For decades, Kern County’s identity has been linked with the oil industry. So how and where did it all begin? Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, the story of how oil became king in Kern County.
While the Yokuts used the oil seeps and tar pits of the valley for millennia, Kern County’s modern oil industry began in 1860s. That’s when settlers began to harvest tar and kerosene, digging by hand in the pits near McKitrick. In the 1890s a handful of wells in the area began producing oil. But on the other side of the valley, things would soon change in a big way, just outside Bakersfield.
In May 1899 James and Jonathan Ellwood discovered oil on the north side of the Kern River on property owned by Thomas Means. They dug the well by hand using an auger, and found oil at around 45 feet. They filled four whiskey barrels with oil and took them to the railroad depot at Kern City. They sold them to loggers at Millwood in Fresno County, making a profit of one dollar a barrel. It was the first well in the Kern River Oilfield.
The discovery set off an oil boom. By 1901 there were over 500 oil wells in the field. By 1904, the Kern River Oilfield had produced 17 and a half million barrels, the most in California. Within a decade, Bakersfield’s population tripled.
Today, that original discovery well is a state landmark, and you can see it, just off of Round Mountain Road, about a mile east of China Grade Loop.
