San Benito County History

This section is excerpted from A Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California by Henry D. Barrows and Luther A. Ingersoll, and published by The Lewis Publishing Company in 1893.

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Petroleum.

The oil-bearing strata of San Benito county have as yet been only partially prospected. A well has been bored by the California Central Oil Company in the Vallecitos mining district. The road to this district from Panoche lies through Grizzly cañon, a treeless, desolate section of country, where the erosive action of the winter's storms, cloudbursts, and atmospheric agencies, are strikingly demonstrated in the precipitous banks of the dry watercourses, the gaping crevasses in the alluvial soil, and the grotesque shapes into which the sandstones and softer rocks are worn. The works of the oil company are situated about eight miles from Panoche. Work was commenced here in 1886, and suspended during the following year. It is said that the company expended $20,000 on their works, and that their well, which was sunk to a depth of 400 feet, has partially caved. The boring was through a light-colored sandstone, which became quite white toward the bottom, where a small quantity of oil was struck.

In the cañon to the north is a spring of dark-colored oil, and oil also seeps through the bed and bank of the creek at several places, as well as on the Ashurst ranch in this district.

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This section is excerpted from A Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California by Henry D. Barrows and Luther A. Ingersoll, and published by The Lewis Publishing Company in 1893.