With the best of water - front facilities,
and with factory sites held at a very reasonable figure, the outlook for
Rodeo, situated on San Pablo Bay, is very promising.
The virile quality of Rodeo's citizenship
shone forth brilliantly following a devastating fire of July, 1915. Although
the main business district was completely wiped out, in less than six months
the heap of ruins was replaced by handsome brick buildings. These building
activities have afforded unusual opportunities for bricklayers, carpenters,
and artisans of all kinds, who have prospects of being steadily employed for
an indefinite time to come. Other fields of employment are the plant of the
Union Oil Company, about two miles distant, the local plant of the Western
Oil Company, the Union Oil Company at Oleum, adjoining the town-site of
Rodeo, the powder factories of Giant and Hercules, and the near-by
lubricating plant of the Shell Oil Company. Having no unemployed class,
Rodeo may be considered to be well along on the road to prosperity.
Of historical interest is the fact that
Rodeo derived its name from the "rodeos," or roundups, held by the cattle
kings in the days of the old Spanish grandees.
Some time ago, a sanitary district was
formed in Rodeo, and a bond issue was decided upon to supply the sum of
$17,000 needed for the construction of a sewer system.
Rodeo is one of the smallest towns in the
State to have its own sewer system. The undertaking has been a very large
one, and the fact that it has been carried to success reflects considerable
credit upon those who are leaders in the town's affairs.
The prospects for a brilliant future for
Rodeo are very alluring. A splendid water-front is to be found there, and
splendid factory sites can be secured at a very reasonable figure. The town
is now situated near enough to several large industries to be assured of
steady progress.
UNION OIL COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA
The Union Oil Company of California is the
outgrowth of an amalgamation of a number of the smaller oil companies
established in the early days of the California oil industry. It has always
been independent of any kind to enforce upon it a policy of subservience to
special interests. Its present strong position is the result of twenty-five
years of able management as the Union Oil Company of California, following
several years of pioneering in the Ventura fields on the part of Lyman
Stewart, now chairman of the board, and his associates. Mr. Stewart, having
first satisfied himself as to the oil prospects of the surrounding
territory, located at Santa Paula in Ventura County, and gathered about him
a number of his former associates in the Pennsylvania fields. Amongst these
were W. L. Hardison and John Irwin. In 1883 as the Hardison-Stewart Oil
Company, with John Irwin as field superintendent, operations were begun in
Pico Canon, near Newhall, on land leased from the Pacific Coast Oil Company,
which had a small group of wells there and a small refinery in Alameda. That
company and the Rowland & Lacy Company operating at Puente, near Whittier,
alone occupied the field at that time. Leases were also taken in Adams
Canon, on the old Rancho ex-Mission de San Buenaventura, and in Santa Paula
Canon.
Operations began with a field force of
thirty-five oil men recruited from the East. Six wells were drilled and
about $135,000 spent before striking a paying well. In these days of large
expenditures in oil development this sum looks small, but, considering the
times, and that these men were operating in a country several thousand miles
away from the nearest commercially proven oil field, and in one where at the
same time proper facilities and markets were yet to be developed, it will be
appreciated that no little faith and courage were required. To add to their
difficulties disputes arose over land titles, but eventually these obstacles
as well as those of a physical character were overcome. Operations were
extended and additional land acquired by purchase. More wells were drilled -
one of these, No. 16, on the Rancho ex-Mission, was brought in with an
initial production of one thousand barrels of oil a day. Other successes
followed, and, encouraged by results obtained, two other companies were
organized, in both of which Hardison and Stewart were interested - the Sespe
Oil Company and the Torrey Canon Oil Company. In 1890 the three companies,
together with the Los Angeles Oil Co., Rainbow Oil Company, Mission Transfer
Company and others, were merged into one, as the Union Oil Company, with a
capitalization of $5,000,000; later this was increased to $10,000,000 and
then to $50,000,000, at which figure it stands with the opening of 1915. At
the beginning of 1915, somewhat over $31,000,000 of this had been issued.
The operations of the company have now been enormously extended in all
directions. Its landholdings comprise over 226,000 acres, not including
those of companies controlled by it. Its oil lands, rights, and leases are
conservatively valued at approximately $23,000,000, while its wells, of
which more than three hundred are producing and forty-six drilling,
represent $7,000,000 more. Pipe-lines and storage systems serve all the
important fields, and its water-transportation facilities are represented by
a fleet of twenty-six steamers and barges, of which but six are chartered,
the whole fleet having a carrying capacity of 800,000 barrels. Investments
in transportation and storage facilities now amount to nearly $7,000,000.
