Panorama of a California Oil Field

Likely Ventura, California, 1900. Photograph measuring 3 ½ x 11 ½ inches, on heavy cardstock. With manuscript verso. Photograph somewhat faded with large wrinkle on left side, with some damage to mount. Very good to excellent.. A panoramic photograph of an oil field appearing to be from around the turn of the century, with a later caption verso suggesting the location is Ventura, California. The photograph shows two railroad lines in the center surrounded by a number of oil derricks which extend into the distance; three men stand near a horse team between the tracks and a wooden water tower. The Ventura Oil Field was first worked in the 1880s, but wells there would not become commercially viable until the mid-1910s. Though production peaked around the midcentury, the oil field is still active.