clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
Oil fields once littered Los Angeles, butting up against homes and beaches.
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

Mapping the long history of oil drilling in LA

Angelenos have been living alongside the oil business since 1892

View as Map
Oil fields once littered Los Angeles, butting up against homes and beaches.
| Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

Los Angeles has had always had a complicated relationship with oil. On November 4, 1892, what had been a small agricultural city popular with Midwestern tourists became a boomtown nearly overnight when oil was discovered in modern-day Echo Park.

From the beginning, the needs of the oil drillers collided with those of residents, visitors, and developers. The city grew up alongside the oil industry and continues to be shaped by it—about 3,000 active wells remain in LA County, many of them in close proximity to residential neighborhoods, parks, and schools.

Here, a map of some of the places that show how the industry has embedded itself into the urban environment of Los Angeles.

Read More
Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Echo Park Deep Pool

Copy Link

Here’s where it all began—yes, here. The current site of the Echo Park Deep Pool is where Edward Doheny and his partner Charles Canfield drilled the first oil well in Los Angeles in 1892, using a sharpened eucalyptus tree. According to lore, they found the site after Doheny spotted a slick black substance on the wheel of a passing cart. As casually as possible, he asked the driver to show him exactly where he had come from.

Echo Park Pool
Echo Park Deep Pool.
Google Maps

Discovery Well Park

Copy Link

Today, a plaque and adjoining park commemorate the first productive well drilled at Signal Hill. On June 23, 1921, a geyser of oil erupted from the Alamitos No. 1 well, leading to an explosion of drilling in the Long Beach area. By 1923, Signal Hill was the state’s largest field, and California was producing a quarter of the world’s supply of oil. Per the plaque, the monument is a “tribute to the petroleum pioneers for their success here, a success which has, by aiding in the growth and expansion of the petroleum industry, contributed so much to the welfare of mankind.” We’ll take their word for it.

Aerial view of Signal Hill’s oil field, from Reservoir Hill. Photo dated: January 21, 1930.
Los Angeles Public Library photo collection.

Pico Canyon Oil Field

Copy Link

Doheny may have set off the oil boom within the city of Los Angeles, but the first successful well in LA County was to the north, in the Santa Susana Mountains. A gusher at Charles Mentry’s Pico Well No. 4 on September 26, 1876, announced to the world that Southern California was rich in black gold. The nearby town of Newhall later became home to the state’s first refinery (pictured below).

Newhall refinery Los Angeles Public Library

Phillips 66 Oil Refinery

Copy Link

The massive Wilmington Oil Field is the largest in California, having produced somewhere between 760 million and 1.2 trillion barrels of oil since it was first tapped in 1932. The Phillips 66 refinery in the southeast Los Angeles neighborhood paints one of its massive storage tanks orange every October as a strange and festive Halloween tradition.

Smilin’ Jack
Smilin’ Jack at Phillips 66 Oil Refinery.
Underawesternsky | Shutterstock

Andeavor Refinery

Copy Link

Perhaps the most recognizable oil facility in the world, the Andeavor Refinery in Carson is adorned with an enormous American flag easily visible to drivers on the 405. Like Andeavor’s Wilmington refinery, this one dates back to the region’s oil boom of the 1920s and 1930s. Together, the two facilities now process a combined 380,000 barrels daily.

Carson refinery.
Andeavor Refinery
Getty Images

THUMS Islands

Copy Link

At the southeastern end of the Wilmington field is are the THUMS islands, constructed by the Texaco, Humble, Union, Mobil and Shell oil companies in 1965. As part of an agreement with the city of Long Beach, the oil companies invested considerable funds in disguising the drilling sites with boulders, palm trees, sculptures, and water falls—so much so that they are sometimes mistaken for luxury resorts.

THUMS Islands
THUMS Islands.
Shutterstock

Venice Beach

Copy Link

Starting in the 1930s, Venice had a run as one of the leading oil producers in the state. During that time, derricks ran all along the canals and dotted the beach. Waterways became filled with oily sludge and the ocean was badly polluted. Production eventually dropped off in the 1970s and the last wells in the area were capped less than two decades later.

Venice Oil Field
Homes and oil derricks along the coast in the Venice Oil Field, in what is modern day Marina del Rey.
Los Angeles Public Library

Inglewood Oil Field

Copy Link

The enormous Inglewood Oil Field was first tapped in 1924 and has produced close to 400 million barrels of oil since then. Despite years of complaints from nearby residents, hundreds of wells continue to operate daily right alongside its neighbors in Baldwin Hills and Culver City.

Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives. Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

False building

Copy Link

From the outside this edifice looks like a particularly soul crushing office building with no windows. Inside, however, it’s not a building at all. The structure is simply a shell disguising the site of an oil derrick slurping away at the Beverly Hills Oil Field.

False building
Beverly Hills Oil Field.
Google Maps

Beverly Hills High School

Copy Link

One of the smaller major oil fields in the Los Angeles area, the Beverly Hills field is nonetheless productive, and the oil derrick on the campus of Beverly Hills High School was, until recently, churning out about 400 barrels of crude each day. The drilling site was ordered shut in 2016.

Beverly Hills High oil tower Getty Images

Salt Lake Oil Field

Copy Link

The Grove and Original Farmers Market today sit atop the Salt Lake Oil Field, discovered by dairy farmer Arthur Gilmore in the mid-1890s. Though the field was most productive in the early 20th Century, it was still being tapped in 1985, when drillers inadvertently caused methane gas to move below ground, rising up to the surface within the Ross store at Third Street and Fairfax Avenue. The resulting explosion injured 23 people.

Probably oil wells from the Salt Lake Oil field, which began in West Hollywood and ran along Beverly Boulevard past Highland Avenue and south the Wilshire Boulevard.
California Historical Society Digital Library

Jefferson Drill Site

Copy Link

The subject of significant community opposition, this South LA drill site was forced last year to comply with city-imposed requirements that ensure its operators enclose the site and monitor vibrations and noxious fumes that neighbors say are caused by the drilling.

Jefferson drill site Google Maps

Del Amo Field

Copy Link

It might not look like it, but this quiet residential street in Torrance was the site of the first major strike in the Del Amo oil field. Throughout the 1920s, this was one of the most productive fields in the LA area with nearly 1,500 wells spread across more than 3,500 acres.

Each house in this view of Torrance seems to have its own oil well. Photo circa 1937.
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

Huntington Beach

Copy Link

Offshore oil rigs are a familiar sight to Huntington Beach residents and visitors. On and off land, drillers have been tapping the city’s oil field since the 1920s. Recent research from the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that it may, in fact, have been oil drilling here that triggered the Long Beach Earthquake in 1933.

Huntington Beach oil rig Shutterstock

Allenco oil facility

Copy Link

Owned by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, this two-acre oil facility in University Park was operated by a company called Allenco until 2013, when the firm suspended operations amid community complaints about health problems. Later, the Los Angeles city attorney hit the company with more than $1 million in fines and demanded it adhere to new regulations before reopening. Residents continue to demand a permanent shutdown of the site.

Allenco Energy Co.
AP

Loading comments...

Echo Park Deep Pool

Here’s where it all began—yes, here. The current site of the Echo Park Deep Pool is where Edward Doheny and his partner Charles Canfield drilled the first oil well in Los Angeles in 1892, using a sharpened eucalyptus tree. According to lore, they found the site after Doheny spotted a slick black substance on the wheel of a passing cart. As casually as possible, he asked the driver to show him exactly where he had come from.

Echo Park Pool
Echo Park Deep Pool.
Google Maps

Discovery Well Park

Today, a plaque and adjoining park commemorate the first productive well drilled at Signal Hill. On June 23, 1921, a geyser of oil erupted from the Alamitos No. 1 well, leading to an explosion of drilling in the Long Beach area. By 1923, Signal Hill was the state’s largest field, and California was producing a quarter of the world’s supply of oil. Per the plaque, the monument is a “tribute to the petroleum pioneers for their success here, a success which has, by aiding in the growth and expansion of the petroleum industry, contributed so much to the welfare of mankind.” We’ll take their word for it.

Aerial view of Signal Hill’s oil field, from Reservoir Hill. Photo dated: January 21, 1930.
Los Angeles Public Library photo collection.

Pico Canyon Oil Field

Doheny may have set off the oil boom within the city of Los Angeles, but the first successful well in LA County was to the north, in the Santa Susana Mountains. A gusher at Charles Mentry’s Pico Well No. 4 on September 26, 1876, announced to the world that Southern California was rich in black gold. The nearby town of Newhall later became home to the state’s first refinery (pictured below).

