176 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
winter, when at times it becomes a deep torrent which often does 
considerable damage. 
Los Angeles (Spanish pronunciation loce ahn’hay-lace) is the 
largest city of the Southwest, in area, population, and business. 
It was here, in 1846, that Gen. Frémont first raised 
Los Angeles. the American flag. The settlement, however, was 
n 298 feet. founded in 1781, by a garrison of soldiers from the 
Population 319,198, 
KansasCity 1,809 miles. Mission of San Gabriel, 65 years prior to Frémont’s 
visit. In 1831 it had a population of 770, and as 
late as 1880 it was an easy-going semi-Mexican town of 12,000 
inhabitants centered about the old plaza with the mission church 
of Nuestra Sefiora la Reina de los Angeles (Our Lady Queen of the 
Angels), from which the city takes its name. With the coming of 
the Santa Fe Railway in November, 1885, homeseekers began to 
arrive, and a great increase in property values and the extent of 
the city followed. According to the United States census, Los 
Angeles made a greater percentage of increase in population from 
1880 to 1900 than any other town in the United States, and the 
have shown remarkably rapid increase since 1900. <A city 
census taken in June, 1915, indicates a population of 528,000. Two 
important factors in its growth have been the development of electric 
power from mountain streams as much as 240 miles away and the 
availability of cheap petroleum fuel. 
In the northern part of the city is a belt of oil-producing territory 
54 miles long, covering an area of 2 square miles. Here hundreds of 
derricks have been erected in close proximity to dwellings.! 
'The following notes are based on a 
concise account of the geology and tech- 
nology of the California oil fields by 
Ralph Arnold and V. R. Garfias: 
The production of petroleum in Califor- 
nia is the most important mineral indus- 
try in the State, the annual value of the 
oil output equaling that of all the metals, 
Since 1903, with the exception of 1907 
and 1908, California has annually pro- 
duced more petroleum than any other 
State in the Union, and in 1914 the pro- 
duction was over 100,000,000 ; 
The principal oil fields adjacent to Los 
Angeles are those of the Los Angeles dis- 
trict and the Puente Hills district. The 
limits, about 43 miles 
from its business center, 
The City field was discovered in 1892, 
when a 155-foot shaft was sunk near a 
small deposit of brea on Colton Street. 
The first successful well was drilled later 
about 5} miles long running through the 
northern part of the city; the total area is 
about 2 square miles. The wells are from 
500 to 1,200 feet in depth, and the gravity 
of the oil ranges from 12° to 19° Baumé. 
The limits of the field are well defined. 
The wells have always been small pro- 
ducers, necessitating pumping, and owing 
to the great number of wells drilled within 
a small area the field has been drained at 
a rapid rate and water allowed to enter 
the oil sands in many areas. 
The first well in the Salt Lake field was 
| drilled in 1901 by the Salt Lake Oil Co., 
