Birthplace of California's Oil Industry
The Widowers’ benches are located at the junction of the San Gabriel and Santa Susana Mountains. This area is rich in fossil fuels and is the birthplace of California’s Oil Industry. The first commercially successful oil well in the Western United States is located in the Pico Canyon oil field west of Mission Peak. Pico Canyon was the site of an oil boomtown called Mentryville, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. Pico Canyon’s Well No. 4 was perhaps the longest continuously running oil well in the world, operating for 114 years until it was capped in 1990. Mission Peak, atop which the Mission Beak bench sits, is just north of the Pico Anticline. The early roads in this region were established by the oil companies and now serve as hiking and biking trails. Oil seeps can be seen in Rice Canyon and Towsley Canyon, just to the west of the East Canyon Trailhead. The Pico Anticline is exposed in East Canyon and one can still see the pads of oil rigs. .
The Pacific Oil Company started in the Pico Canyon oilfields. By 1883, Pacific Coast Oil had 30 producing wells yielding 500 barrels per day. Pacific Oil Company eventually became Standard Oil Company of California. Standard Oil merged with Gulf Oil to become Chevron Oil Company, an American multinational energy company active in more than 180 countries. Chevron, which is one of the world’s six largest oil companies, began in the shadows of Mission Peak. Hikers can easily see the oil platforms in East Canyon, Rice Canyon, Wiley Canyon and Towsley Canyon. The Neon / deCampos Trail passes Sulfur Springs on its way to Mission Peak. The sulfur smell is a reminder of the fossil fuels hidden beneath the surface. Just north of the O’Melvenly Park Trailhead, one can see the Cascades Oilfields, which is still operational.
We installed the first memorial bench atop Mission Peak. If one looks through the fence on the west side of the summit, one can see the Aliso Canyon Storage Facility owned by the Southern California Gas Company. The Gas Company purchases gas throughout the year and stores it beneath ground in Aliso Canyon. Natural gas, arriving in pipelines from other parts of the country, is pumped thousands of feet below the earth’s surface in depleted underground oil fields. Impermeable rock layers on the surface keep gas from escaping. The Aliso Canyon underground storage facility isone of the largest facilities in the country and supplies natural gas for much of Southern California.
