Structural Map of the McKittrick Oil Field, California

An early 20th-century map of California’s rich oil deposits.

Though the resources of what would eventually become the McKittrick Oil Field had been known to Native American populations for centuries, it wasn’t until the late 19th century that the first ‘gusher’ drew attention to potential oil profits. It was one of the first fields of California’s San Joaquin Valley to be a commercial success and retains over 1,000 producing wells to this day.

This map was published by the United States Geological Survey in 1909 and shows the tremendous development in the first two decades of the site’s economic exploitation. Dozens of wells, some of which have already been abandoned, dot the landscape. Land claims jostle for position in the hopes of tapping future ‘black gold’ deposits across the region. A number of tanks, crucial for short-term storage, are noted along the specially-built spur of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

See here for a contemporary panoramic photograph of the fields from the Library of Congress