Black gold rush

Danette Goulet

At the first sound of an explosion, a 10-year-old Orville Hanson would

burst from his house searching the horizon for the inevitable burning oil

derrick.

At that time, the excitement of an oil fire was a common occurrence.

The oil industry was in its infancy -- untested and volatile.

“As a young person I can remember fires, they’d blow up a whole block

of rigs,” the 83-year-old Huntington Beach resident recalled. “Boy when

I’d hear the sound of an explosion I’d grab my tennis shoes and see how

far I could get before my dad caught up with me.”

Growing up in the small town of Huntington Beach in the 1920s was a

thrill, Hanson recalls. It was a small close-knit community that was

alive with activity.

“As a child of 9 or 10 there was always something going on. You could

hear the noise of the rig builders almost every day -- you’d hear the

clang of the drill pipe,” he said.

Despite his youthful fascination with the dangerous and rapidly

growing industry, Hanson said he never dreamed he’d end up working in the

oil business.

And yet, he is one of three longtime Huntington Beach oil men who will

share the rich history of the city’s oil boom days with the public today

and Friday. The city-sponsored events -- which include a panel discussion

and the rededication of the first oil well drilled in Huntington Beach 82

years ago -- are meant to take a historical look at how the oil industry

shaped the city.

Today there are 623 active wells in Huntington Beach -- down from

thousands in the 1920s through the 1970s that pumped the valuable fuel

from beneath the city’s surface, said Rich Barnard, the director of

communications for the city.

Although they were very young, many like Hanson and fellow retired

oilman Ted Sinclair, who worked for Chevron of California for 39 years,

recall the history of the first rather unsuccessful well and the second

well that changed the small farming community forever.

“It was Bolsa 1 that really put Huntington Beach on the map,” Hanson

said. “They had no control over it for months.”

And so the oil boom began.

As oil got its start, future oilmen went through grade school and then

went off to the service.

When Sinclair got out of the service in 1947, he went to work for the

Standard Oil Co. in various capacities.

“I was a roustabout digging ditches, drilling docks -- labor work --

downright dirty, grungy stuff,” he said.

By the age of 32, Sinclair had worked up to a supervisor position and

just kept on climbing the rungs.

“I worked too many hours, but that was my own fault,” he said.

Sinclair looks back fondly on his days at Chevron.

“It was a tremendous thing at one time and its all gone now,” he said.

“There’s still a lot of oil down there but regulations are so strict and

you can’t afford to own property for that.”

Like Sinclair, Hanson turned to the oil industry after the service.

“I was in the Army for five years, then when I got back there wasn’t

too much to do and most guys from the service wanted to work rather than

try school,” Hanson explained.

He went to work for Signal Oil and Gas Co. where he also began in the

danger zone roughnecking.

Hanson vividly remembers one close call when he was working on a well

on one side of Pacific Coast Highway, while Standard was drilling on the

other side.

“Where they drilled, they didn’t expect that kind of gas pressure --

at that time they didn’t have the technology to control that,” Hanson

said of the process he says went from the insane to the sublime over the

years. “Well it blew, the oil goes 100 feet in the air and the derrick

comes down. Anyway, I bailed out of that rig in a hurry.”

At the time, both men recall, Huntington was being sold off in

encyclopedia lots. A mere $250 bought a 25-by-100 foot lot, which came

with a free set of encyclopedias.

After 35 years at Signal, Hanson retired. He still lives on 13th

Street with his wife Nadine, where he bought six encyclopedia lots and

built his home.

* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)

965-7170 or by e-mail at o7 danette.goulet@latimes.comf7 .

FYI

WHAT: A panel discussion by three retired oilmen: Orville Hansen,

Russell Paxson, and Edwin Tinsley

WHERE: Huntington Art Center, 538 Main Street

WHEN: Today at 6:30 p.m.

CALL: 714-536-3449

WHAT: Rededication ceremony of Discovery Well ParkWHERE: Summit Drive

just east of Goldenwest StreetWHEN: Friday at 10:30 a.m.CALL:

714-536-3449