Oil Fi.elds of Texas and California 277 



field oil, and it will be the work of the 

 United States Geological Survey this 

 year to so correlate the various oil-bear- 

 ing strata on the Pacific Slope as to 

 make further discoveries probable. 



Traces of oil have been found in Cali- 

 fornia from Mendocino County on the 

 coast (and extending inland a few miles) 

 southward nearly to the southern ex- 

 tremity of the State. Usuall}^ the finds 

 have been merely of traces, not even 

 sufficient to cause an excitement ; but in 

 the southern part of the State the de- 

 posits of thick oils in Ventura County 

 prove sufficient to furnish valuable 

 amounts of fuel. In the city of Los 

 Angeles and at Anaheim the discover- 

 ies were sufficient to arouse the usual 

 wild excitement. The feature of this 

 1,0s Angeles excitement was the find- 

 ing of many wells, most of them pro- 

 ductive only to a moderate extent, the 

 aggregate unimportant for the general 

 supply. 



A remarkable feature of the oil indus- 

 try in California has been the discov- 

 ery that off the coast of Santa Barbara 

 oil could be obtained by drilling under 

 the Pacific Ocean, near the beach, and 

 this added considerably to the supply 

 of oil, all of it peculiar in being thick, 

 containing as a characteristic a con- 

 siderable quantity of asphaltum and 

 not yielding paraffine wax by the ordi- 

 nary processes of refining. It has been 

 possible by refining to obtain kerosene 

 from this ordinary California oil, but 

 not economically. 



Within the last two years a marked 

 change has taken place in the economic 

 phase by the discovery, first at Coalinga, 

 in Fresno County, of lighter oil, much 

 more promising to the refiner, and this 

 was followed by similar discoveries, but 

 on a larger scale, in the neighborhood 

 of Bakersfield, in Kern County. The 

 result of these discoveries is well indi- 

 cated by the fact that there are now 

 over 1,100 oil locations in the State 

 of California, of which 600 are near 



Bakersfield. The excitement has been 

 sufficient to make oil prospecting more 

 popular than gold prospecting, which 

 has continued in' California without ces- 

 sation since 1849. The oil from these 

 newly discovered fields in Fresno and 

 Kern counties will undoubtedly admit 

 of refining for the production of illu- 

 minants, but the great value such finds 

 in California will be in providing a large 

 supply of power-producing fuel. Fur- 

 ther, it must be remembered that the 

 great progress in hydraulic engineering 

 in California will not only supplement 

 this oil fuel b)^ extremely progressive 

 use of water-power, but the same means 

 by which water-power has been carried 

 long distances at phenomenally low cost 

 will be applied to developing our pipe- 

 line systems beyond their present effi- 

 ciency in the East. 



Had it not been for the unfavorable 

 experience in refining the California 

 oils, with their great percentage of as- 

 phaltum, the discovery of oils somewhat . 

 similar in Texas would have been more 

 auspicious. Nevertheless, this Texas 

 discovery, with which everj^ one is more 

 or less familiar, is certain to exert as 

 powerful an influence on the petroleum 

 industry in general as the California 

 oils will have upon the local industrial 

 conditions of a State. The accidental 

 discovery of moderate supplies of petro- 

 leum at Corsicana, Texas, a few years 

 ago was sufficient to attract the atten.- 

 tion of oil men to that State and to 

 have near at hand experienced men and 

 apparatus for well drilling when the 

 final discovery of Captain Lucas, near 

 Beaumont, announced a really great oil 

 field. The details of this discovery are in- 

 teresting. To Capt. Anthony F. Lucas 

 is due the fact that this discovery was 

 made last year, and not many years 

 later, as would have been consistent with 

 normal development. Captain Lucas 

 visited the writer in Washington, and 

 asked his aid in interesting the oil fra- 

 ternity to help him in drilling a well at 



