On this day in 1876, Pico Canyon’s Well No. 4 erupted, becoming the first commercially productive oil well in the American West and marking the birth of California’s oil industry.

The well was drilled by Charles Alexander Mentry, a French-born oilman who had come to the Santa Clarita Valley in 1873 after a successful career in Pennsylvania.

Earlier attempts to tap Pico Canyon by Sanford Lyon, Henry Clay Wiley, and William Jenkins had shown promise but failed to deliver lasting production.

That changed on September 26, 1876, when Mentry’s Pico No. 4, drilled to a depth of 617 feet, struck a steady flow of oil, yielding about 30 barrels per day.

The breakthrough caught the attention of San Francisco financier Demetrius Scofield, who soon acquired the site and hired Mentry to manage operations for the Pacific Coast Oil Company.

The success of the well transformed Pico Canyon into Mentryville, a thriving oil boomtown at the southern edge of the Santa Clarita Valley that flourished in the late 1800s and housed more than 100 families until the early 1930s.

Pico Well No. 4 stood the test of time to become the longest continually operating oil well in the world, finally closing in 1990 at 114 years in service.

Pico No. 4 was the foundational well of the Pacific Coast Oil Company, a predecessor of Standard Oil Company, later renamed Chevron in 1977.

In Mentryville, several original structures still stand, including Mentry’s impressive thirteen-room mansion, a one-room schoolhouse, and a classic barn – all preserved as part of California’s State Historical Landmarks, offering a rare glimpse into the state’s early energy history.

To read yesterday’s SCV Today in History, click here.

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