Huntington Beach Oil.
This picture shows an image that is of Huntington Beach California. The town is a lovely Oceanside city that enjoys much tourism because of its pleasant weather, nice beaches and its proximity to Los Angeles. Back in the 1930’s when this picture was taken, however, the city was important for another large reason, its enormous oil fields.
The main reason California was settled so early in our nation’s history was because of the great gold rush of 1849. However, part of the reason its population still continued to boom is because of the discovery of vast oil reserves in the 1920’s. This is how towns such as Los Angeles and, yes, Huntington Beach grew so quickly. Land in California was selling like hot cakes as everyone tried to get a piece of land with an oil reserve under it. It is even estimated that during this time, about one quarter of the world’s oil came from California.
After oil was found in the then minuscule town of Huntington Beach, oil wells were constructed almost overnight. Of course, with an increase work comes an increase in the need for workers. Oilmen flocked from all over, critically increasing the town’s size. This also brought more attention to the luscious beaches the town was named for, in turn creating more tourism from nearby citizens looking for some fun in the sun.
After the reserves were dug dry, the oil companies moved out around the 1960’s leaving some of their wells behind to this very day. Now Huntington Beach is thriving based off of its beach-going tourism that was established thanks in part to its oil.