Was there a 1869 Lyon-Wiley-Jenkins Pico Canyon Well?

Here is supposedly a copy of a handwritten sheet signed by the three men. It (the copy) was evidently donated to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society by Anita Ruby Kellogg, one of W.W. Jenkins' daughters. It was copied from original agreement by June Jenkins Kinler, the other Jenkins daughter:

"We agree to put up an equal amount of money to drill one well or more at Camp Pico in Pico Canyon, where Lopez told us about the oil seepage and taking tar & oil to San Fernando Mission later. Sanford to oversee operations as he is much more knowledgeable regarding drilling but to have our full cooperation at all times. If any, profits from said wells to be divided equally. Will call the first well Lyons No. 1 as Sanford is getting the bad end of it.

W.W. Jenkins
Sanford Lyon
H.C. Wiley

Jan. 8, 1869

In the late 1870's, Jenkins (presumably) appended to the agreement: "We went down about 50 ft., got about 9 barrels a day. When Alex Mentry took over operations with his knowledge, skill and modern machinery, he must have laughed at our primitive endeavours."

One thing clear with the agreement. If a well was drilled (with a spring-pole), then it would have been done by Lyon. But was there really an agreement between the three men? That is impossible to say without seeing the original signed document. We only have the handwritten copy. Why the Jenkins family did not donate the actual document to the historical society is a mystery. With the actual document, we could verify not only its existence, but the signatures of the three men. It was also not recorded in the Los Angeles County Miscellaneous Records (although that was not necessary for a valid agreement). The later appendment by Jenkins seems a little suspicious. Why would he do that?

On November 30, 1868, Sanford Lyon purchased the old Wiley ranch from the new owners of the land, the Philadelphia and California Petroleum Company. However, he had to take out a mortgage to make the sale. The stage stop became Lyon's Station. In 1869 he was hard at work trying to make a living there. He had a mortgage to pay off and did not have much free time to drill a well in Pico Canyon. In the 1860's, it had been reported that he had dug pits to soak up the leaking oil which he would then sell, so he was certainly familiar with Pico. He knew that he would probably also need the permission of the principle claim holders, R.S Baker and E.F. Beale, to do any drilling. He would do that in 1876 when he drilled (by spring-pole with help) his own well. That well is visible in photos by Carleton Watkins. Lyon never mentioned an 1869 well.

From 1864 to sometime in 1868 Henry C. Wiley was living on the future Lyon's Station ranch. He had leased the land from Ygnacio del Valle, one of the owners. The area was part of the huge Rancho San Francisco. In 1865, Wiley claimed oil lands in Wiley Canyon and later bought into claims in Towsley Canyon. By 1868, he had left his leased ranch and moved to the City of Los Angeles. When James F. Burns became sheriff of Los Angeles County in 1867, he selected Wiley to be one of his undersheriffs (or deputy). He evidently liked to be in law enforcement, having already been a constable in San Diego County in the 1850's. So, in 1869, he was busy working as an undersheriff. He had no time to drill a well. In fact, he probably never drilled one himself on his own claims. He always had men working for him to do that task. Wiley never mentioned an 1869 well.

William W. Jenkins was a constable from 1858-1864 (Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1916). In his earlier years he was a California ranger under Major Horace Bell. In early 1869, he was a candidate for Los Angeles County Assessor, but would drop out of the race in June. He was evidently too busy in politics to spring-pole a well, something he had never done in the past.

Is there any historical evidence of the this well actually being drilled?

The Fourth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist for the Year Ending May 15, 1884 (California State Mining Bureau, Henry G. Hanks State Mineralogist, Sacramento, 1884) states that:

"In 1857, W.W. Jenkins, W.C. Wiley, and Sanford Lyon, visited Pico Canyon to look for mineral and oil. Francisco Lopez, former steward of the San Buenaventura Mission, and superintendent of the gold placers, had informed them that there was oil, which they found oozing from the ground in what are now called Pico, Hooper, Sespe, Casteca or Pine, and Piru Canyons."

"In 1867 Lyon and Jenkins returned to the claims they had examined ten years before. Jenkins went to Sespe and Piru; Lyon remained in Pico."

"In 1869, the first work was done at Pico Canyon, by Mr. Hughes, who put down a spring-pole well called the Pico Well."

The was no mention of a Pico Springs well. Francis J. Hughes had a claim on top of the future PCO Hill about a mile east of the Pico Springs area. He drilled (with spring-pole and later with a steam engine) the first well in Pico Canyon, although on top of the mountain overlooking the canyon.

