This series of pictures of old Southern California were made by Thomas Milholland using the technology of the 1880s in which the photographer had to mix all his own chemicals and prepare the glass plate negative in a dark room on his wagon.

Milholland lived in Valle Vista and traveled on many five-day trips to various areas to ply his trade.

A major trip with his horse-drawn laboratory was to the oil fields to make this week’s and next week’s pictures.

My first thought was that he had gone either to the discovery site of petroleum in Southern California near Newhall and Santa Clarita, since the development of oil wells was underway there in the early 1880s.

The Wilshire/Brea development by Andres Pico, the brother of Pio Pico, who is remembered as the last Governor of California before it became a state of the Union, was underway by 1890.

The relative population density of derricks in the pictures led me to consider the field in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles, which was underway by 1895 by Edward Doheney.

Finally, the pieces fit for me when I read the history of the Puente Hills fields near Whittier, Chico and Brea (the Spanish term for asphalt seeps was brea).

Puente Hills is a couple of days closer to Vale Vista by horse than the other sites, especially if one considers the Kern County fields that were also discovered in the same time period.

Oil was as big as gold in the settlement of California. After the first three fields were discovered by 1892, wells were dug at such a rate that by 1902 fifteen hundred wells had been dug and were producing.

This was before gasoline-driven engines were in use, so the main use of petroleum was as kerosene for lamps and oil for steam boilers and lubricant.

The glut of oil forced the price down to as low as $0.25 per barrel – the recent price of $140 per barrel is 56,000 percent higher.

Still more and more people came Advertisement
to Los Angeles, making it grow from 300,000 in 1890 to 500,000 by 1910 and two million by 1930 fueled by the desire to live in a sunny climate with plenty of jobs.

This picture was taken on a foggy day with the tops of the derricks disappearing in the mist.

The bosses brought their children and wore their best suits. Even the workmen cleaned themselves up from their dirty work of manhandling heavy machinery.

In the 1890s the only motive power was from steam engines, so plumes of steam are visible where pumps are lifting oil from the ground. The picture captures the busy scene very well.

People of my vintage remember the 1930s when it seemed that most of Los Angeles west of the city was covered with derricks just like this picture.

My uncle Lee lived at the foot of Signal Hill in Long Beach, where his whole neighborhood looked like the picture.

He worked in the industry so he didn’t mind but I always thought it stunk from all the fumes!

If you have pictures such as this or if you recognize the site, please call Bill McBurney at (951) 304-3417 or e-mail billmcb2@msn.com.

The Temecula Valley Historical Society (TVHS) will award a copy of their new DVD, "Early Boom Town Temecula," to the person who best identifies the subject of the picture.

The TVHS meets the second Monday of each month from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Pujol schoolhouse on Santiago St. in Temecula. The public is invited to attend.

This month’s speakers, McBurney and Mimi Milholland, will talk about early settlers in French, Auld, Tucalota, Sage and Rawson Country – a real gossip session!

McBurney is also interested in helping people to scan and preserve their old pictures. "History should be saved," he says.

He sends his thanks to all who have responded to the past articles.

Bill McBurney is a retired Navy Commander who was born in Hemet in 1928 and raised in the Auld Valley, Winchester and Fallbrook.

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