The Alamitos oil well #1 or Alamitos #1 is the site of a famous oil well in

Signal Hill, California Signal Hill is a city in area in Los Angeles County, California. Located high on a hill, the city is an enclave completely surrounded by the city of Long Beach. Signal Hill was incorporated on April 22, 1924, roughly three years after oil wa ...

, the start of the Long Beach oilfield. The spot is also known as Porcupine Hill. The Alamitos well #1 was designated a California Historic Landmark (No. 580) on May 1, 1957. The Signal Hill oil discovered in 1921 became the black gold of

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

. Alamitos #1 started drilling on March 23, 1921. The leader of the drilling was O.P. "Happy" Yowells. On June 23 at 9:30 a.m. the drill, at about 2,765 feet down, hit oil that was trapped under ground. The trapped oil was pressurized by

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

. The pressure pushed the blowout oil 114 feet into the air, when the drill hit the oil. The

drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill wa ...

collapsed in the blowout. A new clean well was drilled nearby and started production on June 25, 1921. Alamitos oil well #1 put out 600 barrels a day and 700,000 barrels before running out. In 1917

Union Oil Company Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...

had drilled near the area of Signal Hill and found no oil. Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company drilled Alamitos Well #1 and found the gusher. Alamitos Well #1 found one of the richest oil fields in the world. The Long Beach oilfield produced over 1 billion barrels of oil by 1984. The Long Beach oilfield is still in use and producing oil. In 2002 the oilfield pumped out 1.5 million barrels of oil.

Marker

A California Historic Landmark marker is at the northeast corner of Temple Avenue and Hill Street in Signal Hill. The marker on the site reads:californiahistoricallandmarks.com 580, Portolá Trail Campsite
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References

{{reflist California Historical Landmarks 1921 establishments in California Signal Hill, California

Marker

See also

References