The earliest drilling of a Pico Springs well that I could find was in Prutzman (Petroleum in Southern California 1913, Bulletin 63, California State Mining Bureau) on page 159. He wrote:

"A well is said to have been drilled in this canyon, by the old spring-pole method, as early as 1869. This well found an encouraging amount of oil (it is hardly likely that the original statement that this was a "flowing well" is literally true), but the hole was spoiled at a depth of 140 feet."

Like the fable of Andres Pico refining oil at the San Fernando Mission for the fathers, here is another example of "is said" to have happened. There is no source given and I have not found any earlier mention of the well. And a 140-foot spring-pole well is really hard to believe given the amount of hard work necessary to accomplish that.

However, there is definite historical evidence that the well well was not drilled and this came from none other than Charles A. Mentry himself. In Case No. 4437 (which would never be ruled on by the court), R.S. Baker, et. al. (Plaintiffs) vs. California Star Oil Works Co., et. al. (Defendants), Mentry himself gave a deposition on June 11, 1878 (for the defendants, the company he was employed by):

"I first became acquainted with the premises mentioned in the complaint in September 1875. At this time no wells had been drilled on the same, but a few shallow or surface excavations and a little other work had been done for the purpose of catching the oil that seeped from the Pico Oil Springs. We commenced drilling wells with spring poles and such tools which I manufactured with the limited means at our command. We drilled one well about 120 feet, another 85 feet, and one 65 feet, and got some oil in each of them."

Mentry said nothing about there being an old spring-pole well there. If there was a well, he certainly would have recognized it as being a well. He was an expert in drilling oils. He also stated in his deposition that he had started in the oil business in early 1864 in Pennsylvania and became "actively engaged in locating, drilling, and operation oil wells and handling oil and oil machinery." He had "contracted for and drilled a large number of wells." Most were "drilled in my personal supervision and direction." He had worked in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia and had "actually drilled or assisted in the drilling of about 100 wells" obtaining "both intimate knowledge and great practical experience in the drilling and operating of all kinds of oil wells."

Sanford Lyon also gave deposition (on July 3, 1878, for the plaintiffs) during that trial. He did not say that he had drilled a well in 1869, but that for the last two years (1876-1878) had been operating his own well, drilled in 1876, on the Pico Springs claim, with Baker's and Beale's permission.

The Standard Oil Bulletin of August, 1918 (Vol. VI, No.4), claimed (pp. 5-6):

"In 1870 a shallow well was drilled at the head of Pico Canyon by the old spring-pole method, the driller being one Sanford Lyon. This well is said to have produced at the time of drilling between seventy and seventy-five barrels of oil per day."

"The first steam engine was brought into Pico Canyon in 1879 and installed at the old spring-pole well, which was then redrilled to a greater depth." It was known by then as the "California Oil Works Company Well No. 4."

Mentry squashed that claim in 1878. Who knows where Standard got it, but it was "said to have..." Who said it? The first steam engine used by Standard (Hughes had already used one on his claim on PCO Hill) was in 1877 for CSOW 4. There was not an existing old well that was redrilled. Standard was never known for reporting their history accurately.

The claim of a Lyon well continued. In 1934's "Report on Newhall Oil Field" by R.W. Walling (Summary of Operations, California Oil Fields, Twentieth Annual Report of the State Oil and Gas Supervisor Issued by Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, Vol. 20, No. 2, Oct. Nov. Dec. 1934) it was stated that:

"During 1869 and 1870, Sanford Lyon drilled a spring-pole hole near the oil seeps, an the anticlinal axis, to a depth of 140 feet, where tools were lost in the hole and drilling suspended. The hole is reported to have flowed 70 to 75 barrels of oil per day while being drilled. No further drilling was done in Pico Canyon until 1875, but during this time seepage oil was collected and sold to the Polhemus refinery in Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Gas Works in San Francisco."

The source used was the 1918 Standard Oil Bulletin, with did not report all this data. Maybe Standard provided Walling with the extra (incorrect) statements.

Moving into the later 20th century and the 21 century century, the story seems to expand. The local historians A.B. Perkins and Jerry Reynolds wouldn't let it die. By 2005, Reynolds even magically provided us with a date. "Henry Clay Wiley, Sanford Lyon and William W. Jenkins started drilling a hole in Pico Canyon on Jan. 9, 1869, using the primitive spring-pole method" (Newhall Signal, June 18, 2005).


In conclusion, there was no 1869 well drilled by Sanford Lyon, Henry Wiley, W.W. Jenkins, or either of them, on the Pico Springs claim. Thanks to Charles Mentry, we know this for sure. The first well would be drilled (with spring-pole) by Charles Mentry himself in 1875.