Olinda Oil Museum
The Olinda Oil Museum is a 12-acre historical park in Brea where Edward Doheny found crude oil in 1897 for the Santa Fe railroad. The site includes Olinda Oil Well Number One, which is still producing oil, the former field office building built in 1912, a jackline pump, records vault, and assorted antique oil operation tools. The Field House, once the headquarters of the bustling Olinda oil operation, is now filled with artifacts, along with the original safe and warehouse where parts were once stored and organized. The museum captures the sights, sounds and smells of the first commercial oil production in the Los Angeles Basin.
Brea, Orange County
Images by Andrew Schmidt