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2 Among Ourselves

were emanating. He had come (Right) An old engraving of the re·
from Pennsylvania and was fa- finery of the Pacific Coast Oil Com-
pany, successor to the Californ~a
miliar with the geological evi- Star Oil Works Company, at Alameda
dences of the location of oil. He Point on San Francisco Bay
heard the story of a Mexican
sheep-herder, who, while trailing a
deer, had discovered a seepage of
black fluid at the head of the al-
most inaccessible Pico Canyon in
the rugged Santa Susana Moun-
tains. The Mexican had taken a
sample of the fluid in his canteen
to the little mission settlement of
San Fernando not many miles The Refinery
away: It was looked upon as an
oddity until one wise person iden-
tified it as crude petroleum. Tra-
dition has it that the sheep-herder
took out a claim, but later readily
relinquished it for a barrel of
whisky! It was fifteen years later
that Scofield found that the claim
had changed hands a number of
times, but that no development
(Above) A corner of the refinery
had been effected. Investigation
grounds at Alameda as they appeared
made him confident that oil was in 1897. This view is looking east
in those mountains. toward the town of Alameda, which
H e emne to San Francisco, where may be seen in the background

(Above) A general view of the Pico Canyon country, the (Above) A quartet of pioneer oil drillers of 1897 inside an
scene of the early activities of the California Star Oil Works oil-derrick at Pico Canyon. Left to right: Tom Maple, Will
Co., predecessor of the Standard Oil Company of California Garrigan, \Vill .Jeffery, George Slocum r
(Below) Elayon Refinery, This picture was taken about 1880, (Below) Wiley Canyon, adjacent to Pico Ca~yon, also' saw
and shows, at the extreme right, two stills which were moved early activity as an oil field. Here are shown some of the
to Elayon from the first refinery at Lyons Station early derrt-Cks