Oil Wells in Solano Canyon?

An interesting article in a recent online issue of LAMag reminds us that there was oilwell drilling activity proposed, and, in fact, executed in the Stone Quarry Hills.  Not only that, but exploratory wells were drilled in Solano Canyon itself.

I found this article particularly interesting because my academic training is as a petroleum engineer and my professional career was spent as a research scientist and practicing reservoir engineer.

The following is an excerpt from an 1895 article in the Los Angeles Herald subtitled Unusual Number of Oil Permits Considered.  Clipped from the article is this:

The Solano tract referred to here is the 16-acre tract that Francisco Solano bought from the City in 1866; in other words, lower Solano Canyon.

Included in the LAMag article is this wonderful map from the Library of Congress that was made by Edna Forncrook of Los Angeles in 1922 that shows graphically the extent of oilwell drilling activity in, and around, Los Angeles, which, by 1922, was extensive.  Click to enlarge the map and you will see, between Los Angeles and Glendale-Burbank, and just behind the "L" in "Los Angeles", the Stone Quarry Hills.

Map credit: Library of Congress Cld255835, July 19, 1922

The original article in LAMag can be found here.