by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Following nine-year-old Thomas W. Temple II’s inadvertent and amazingly providential discovery of oil in April 1914 on his family’s “Temple Heights” property at the northeast corner of the Montebello Hills, Standard Oil Company of California executed leases with his parents, Walter and Laura, as well as Anita Baldwin and Clara Baldwin Stocker, whose father took possession of that area by foreclosing on a loan he made to the Temple and Workman bank close to four decades prior, and began drilling.
In the first half of 1917, just as the United States entered the First World War, successful wells were brought into production, inaugurating the Montebello oil field and providing an enormous boost to the town of that name, founded close to twenty years earlier. As detailed in prior parts of this blog, Montebello was best known for its nurseries and the sweet smell of flowers, but now it was widely recognized for its large deposits of crude. The smell was not as welcome, but the financial rewards to landowners like the Baldwins and Temples sure were.
The Los Angeles Times of 28 October trumpeted the news of a gusher on the Baldwin #3 well, with yields of up to 15,000 barrels per day, while the company moved quickly on other wells on both leases and competitors rushed to get in on the action. To the south, Union Oil Company was about to bring in its first well and it and the Standard had pipelines ready to send crude to the latter’s El Segundo (so named because it was the company’s second facility following its first in Richmond in the Bay Area) refinery.
With all of the excitement inherent in any oil boom town, the paper remarked that,
Montebello is rapidly growing in population and gives promise of becoming one of the big towns of Los Angeles county. Many of its citizens have gotten into the oil game by leasing their home plots of from three to ten acres to oil companies on a royalty basis of one-sixth [it was actually 1/8 for the Temples, but they had more land, some 60 acres], with a bonus of $300 to $800 per acre, and everybody who owns an acre of more in that vicinity has visions of wealth.
In its edition of 12 November, the Times featured the field and town under the headline of “Montebello Field Piling Up Fortunes.” The piece began with the remark that “recent discoveries and rapid development in the Montebello oil field are not only making fortunes for individuals, but are of great importance to Los Angeles and a substantial addition to the nation’s supply of fuel.” There was an astonishing jump in land prices from some $65 an acre to around $10,000, though it was noted that, just a few weeks prior, the value was between $1,000 and $2,000.
Though the field was adjudged to be a small one, it was expected that, by early 1918, 100,000 barrels of crude a day would be pumped from wells and a yearly output of up to $40 million was anticipated, with estimates of the total amount of untapped oil pegged at up to $400 million. Given that the field was only a few miles from the eastern limits of the Angel City, the paper pronounced that its development “is of great and unquestionable value to the city.”
The featured observed that “one man who paid $75 an acre for a small farm has been receiving for some time an income at the rate of more than $35,000 a year from his percentage of the oil pumped under lease.” This referred to Walter Temple’s incredible turnabout of fortune, though he would soon be making $35,000 or more a month, for a short period anyway, from his property. Also highlighted was that Clara Baldwin Stocker’s manager, given some Montebello Hills land, was said to be worth a princely $1.6 million, in addition to his salary.
What set Montebello apart from other regional oil fields was the particularly high grade, or gravity, of the crude, the relative shallowness of wells reaching around 2,400 feet in depth, and the significant amount of gas underneath that, at from 3,000 to 3,500 feet, was a concern in terms of potential intensity and force with which it would force oil to the surface. Therefore, the wells drilled to date were kept shallow and there were 14 total, 11 on the Baldwin holdings of some 800 acres and a trio on the Temple lease—to date there were two producers on the former and one on the latter.
Union had one producer and three drilling wells, while Red Star had a producer but was drilling deeper to enhance the well, situated at a lower elevation than the others and just a few feet above the Río Hondo. In all, more than two dozen wells were worked, with a half-dozen producers bringing forth 12,500 barrels daily, but, within three months, it was believed the output could be up to three times that amount. Montebello land owners, including those raising citrus, avocados and fruits and vegetables, were making lease deals left, right and center, on a variety of terms with respect to price per acre, bonuses.
