320 



Economic Aspects 



Petroleum 



In 1769 the Portola expedition en route 

 from San Diego to Monterey came upon the 

 tar springs later to be known as La Brea 

 near the site of the pueblo of Los Angeles. 

 The tar proved to be a good fuel for their 

 camp fires. Later, when a land grant that 

 included La Brea was made to Antonio Jose 

 Rocha in 1828, it was stipulated that the 

 people of the region were to have an un- 

 molested right to carry away such tar as 

 they needed for waterproofing their abode 

 houses (Clover, 1932, pp. 19, 21). Studies 

 by Stock (1949) and others revealed the 

 presence of many remarkably well-preserved 

 skeletons of mastodons, saber-toothed tigers, 

 and other Pleistocene vertebrates that had 

 been caught in the sticky mass. Indians of 

 the region had earlier known of the tar 

 springs here and along the coast near 

 Carpinteria where in 1770 Fray Crespi made 



special mention of an Indian village near a 

 tar seep (Bolton, 1927, p. 164). Among the 

 uses that the Indians found for the tar was 

 cement for sticking together pieces of shell 

 to form ornaments, waterproofing of baskets 

 and caulking material for boats (Heizer, 

 1943) (Fig. 243). Analyses of tar from a 

 seep at the south shore of Palos Verdes HiUs 

 by Richfield Oil Corporation showed it to 

 have a melting point of 87°C and a specific 

 gravity of 1.06, to be 63 per cent soluble in 

 ether, and to contain 7.9 per cent sulfur 

 and 0.14 per cent ash of which one-third 

 consists of vanadium and nickel. 



Indians also collected and used tar that 

 was washed up on shore then as now ac- 

 cording to accounts by Spanish explorers 

 (Heizer, 1943). Where the tar masses en- 

 counter boulders or bedrock along the shore, 

 they stick to the surface and become a semi- 

 permanent feature, in some instances re- 

 maining so long as to protect the underlying 



Figure 243. Indian canoe planks showing asphalt caulking in holes and (lower) asphalt plugs remaining after wood 

 has decayed. Asphalt for caulking boats and setting of tools and ornaments was used as early as 7000 years ago but 

 reached its greatest popularity during the Early Canalino cultural period about 2500 to 3000 years ago. Photograph 

 by Phil C. Orr, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (xO.6). 



