the use of electricity for this purpose becomes more general.

At this time, the summer of 1913, electric power is available for pumping at Delano, McFarland, Famoso, Wasco, Shafter, Lerdo, Edison, and all the country south and east of Bakersfield so far as the pump irrigators have ventured, which is about to the lower line of township 31.

Planting Apples at Tehachapi

Following close on the successful development of the valley districts as just related came evidence that the mountain valley country about Tehachapi is especially adapted to the ,cultivation of apples, pears, cherries and other deciduous fruits of that character. Tehachapi's metamorphosis from a stock and grain country to a fruitgrowing district began in 1910 when B. M. Denison sunk a thirteeninch well, installed a pumping plant and planted forty acres to Bartlett pears. The evidences of an ample water supply and the growth made by the young trees encouraged other ventures, and at this time the young orchards about the mountain town make an imposing display.

Still later the pumping plant invaded the desert about Rosamond and Willow Springs, and in the far northeastern corner of the county at Inyokern. In the latter place a good beginning was made last spring in the planting of deciduous fruit trees as well as in the raising of grain and alfalfa.

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History of Kern 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, Part 20

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1682

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682