Newhall refinery Los Angeles Public Library

Phillips 66 Oil Refinery

The massive Wilmington Oil Field is the largest in California, having produced somewhere between 760 million and 1.2 trillion barrels of oil since it was first tapped in 1932. The Phillips 66 refinery in the southeast Los Angeles neighborhood paints one of its massive storage tanks orange every October as a strange and festive Halloween tradition.

Smilin’ Jack
Smilin’ Jack at Phillips 66 Oil Refinery.
Underawesternsky | Shutterstock

Andeavor Refinery

Perhaps the most recognizable oil facility in the world, the Andeavor Refinery in Carson is adorned with an enormous American flag easily visible to drivers on the 405. Like Andeavor’s Wilmington refinery, this one dates back to the region’s oil boom of the 1920s and 1930s. Together, the two facilities now process a combined 380,000 barrels daily.

Carson refinery.
Andeavor Refinery
Getty Images

THUMS Islands

At the southeastern end of the Wilmington field is are the THUMS islands, constructed by the Texaco, Humble, Union, Mobil and Shell oil companies in 1965. As part of an agreement with the city of Long Beach, the oil companies invested considerable funds in disguising the drilling sites with boulders, palm trees, sculptures, and water falls—so much so that they are sometimes mistaken for luxury resorts.

THUMS Islands
THUMS Islands.
Shutterstock

Venice Beach

Starting in the 1930s, Venice had a run as one of the leading oil producers in the state. During that time, derricks ran all along the canals and dotted the beach. Waterways became filled with oily sludge and the ocean was badly polluted. Production eventually dropped off in the 1970s and the last wells in the area were capped less than two decades later.

Venice Oil Field
Homes and oil derricks along the coast in the Venice Oil Field, in what is modern day Marina del Rey.
Los Angeles Public Library

Inglewood Oil Field

The enormous Inglewood Oil Field was first tapped in 1924 and has produced close to 400 million barrels of oil since then. Despite years of complaints from nearby residents, hundreds of wells continue to operate daily right alongside its neighbors in Baldwin Hills and Culver City.

Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives. Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

False building

From the outside this edifice looks like a particularly soul crushing office building with no windows. Inside, however, it’s not a building at all. The structure is simply a shell disguising the site of an oil derrick slurping away at the Beverly Hills Oil Field.

False building
Beverly Hills Oil Field.
Google Maps

Beverly Hills High School

One of the smaller major oil fields in the Los Angeles area, the Beverly Hills field is nonetheless productive, and the oil derrick on the campus of Beverly Hills High School was, until recently, churning out about 400 barrels of crude each day. The drilling site was ordered shut in 2016.

Beverly Hills High oil tower Getty Images

Salt Lake Oil Field

The Grove and Original Farmers Market today sit atop the Salt Lake Oil Field, discovered by dairy farmer Arthur Gilmore in the mid-1890s. Though the field was most productive in the early 20th Century, it was still being tapped in 1985, when drillers inadvertently caused methane gas to move below ground, rising up to the surface within the Ross store at Third Street and Fairfax Avenue. The resulting explosion injured 23 people.

Probably oil wells from the Salt Lake Oil field, which began in West Hollywood and ran along Beverly Boulevard past Highland Avenue and south the Wilshire Boulevard.
California Historical Society Digital Library

Jefferson Drill Site

The subject of significant community opposition, this South LA drill site was forced last year to comply with city-imposed requirements that ensure its operators enclose the site and monitor vibrations and noxious fumes that neighbors say are caused by the drilling.

Jefferson drill site Google Maps

Del Amo Field

It might not look like it, but this quiet residential street in Torrance was the site of the first major strike in the Del Amo oil field. Throughout the 1920s, this was one of the most productive fields in the LA area with nearly 1,500 wells spread across more than 3,500 acres.

Each house in this view of Torrance seems to have its own oil well. Photo circa 1937.
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

Huntington Beach

Offshore oil rigs are a familiar sight to Huntington Beach residents and visitors. On and off land, drillers have been tapping the city’s oil field since the 1920s. Recent research from the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that it may, in fact, have been oil drilling here that triggered the Long Beach Earthquake in 1933.

Huntington Beach oil rig Shutterstock

Allenco oil facility

Owned by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, this two-acre oil facility in University Park was operated by a company called Allenco until 2013, when the firm suspended operations amid community complaints about health problems. Later, the Los Angeles city attorney hit the company with more than $1 million in fines and demanded it adhere to new regulations before reopening. Residents continue to demand a permanent shutdown of the site.

Allenco Energy Co.
AP