Early in its career the company undertook
refining operations on a small scale at Santa Paula. This plant was
destroyed by fire in 1896, but later was replaced. The success experienced
demonstrated that more extensive facilities were required, and in 1895 a
site was purchased at Oleum on San Pablo Bay near San Francisco, at which
point its principal refinery is now located. In addition to these two
refineries, three others are now operating at strategical points -
Bakersfield, Stewart, near Los Angeles, and Avila, on the coast near San
Luis Obispo. The company is also engaged in the extraction of gasoline from
the large amount of natural gas produced on some of its leases. One of these
plants is probably the largest yet installed anywhere. When the construction
work now under way is completed the company will have invested over
$3,000,000 in its refineries.
An extensive system of distributing and
marketing stations has been developed all over the Pacific Coast, ranging
from Alaska to South America. Unusually complete stations have been erected
in all of the principal cities, with less elaborate ones in the smaller
communities, at a cost of nearly $4,000,000. These are being continually
increased in number.
The company now produces, transports,
refines, and distributes all products derivable from California petroleum,
having last year marketed over $20,000,000 worth of products. Its ships
carry fuel oil to all the principal ports of the Pacific Coast in both
American continents, and reach westward to Hawaii. Its refined oils are
delivered by the shipload not only to domestic ports but to Europe and Asia.
Asphalt is shipped to Atlantic ports by Steamer and sail, and by rail to the
Middle West, and in normal times to Europe. In fact, the Union Oil Company
now has practically the entire world for its market, and competes
successfully everywhere.
FUEL OIL. - First, in point of mere bulk,
ranks fuel oil. On the face of it no particular interest would appear to
attach to the fuel-oil business. It would seem that all that might be
necessary would be to produce the oil from the ground and hand it over to
the consumers to be burnt without special preparation. However, the actual
facts are unfortunately somewhat more complicated and the users if oil fuel
have manifold requirements; each particular industry using fuel has its own,
and nearly every customer has special needs - either actual or fancied. In
any case all of these conditions must be met, and while many consumers are
properly served with carefully selected and cleaned crude oil, a very large
class requires specially prepared fuel to meet highly specialized
conditions, with the result that no little care and skill are demanded in
the manufacture of a suitable material having the desired characteristics.
In metallurgical operations and the manufacture of gas, for example,
requirements are different than for use on board ship. The different navies,
again, have different specifications; Diesel engines and semi-Diesel engines
differ from each other in the kind of fuel needed, and so on in almost
infinite variety. All of these manifold service conditions the Union Oil
Company of California has provided for, and supplies for each instance the
particular fuel best adapted to it, so that whether it be for the United
States or foreign navies, for the manufacturers of marine classification
societies, or for Diesel engines, house-hold use, smudge oil for orchards,
for steel works and smelters, for briquetting coal, or for hatching eggs,
proper fuels have been prepared. Each industry demands certain flash or
burning points, specific gravity, viscosity, heat value, freedom from
sulphur, and other technical characteristics of no particular interest to
the layman, but involving proper selection of raw material and subsequent
treatment to produce.
ASPHALT. - In the refining of California
oils the final or end product of the distillation process may be either a
fuel oil, usually known as residuum, or asphalt, best known to the public in
the form of asphalt pavements. The best refining oils, however, are not
necessarily the best for the manufacture of asphalt, so the Union Oil
Company of California does not manufacture asphalt as a by-product of the
refinery, but selects for the specific purpose of making asphalt only such
oils as have the proper physical and chemical characteristics; as a result
of this procedure and the careful attention given every stage of the
operation to control the quality of the product, the company believes that
it has perfected the manufacture of asphalt to the highest degree yet
attained. A special booklet has been prepared, copies of which may be had on
request, covering the application of this material to paving. Many other
uses are made of it, however, and special types are prepared for each
service.
REFINED OIL AND LUBRICANTS. - The products
derived from petroleum and manufactured by the company cover the entire
range from the lightest volatile substances which boil actively at the
temperature of the hand to the heaviest of lubricants. The company has been
perhaps fortunate in that as it is comparatively young it has not inherited
an outworn assortment of refining conventions. It has not hesitated
therefore to depart from methods established by tradition and has developed
processes and apparatus of its own, peculiarly fitted to California
conditions, and capable of manufacturing economically products of the
highest quality. Continuous investigations are conducted to improve its
facilities and the character and variety of its products. That this policy
is effective is best evidenced by the fact that in the face of increased
competition, backed by powerful financial interests, its sales of refined
goods have uniformly increased in volume more rapidly than can be accounted
for by the increase in the consuming population of its tributary territory,
and this without any attempt being made to undersell competitors.