The account then commented that,
Walter P. Temple, whose sixty-acre farm is leased to the Standard company on the basis of one-eighth of the oil developed on the property, has for some months been enjoying as his part of the oil from the first well drilled on his place an income of about $100 a day, and as two other wells on his property are about ready to be brought in, with indications of a much greater product for each than the first, his income promises to be “quite respectable.”
Mr. Temple bought his sixty-acre tract six years ago [it was five, actually] from the late Mr. Unruh [who died in December 1916], executor of the Baldwin estate, paying for it but $75 an acre.
The Whittier News of 21 November provided an update on wells 4-12 on the Baldwin lease, while noting that “the Temple lease is proving to be very valuable oil property.” Well #2 followed the first by about five months, having just been put onto production at 500 barrels daily after hitting oil at just over 2,200 feet, and the third well was down over 2,000 feet, while well #4 was sited and grading was expected to begin soon.
In its 6 December issue, the paper recorded that nothing substantially new was found at the eight Baldwin wells being developed, but it did add that “new work on the Temple lease property consists in the locating of Nos. 4 and 5,” including boilers and rigs. Well #3, meanwhile, was down another 300 feet.
Not much over a month later, the Times of 20 January 1918, reported,
Another big oil well was added yesterday to the Standard Oil Company’s list of rich producers in the Montebello field. No. 3, on the Temple lease, was brought in at 3150 feet [this considerably deeper than the other two, the above article stating that this was to be expected], with a natural flow of 2200 barrels daily of 23-gravity [high quality] oil. The gas pressure in this well is strong enough to have caused a gusher, but precautions against this were taken and the hole was capped. This makes three producing wells on the Temple lease, and, as Walter P. Temple, owner of the property receives one-eighth of the product of the wells, he is already enjoying an income of at least $150,000 to $175,000 a year as his share.
Needless to say, this was far beyond what he earned in various ways (teamster, insurance agent, farmer) before his big bonanza and way above what almost all Americans made during the time. The incredible transformation to the financial state of the Temples was such that the Times ran a feature eight days later under the heading of “Montebello Oil Field Is Alluring Prospect.” The author was Johnstone Jones, a lawyer, former assistant district attorney, and history buff and a previous post delved into the contents of the article, which led Temple to hire Jones to write his family’s history, though poor health led Jones to withdraw and J. Perry Worden was contracted to produce a book that, after close to a decade, went unrealized.
The 6 May issue of the Times included a feature which observed that “Montebello District [Is] Going Great Guns” and the piece started off by proclaiming that,
Having established several new records in the oil industry, the newest and most interesting proven oil field in America at the present time, say men who know, is the Montebello field, just east of the Los Angeles city limits. According to oil men, few instances have been recorded of so valuable a piece of ground lying undeveloped near one of the world’s largest oil centers, during years of production only a few miles away.
Geologists long acknowledged that an oil belt was likely to stretch from the Angel City to northeast Orange County, although “no especial importance was attached to the fact until comparatively recent date.” An illustration was the purchase of 250 acres by Union Oil executives for residential properties, but then came the discovery noted above and Standard’s rapid entrance into the field. The paper commented that “it was a hard blow” when oil was brought in “forever ruining the Union crowd’s home sites.”
The article added that “how far and where this new field will go remains to be seen, and is the object of much speculation,” but what was clear, ended the piece, was that “oil men state that no field in the State has as much oil-bearing formation as the Montebello field.” That shallowness, represented by the Baldwin lease having depths of around 2,000 feet when crude was reached, not to mention the high-quality of the gravity, was such that “entrance into its producing era was most timely.”
The Los Angeles Express of 18 August also covered the rapid pace of development at the field, with several photos to illustrate the progress, as it commented that “the Montebello country s coming into its own as an oil-producing district.” It was observed that some geologists mused over the possibility that Montebello was tied to the Whittier oil belt. The paper recorded that 72 wells were drilling and some 20 were finished, and, the royalties of one-eighth to one-sixth, meant that an 800-barrel well would bring a landowner between $125 and $166 a day in passive income.
