Page 2 - nps1963pico

Form 10-317a
(sot. 1957) UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

NATIONAL SURVEY OF HISTORIC SITES AND BUILDINGS
SUPPLEMENTARY SHEET

This sheet is to be used for giving additional information or comments, for more space for any item on the
regular form, and for recording pertinent data from future studies, visitations, etc. Be brief, but use as many
Supplement Sheets as necessary. When items are continued they should be listed, if possible, in numerical order
of the items. All information given should be headed by the item number, its name, and the word (cont'd), as,
6. Description and Importance (cont'd) . . .

STATE NAME(S) OF SITE
California Hco Canyon, Well Ho. "CSO" k ("Pico"

7* Continued:

In 18T3 0.13. promoters of Los Angeles again "began to "puff" the merits of the potential
oil field at Pico Canyon* As a result, a small refinery was erected at lyons Station,
about a mile and. a half southeast of Bewhall, in 1873-74. This modest establishment,
built at a cost of $3*000, included a single 15-barrel still with wooden flumes for
running the crude oil from storage tanks, and a pipeline to supply water frou a nearby
spring. It was hoped that oil would be found in sufficient quantities to keep the
refinery operating. Drilling "began in July 187^ a«d by early 1875 one veil succeeded
in producing a little oil, but not enough to keep the refinery in operation.

In early 1875 three migrants from the Pennsylvania oil fields, Denton Cyrus Scott,
Robert C. McPherson and John J. Baker, arrived in Los Angeles, decided bo lease the
shut-down refinery at lyons Station, and to try their luck in the Pico area.
Organizing the Star Oil Works for this purpose, they employed C. A. Mentry,, who was
also from the Pennsylvania fields, to drill at Pico Springs in July 1875. At the
depth of 120 feet Mentry got a production of 10 to 12 "barrels a day, which was the
best showing yet made by any well in California, By the end of the year he had also
completed Pico $fe and #3, shallower wells, both of which yielded some oil.

John A. Scott, a Titusville refiner, was then employed at the I$rons Station Hefinery,
and in early 1876 he succeeded in turning out better oil than any yet made in
California. Encouraged by these beginnings, the partners reorganized their company
in June 1876 as the California Star Oil Works Company, with an authorized capital of
1,000,000 dollars; they acquired the lyons Station refinery, took leases in Pico
Canyon, and received an additional financial backing from San Francisco capitalists.

In July 1876 Mentry began drilling Pico -$^-, ueing a steam rig, and on September 26,
at a depth of 370 feet, it produced a flow of 25 barrels a day.

In the summer of 1876 the Southern Pacific Railroad laid the last of its track between
Los Angeles and San Francisco, thereby opening the Pico Region to rail transportation
and connecting it with markets.

These signs of progress were sufficient to induce two more oil professionals, the
San Francisco veteran oil merchant Frederick B* Taylor and Demetrius G. Scofield, who