Huntington Beach California Oil Derricks 1926 Poster

This poster features a restored copy of a beach scene with historic antique oil well drilling derricks as seen from the Huntington Beach, California pier with text description. This amazing photo of the historic southern California early petroleum industry includes, in the right foreground, a California Pacific Electric "Red Car" in front of the old Huntington Inn. This photograph was created in 1926 by a now unknown photographer. The California petroleum and gas industry has been an important industry for more than a century. Oil extraction was a minimal industry during the 19th century, when kerosene replaced whale oil and lubricants becoming indispensable to the industrial age. Petroleum became a significant California business with the 20th century finding of new oil fields in the Los Angeles and San Joaquin Valley regions when there came a huge increase in consumption of gasoline to power and trucks and cars. California gas and oil production is centred largely in Kern County, San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles basin.