I'm not sure who decided that Santa Cruz might be a good place to drill for oil. This rig seems to date to the 1930's. It's on the trail from Scorpion to El Montanon Ridge and on toward the south side of the island. When the weather is clear the view from up here is great; this time it was completely socked in. This rig seems really small compared with the offshore oil platforms, all of which lie on the mainland side of the channel. A lot of the oil there lies dangerously near the surface, though, and the original wells, on piers, may have been drilled with similarly small equipment. Now oil exploration and extraction aren't allowed within the Channel Islands National Park or Marine Sanctuary.
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