Pico Canyon, Santa Clarita, California
Website created and maintained by Stan Walker
Looking northeast down Pico Canyon from above CSO (or Pico) #4 oil well. The lower road makes a sharp hairpin curve to the right (east) and continues on higher up the hill.
Topographic map of Pico Canyon showing the locations for the following web pages. The blue and red circles were oil wells. There were almost 80 oil wells drilled in Pico Canyon starting in 1876 so the map is quite crowded with dots.
Don Andres Pico |
Pico Canyon was named for General Andres Pico (1810-1866), the man who led the Mexican forces in the Mexican-American War of 1846 and the brother of Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California. At the end of this war in 1848, California officially became a territory of the United States. In 1865, Pico evidently filed the first placer oil claim, called the Canada Pico, in the canyon. A short biography can be found here.
We will start our tour of Pico Canyon at Mentryville and then stop at Johnson Park. After that we will hike to the CSO 4 area. CSO 4 is located at the solid red dot. The other red dots are for CSO 1, 2, 3, and 5, all of which were located almost at the level of the creek bed. After that we will climb up CSO Hill to the west of the road. Then we will climp up PCO Hill which is east and south of the road. Finally, we will hike out to the Odeen #1 well site, where the road ends. The distance from Mentryville to Odeen #1 is about 3.5 miles (not including the trips up the two hills) with an increase of elevation of about 790 feet.
As a side trip trip, we will take a short look at areas that aren't part of these five areas. However, before you start you should take a look at the geology of the canyon which is dominated by the Pico Anticline.
You can then read some of former resident Bill Rundberg's new memories of the canyon (with photos) and the two part Pico Camp story by Arthur B. Perkins from the Newhall Signal of 1962.
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Copyright © 2008 Stan Walker. All rights reserved.
All photographs, unless otherwise noted, are owned by Stan Walker