Brief History of Oil Development in Dewitt Canyon


This topo map shows Sections 6 and 7 of Township 3 North, Range 16 West, SBM. The quarters of both sections are the red boxes. Pico Canyon is on top with Wickham and Dewitt Canyons the tributaries. The Southern Oaks housing tract now takes up the mouth area of Dewitt canyon. The Dewitt (blue box) and Moore claims (green box) are shown. Also, the Andres Pico claim is shown.

John Moore filed a preemption claim that covered the upper part of today's Wickham Canyon and the west fork of Dewitt Canyon on March 13, 1865. Alexander Dewitt filed a preemption claim south and west and just adjacent to the Moore claim on April 10, 1865. Dewitt's claim included the east fork of today's Dewitt Canyon. Preemption claims were only for agriculture and grazing.

Moore and Dewitt would also record petroleum claims covering their preemption claims with the Los Angeles Asphaltum and Petroleum Mining District (LAAPMD) after it was created in March of 1865. The recorder's book of the LAAPMD were lost, so we can't see those actual recorded claims. In June of 1865, the San Fernando Petroleum Mining District (SFPMD) was formed replacing the LAAPMD on the Rancho San Francisco. However, the claims of the LAAPMD were still valid with the SFPMD.

On September 18, 1865, Moore, along with his co-locators, relocated the Dewitt claim for reasons of non-compliance with the SFPMD laws. Dewitt and his co-locators were probably not doing the required work on the claim. See here for that relocation notice in SFPMD Book A, pages 23-25. Soon the canyons would be called Big Moore Canyon (Wickham) and Little Moore Canyon (west fork of Dewitt). However, much of the time all of Dewitt Canyon was called the Little Moore Canyon.

Stephen Peckham visited the Moore claim in 1866 and wrote that there was a 30 foot tunnel in the west tributary of today's Dewitt canyon and three spring-pole wells in the east tributary of Dewitt canyon. The wells were 50, 50, and 42 feet deep with two of them reaching petroleum. Between 1880 and 1882 Charles Felton, for the Pacific Coast Oil Company, acquired all of the claims in the canyons. They would make up the Camulos and the Arcadia claims.

Hardison & Stewart drilled two wells on the Camulos claim (leased from PCO) in 1882 and 1883. Well number 1 produced only one barrel of oil per day. Well number 2 was abandoned at a depth of 200 feet. They were also reported to have drilled a third well in 1887 on the Arcadia claim, but there are no records of this well.

The records of the US Land Office in Los Angeles show that both the these claims were patented on October 8, 1890, to the Occidental Asphalt Company. However, this company was owned by Charles Felton (the president of Pacific Coast Oil Company) and Lloyd Tevis (one of PCO's co-founders). So, in actuality, PCO owned the claims and now the land.

Not until 1921 was another well drilled in the canyon. Like all the earlier wells, it was unsuccessful. The last wells drilled in the 1940's and 1954 were also unsuccessful.

Oil was never produced commercially in Dewitt Canyon (or Wickham).

All of the following photos were taken by me on December 31, 2008. Dewitt was a particularly difficult canyon to hike, which I only did once.

Table of the wells drilled in Dewitt Canyon

(From Walling, 1934, and DOGGR records)
Last Owner Well # Year 1st Drilled Total depth(ft) Initial Prod. (bpd) Remarks
Hardison & Stewart Oil Co. 1 1882 1000 1 No commercial production
Hardison & Stewart Oil Co. 2 1883 700 ? No production
Hardison & Stewart Oil Co. 3 1883 1600 ? Little production
Chevron USA Moore 1 1896 or 97 1320 8 Plugged in 1991.
Chevron USA Moore 2 1897 925 0 No production. Plugged in 1991.
Chevron USA Moore 3 1897 1360 0 Hole caving badly and well abandoned. Plugged in 1991.
Chevron USA Moore 4 1897? ? ? No records. May not exist.
Half Moon Oil Co. 1 1921 ? ? Only "intent to drill" record exists. May have never been drilled.
Monterey Resources Inc. Sanborn 1 1941 8171 0 Drilled by Aztec Oil Co. Deepened in 1942 and 1945. No production.
Mutual Development Corp. Sanborn 1 1947 6471 0 No production. Plugged in 1998.
Mutual Development Corp. Sanborn 2 1948 6301 0 No production


This map is from Walling, 1934, and shows the Arcadia and Camulos claims. Arcadia included the west fork and Camulos included the east fork of Dewitt Canyon.


This topo map shows all the known well sites in Dewitt Canyon and Wickham Canyon from DOGGR (now CalGem) gps locations. In the center right just above "Dewitt" is a red arrow marking the furthest extent of the Southern Oaks housing tract. The three wells to the upper right of the arrow are covered by the housing tract.


This is the old road to the Half Moon Oil Company well of 1921. (All photos taken on 12/31/2008)


The only thing I could find at the Half Moon Oil well site was this piece of wood in the slope above the site


Oil seep up the east fork


The oil seep appears to be about all dried out. Maybe some water is still seeping out.


The source of the seep is just above the creek bed


This old nut and cut nail is from map is from Hardison & Stewart Oil Company well number 1 from 1892. The evidence for this well site only consists of some hardened petroleum in the creek bed. There is also some wood embedded in the petroleum. This type of petroleum flow is common beneath old wells. There has been so much erosion and debris flowing down the creek that the well site is mostly buried.


There is also this pipe sticking out of the ground nearby


In the west fork is this pipe beneath the probable site of Moore 1, spudded in 1896 or 1897. There is another pipe nearby.


Also at the Moore 1 site is the section of smokestack from a steam boiler


Here is another section of probably the same smokestack close by


Here is the site of Moore 1 from higher up on the other site of the creek. It's basically just a brush cover flat area. In 1934, Walling reported that only a few traces remained of the old wells so it's not surprising that I found very few artifacts in both forks.