The Good Ol' Days
"The discoveries occurred along the coastal corridor where Los Angeles
and Orange counties converged. The strike came in the quiet resort town
of Huntington Beach. Standard Oil of California had drilled several wildcat
wells at Huntington Beach in 1920. The first produced a modest forty-barrel-a-day well
on Reservoir Hill. A second, on the edge of the "Gospel Swamp" peat bogs, roared to
life with an explosion heard fifteen miles away. The initial flow of 20,000
barrels of high gravity oil per day announced the birth of a great new oil
field.
"Five months later and less than fifteen miles distant, the Royal Dutch Shell
Company sank a well on the east slope of Signal Hill, a 345-foot dome protruding
above the small city of Long Beach. Shell had already spent $3 million in
the California oil fields, to no avail. Industry experts predicted further
disappointment on the Long Beach promontory. A Shell crew labored for three months '
atop Signal Hill. On May 23, they found oil standing in the hole. One month later, as the
night crew worked under the derrick lights, they heard an underground rumble, which
grew louder and louder until the black liquid spouted from the earth, shooting
114 feet into the air. Hundreds of local residents came running to share the
excitement. Signal Hill would prove to be one of the world's richest oil fields."
Jules Tygiel
The Great Los Angeles Swindle, 1996
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