There was the distinction made between geologically proven land and “wildcat” property and, significantly, the paper remarked that “the United States Government is encouraging the production of oil in every way it can, as the need for fuel oil and all kinds of oil is immediate and pressing.” Moreover, “the quality of oil found in the Montebello field is good” and this met the requirements of certain types of refined product. With California oil sent around the nation along with “brisk local trade,” it was added that “the automobile is responsible, of course, for an enormous use of gasoline and others oils,” something that didn’t really exist two decades prior.
The Express turned to the abrupt change in land use in the area as it commented that,
To go into an oil field such as the Montebello country is to realize vividly the mutability of human plans and possibilities. Some of the wells are situated directly in the midst of flourishing orchards, with peaches, pears, apples, quinces, pomegranates and other fruit trees close up to the very derricks. At one of the wells it was possible for a workman to reach out from the structure and pluck peaches, pears and apples without taking his foot from the timbers. The land about the wells is often of the richest and most productive quality, and wherever possible the drillers have spared the trees and left the fruit to flourish in native luxuriance.
Notably, the piece continued that drilling in the hills proved problematic because of the difficulty of drilling in rock, including several inches worth through which it could take eight hours to pierce. Where significant volumes of water were found, concrete casings were established to limit intrusion.
Otherwise, the paper went on, drilling involving the labor of “stalwart men” was a process in which “the assault which is being made on the treasure trove . . . and the siege of a city, with all its wealth” were not that different.” Some space was devoted to the tools and machinery involved in the process as well as the labor involved, while it was recorded that the 2,000 feet level was where oil sand was expected to be first encountered and up to another 1,000 feet for crude to be located, if present.
The Express informed readers that “oil well drilling is not a job for a poor man in the Montebello district, or anywhere, in fact,” as it involved significant funds, some $5,000 per well for machinery, and expertise from many persons at all levels of the process. It added that “extreme care, eternal vigilance and watchful efficiency is the rule in the oil fields.” The derricks and associated elements “show the progress the industry is making in that section as a result of the producing qualities of the wells already sunk.”
Remarking that “the prospects for the district within certain areas are certainly good” and demand for its fuels and oils meant that “profitable operation for many years to come appears to be assured.” After going into some general remarks about the oil industry broadly, the paper returned to the local scene and observed that,
The surroundings and environment of the Montebello oil country are picturesque and attractive in the extreme. Lowlying [sic] hills alternate with higher elevations and in the valleys nestle orange and lemon orchards, and orchards bearing various other kinds of fruit. Down the valley stretches a beautiful agricultural country, shimmering like emerald in the sunlight, rich in its inviting landscape effects. Farther to the left [east?] tower immense, broad-humped hills [the Puente range?] and as far as the eye can reach the scene is one of varied and exquisite beauty. Fields green with alfalfa and growing vegetables add by their contrast to the orchards, and the whole perspective is an idyllic picture of rural contentment and prosperity.
At the Union section of the field, the firm built employee housing and these “handsome little homes . . . are tastefully framed in bordering beds of flowers of different varieties,” befitting Montebello’s prior reputation as a “land of flowers.” In concluding, the Express mused to its readers that,
Orchards of citrus and other fruits are on every side and doubtless the men who planted these orchards, if they are living, must rather marvel at the change since the derricks, each like a tower of Aladdin, sprung up in a night, almost, above the low-spreading branches of orange and lemon groves.
It certainly was a dramatic and rather sudden transformation, though the future of the field was limited by the somewhat shallow pools of crude there, so production dropped off significantly in subsequent years. This would have a major effect on Walter Temple and his reliance on the Montebello wells for his income as he embarked on his own oil drilling projects, as well as major real estate work, and personal spending, such as at the Homestead.
We have some more early Montebello history to share, so we’ll return soon with a seventh part—keep an eye out for it!