California Museums
California Oil Museums List and Information
West Kern Oil Museum
1168 Wood Street
Taft, CA 93268
phone: 661-765-6664
westkern-oilmuseum.org
Hours: Thursday - Saturday 10 a.m. to 4
p.m.; Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
The Museum is dedicated to preserving
and relating the history of oil through
the years, and also the history of the
people and the oil companies who lived
and worked in and around the communities
of McKittrick, Maricopa, Fellows and
Taft.
Early oil exploration
Oil lease housing
Wooden derrick
Oilfield equipment
Educational Programs include
exhibitions, travel program, community
heritage projects, lectures, hands-on
workshops, living history program,
guided tours, outreach to schools,
fundraising events. Tours
available to all ages: (661)
765-6664.
Library is a general access library with
related publications, no appointment is
necessary.
In the mid 1920's over 7,000 wooden
derricks covered the landscape from
Sunset southeast of Maricopa, through
the Midway Valley, the Elk Hills to
McKittrick and Reward, a distance of
approximately 21 miles in Southwest Kern
County. It was a forest of derricks. By
the late 1960's only two derricks
remained. In 1974 Jameson #17 was
scheduled to be torn down but was saved
by civic groups, with Jameson Company
donating the derrick and 3 acres of land
to build West Kern Oil Museum. Today
that original wooden derrick standing
over its original well, with all its
cable tools intact, is a part of the
Museum which has grown to 8 acres.
It seemed only fitting that a Museum be
on the Westside of Kern County, for even
today almost one half of all the oil in
California comes from these Westside
oilfields. The Midway Sunset field (the
oilfield on which the Museum sits) is
still the top oil producing field in the
contiguous United States. Then, too,
three of the giant oilfields of the U.S.
lie within the Westside. They are the
Midway Sunset Field, the Elk Hills
Field, and the South Belridge Field. To
be considered a giant field, an oilfield
has to produce or be capable of
producing 1 billion barrels of oil.
The story of the oil companies, of
everyday life in the early oilfields and
in the oil camps, as well as the story
of oil itself are exhibited and
interpreted. Outside one can press a
button and witness a pumping unit
produce oil. The other museum building
exhibits and interprets the story of oil
itself; its origin, geology, production
methods, transportation and refining and
the over 5000 products made from
petro-chemicals.
The Museum is landscaped in native
plants and special tours are given,
pointing out particular plants and
telling their uses by the Indians and
early pioneers.>