A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1876. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. 14 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.
From the record
“Well No. 4, Pico Canyon Oilfield, located about seven miles (11 km) west of Newhall, California, in the Santa Susana Mountains, was the first commercially successful oil well in the Western United States and is considered the birthplace of California's oil industry. Drilled in 1876, it turned nearby Newhall into a boomtown and also spawned a smaller boomtown called Mentryville adjacent to the drilling site.”
Wikipedia article Pico Canyon Oilfield, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · listed in 1966 · category: District · built in 1876 · a National Historic Landmark.
National Register reference number.66000212- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Then and now
1903 to 1979
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
76 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
19031979
Fires near this property
90 since 1998
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 90 fires within 5 miles of Well No. 4, Pico Canyon Oil Field
between 1998 and 2020, burning about 127,147 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
50
Equipment and vehicle use
15
Smoking
13
Arson/incendiarism
4
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Fireworks
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Natural
1
Debris and open burning
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Date
Cause
Size
Reported by
Name on the report
8 September 2011
Debris and open burning
20 acres
Los Angeles County Fire Department
not named
25 September 2005
Smoking
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
16 September 2006
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
1.0 acres
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
14 September 2007
Misuse of fire by a minor
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
12 September 2007
Misuse of fire by a minor
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
11 September 2007
Equipment and vehicle use
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
11 September 2006
Smoking
1.0 acres
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
1 September 2006
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
1.0 acres
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
4 workings within 5 miles of Well No. 4, Pico Canyon Oil Field: 3 past producers, 1 occurrence.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Fullers Earth. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
San Fernando, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 1 hail, 1 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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