The West Side Oil Fields of CA

  First of all, I do not like to read a geographical review without at least one map indicating where a place is especially if the review is talking about one of America's black riches, oil. What was Bret Wallach thinking? Places like the San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains are easily known, but not all readers know of places in California such as Buena Vista Hills, Elk Hills, or the Midway and Sunset Flats. 

  One thing interesting about the review that caught my attention was how Wallach described how the oil fields operated. The detail he goes into about oil wells pumping steam and how they extract oil. "Hugging the ground, the pumping units steam peacefully, except for a few shut-in wells that stand quiet and the one or two wells that are furious geysers with steam screaming out of one-inch pipe and densing in fifty-foot plumes." Also, on how oil travels through the rock layers and is embedded and hardened. 

    Another part of the story that I would like to discuss in relation to the theme "region" is the development of the west side oil field. The Department of the Navy owned its first territory on the oil field as a reserve to drill for Etchegoin.  The rise of oil companies such as Chevron, Texaco, Mobil and Shell had their own parcel of land and territories.  Later, it seemed to become a competition between claimjumpers when more and more oil wells were built.