As promised a month ago, here is the second of two real photo postcards of the Olinda Oil Field by Edward W. Cochems, a well-known Santa Ana photographer, and taken about 1920. Whereas the first was taken from at or near Carbon Canyon Road and looked north to the hillside wells of the Santa Fe lease, this one is from the hillside looking south toward the road.
The several wooden structures on either side of wide dirt road on which Cochems stood as well as where the thoroughfare terminated, probably with another street running east to west in front of it, probably are a mix of field offices, dwellings, and buildings associated with wells, with at least two tall wooden derricks in the foreground.
Left of center is a thick stand of trees (perhaps eucalyptus?) behind which is the gap between hills (the one to the right, or west, having derricks upon it), where Carbon [Canyon] Creek, which to the east was joined by the creek emanating from Soquel Canyon, cut through that divide on its way to the Santa Ana River. In the late 1950s, Carbon Canyon Dam was built in that area, followed in the mid-Sixties by the opening of Carbon Canyon Regional Park. Out in the distance is Placentia and surrounding areas, mostly comprised of orange groves and very much a rural, agricultural section.
What our friends at the Olinda Oil Museum will have to confirm for us, and we can be sure at least one of them will in very short order (ahem, Chris Farren!), is whether this is, in fact, where the Museum is today, sequestered amid the Olinda Ranch housing tract. If so, the original 1897 well brought in by oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny, in partnership with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (hence the name of the lease, with Santa Fe Avenue being the main thoroughfare running through the subdivision today), with that well not only launching Orange County's oil industry, but is still pumping today!
If this is not that location, it is still a fantastic view of the oil field. Given that the remaining wells to the west, including on and around that hill on the right, are soon to be shut down and the land developed as the Brea265 project, one of the last remaining large-scale oil operations, not only in this area, but in the county and region generally, will cease to have a physical presence. Photos like these will be the only reminders of an industry that long was prominent in southern California, but, with expanding climate change, is becoming more heavily contested with each passing year.
UPDATE, 29 September: Chris Farren, who is with the Olinda Oil Museum and is a fountain of knowledge on the local field and area generally, confirms that this is where the Museum is today, so this provides additional interest and significance to the photo and also a good opportunity to remind readers to visit the Museum!
