Oil, The Big Boom, and Huntington’s Real Estate Empire

Oil and Los Angeles

• The native Tongva population knew about the natural oil seeps but didn't extract it for fuel extensively.

• Edward Doheny and Charles Canfield struck oil near today's Dodger Stadium in 1893, establishing LA's first oil field.

• By the early 1900s, forests of oil rigs dotted the LA landscape as over 200 companies competed to extract oil.

• The unregulated oil boom led to fires, toxic fumes, and environmental damage.

• Emma Summers, a music teacher turned "Oil Queen of California," was a successful businesswoman in the early oil industry.

• Overproduction led to a pressure drop in the oil field and a price collapse by 1903.

Henry Huntington and Real Estate

• Henry Huntington inherited $15 million from his uncle Collis Huntington but was voted out of leadership by the board at the Central Pacific Railroad.

• With his inheritance, Huntington invested in and expanded LA's electric trolley system to compete with the steam railroads, aiming to spur suburban development.

• Huntington's Pacific Electric Railway, nicknamed "The Big Red Cars," became the world's largest interurban electric railway system at the time.

• Huntington developed suburbs along the lines of the Pacific Electric Railway, fueling the growth of LA.

• Huntington also purchased the scenic Mount Lowe Incline Railway into the San Gabriel Mountains expanding his rail network to include tourist destinations.

• Huntington partnered with the LA Times creating a midwest media campaign to promote LA to newcomers, doubling the city's population by 1920.

• Huntington sold the struggling Pacific Electric to Southern Pacific in 1911.

• Huntington's railway network heavily influenced the sprawl of LA, and his tracks are followed by today's light rail lines to some extent.