The vitality of this color photo is particularly striking, isn’t it? Although no longer around, those oil wells in the background used to dot the Signal Hill area of Long Beach for decades. It must have been a dirty, smelly, and noisy place to drive through, but hey, oil was king! The silver car is a circa 1950 Chevrolet, but the license plates on the Ford Model A jalopy in the foreground have a yellow tag which dates this photo to 1952.

Dean C. says: “The derricks are gone but the wells are still there and can be re-tapped at any time. The amazing thing about all those well, is they weren’t taking oil out directly under them, but miles away. The well opening is only a convenient location. From Signal Hill, the drill will drill down then turn inland and go 10 to 30 miles to the oil. The oil may be coming from underneath Downey, or Lakewood. Long Beach is riddled with wells. FYI My family owned and operated an oil drilling company for 100 years.”