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| Landmark #485 | Kern County | Visited: January 26, 2013 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | A plaque in a desolate oil land! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: America’s most spectacular gusher blew in here on March 14, 1910. Initially 18,000 barrels per day, the flow later reached an uncontrolled peak of 100,000 barrels per day, completely destroying the derrick. This Union Oil Company well produced nine million barrels of oil in 18 months.
OTHER TIDBITS: Originally marked a dry well due to incompetent drilling techniques, the Lakeview blew off the top of the derrick, burying the nearby engine house with sand and sending oil spray as far as ten miles in all directions! It took a twenty-foot wall of sandbags, a hundred feet in diameter, to contain the gusher. A pipeline, installed in the unthinkable span of four hours, pumped oil to nearby Port Avila, where the sudden glut brought global crude oil prices down to 30 cents a barrel! The richest oil discovery in history nearly destroyed the industry. By the time the drill hole caved in and ended the flow on September 10, 1911, the well had produced 9.4 million barrels of oil in 544 days. |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: Petroleum Club Rd (County Rd 277T, P.M. 1.1) between Kerto and Cadet Rds 1.5 mi N of Maricopa, CA 93252 ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~114mi (184km) — 1.9hrs |
| When should I go? | Whenever the mood strikes you! |
