Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
This item has been sold, but you can enter your email address to be notified if another example becomes available.
Description

Servicing the Oil Fields of Santa Fe Springs

Rare two sided advertising map of the Santa Fe Springs area, published by oil field services engineering company Homer R. Dulin Company.

One side of the map provides a Fairchild Aerial Survey map of Santa Fe Springs, surriounded by contemporary advertising.

The second side of the map provides a cadastral style mapping of Santa Fe Srings, meticulously locating land owners and well locations, with an inset map which is even more detailed.  The whole is again surrounded by advertising for oil services providers and Rose Liquors.

Santa Fe Springs

The history of the area dates back to the San Gabriel Mission.  The first land  grant in the area was made to  José Manuel Nieto, in 1789.  The grant consisted of 300,000 acres, from Puente Hills to the Pacific, and was called Rancho La Zanja.

Dr. James E. Fulton came to the area as an agent for the San Gertrudes Land Company in 1871. While drilling a well for water, he discovered a sulfur spring, and developed it by 1874 into a health spa with a small hotel in the area. In 1886, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway purchased land from Fulton to run the train line from Los Angeles to San Diego.

In 1907, the Union Oil Company of California began drilling near the intersection of Norwalk Blvd. and Telegraph Road, but the first two wells were unsuccessful.  In 1921, the Union-Bell gusher set off an oil rush and by 1922 the Santa Fe Springs oil field was considered one of the richest pools in petroleum history.

Santa Fe Springs became a major center for speculators. Prospective investors were bused into the field, served a free lunch in circus tents, and told stories about the fortunes made in oil. In 1923 the state legislature limited the amount of stock that could be sold in a well.

In the 1920s the field produced as much as 345,000 barrels daily, exceeding production at Signal Hill and Huntington Beach. Production slowed as the decade went on, and by 1928 the Wilshire Oil Company was drilling in deep sand levels. Production levels dropped each year from then on, but by 1938 the field had yielded a total of more than 440,000,000 barrels of oil.

Rarity

The map is apparently unrecorded.  We were unable to find any examples in OCLC or elsewhere.