Mentryville was once a booming oil town, now reduced to nothing more than the ghostly ruins of what once was. The history of how the town was established to its ultimate end spotlights one of the greatest successes of the oil industry in California. By Evan M. Decker As you’re driving up or down the 5 Freeway approaching the Pico ...

On September 12, 1883, at Mentryville, one worker was killed, and four were injured while building a huge oil tank that could hold 20,000 barrels of oil. Mentryville was on the up and up ever since the establishment of Pico No. 4, which originally cemented it as the first town with a commercially productive oil well.  The success of the ...

At 12:18 p.m. on July 22, 2000, a fire broke out on Pico Canyon Road just north of Stevenson Ranch Parkway, “destroying one home and charring 20 acres in Pico Canyon.” According to SCV History, “About 125 Los Angeles County firefighters and three helicopters responded to the fire… While suppressing the fire, one fire department helicopter experienced mechanical trouble and ...

On July 13, 1884, drilling began at Star No. 1 in Pico Canyon, just west of present-day Santa Clarita, by oilmen Wallace Hardison and Lyman Stewart, under the California Star Oil Works. The well in Pico Canyon remained in operation until March 28, 1885, due to it being under a lease. Star No.1 contributed to California’s expanding energy economy during ...

On June 24, 1865, local investors and landowners formally established the San Fernando Petroleum Mining District, creating a system to organize and protect oil claims throughout the area surrounding present-day Pico Canyon and Newhall. The district’s formation came during a period of growing interest in the valley’s natural oil seeps. Reports of petroleum deposits in the region had attracted prospectors ...

On May 22, 1865, pioneers Ramon Perea and Jesus Hernandez sold off Pico Canyon, rich with oil, to Colonel Robert S. Baker for $300. Ramon Perea, born August 31, 1838, immigrated from Mexico in the mid to late 1800s and owned and operated a ranch in San Francisquito Canyon. In the 1880s, Perea sold off the ranch to the Raggios ...

On April 19, 1880, California’s first commercially successful oil well was patented, just west of present-day Santa Clarita. That moment put the region on the map and helped usher in California’s oil boom. The well was more than a stroke of luck; it was also a moment of innovation. The success of Pico Oil Spring Mine Section Two wasn’t just ...

On Jan. 25, 1915, Ramon Perea, an early oilman in Pico Canyon and a vintner and rancher in San Francisquito Canyon, died at the age of 76. Though often overshadowed in later oil histories, Perea’s name appears prominently in early school-era accounts of Pico Canyon, written by children who grew up in and around Mentryville in the early 20th century. ...

On January 13, 1847, Mexican Gen. Andrés Pico formally surrendered to U.S. forces under Col. John C. Frémont, effectively ending hostilities between the United States and Mexico in California. The agreement, known as the Treaty of Cahuenga, was signed near present-day Universal City and served as a cease-fire that brought the fighting in Alta California to a close. The treaty ...

On January 8, 1869, local entrepreneurs Henry Clay Wiley, Sanford Lyon, and William W. Jenkins began drilling a hole in Pico Canyon, marking the start of Santa Clarita’s central role in the California Oil industry. The Pico Oil field had been identified some years before. Some accounts credit Senator Andrés Pico with discovering oil there in the 1850s, but the ...