Oil Derrick

oilderrick: Oil Derrick In May of 1899, the Kern River Oilfield was discovered when the first well was drilled with a hand auger on Tom Means' land near the Kern River north of Bakersfield.  An oil boom then followed, to be repeated ten years later in the oilfields on the west side of Kern County. Soon, cable tool drilling rigs like this one dotted the landscape. The rigs, originally run by steam power, repeatedly dropped heavy drilling bits into the ground, pulverizing rock. The crushed rock was periodically bailed out and the process continued until the drill bit hit an oil deposit. Sometimes the subsurface pressure was so great that it would "blow out" an oil well, causing a gusher. The most famous "blow out" in Kern County was the Lakeview Gusher of 1910 located between Taft and Maricopa, which spewed out nine million barrels of oil over 18 months.

HISTORY:
This 80-foot wooden derrick is a replica of the cable tool drilling rigs that were used in the oilfields throughout Kern County around 1910. This wooden derrick was constructed on the museum grounds in 1957 by the Petroleum Production Pioneers in cooperation with numerous oil companies and volunteers. This cable tool rig contains original equipment from wooden derricks throughout California.


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