The Pioneer Oil Refinery
Photo taken on April 4, 2016
The Pioneer Oil Refinery
The history of the Newhall Oil District would not be complete without including the Pioneer Oil Refinery. The Pioneer Oil Refinery is the oldest surviving oil refinery in the world and one of the first commercially successful refineries in California. It was built in 1877 (not 1876 as many sources say).
The refinery is located less than a mile off of, and east of, Pine Street (south of Newhall Avenue) in Newhall on a dirt road. It is totally surrounded by a fence. You cannot enter the site and you can't even walk completely around the fence. After the refinery closed, a pump house was built on the property by Standard Oil to provide water to Pico Canyon. The Pioneer Pump House is covered on a separate web page.
In May of 1989, the refinery was vandalized by gang members. At that time, Chevron considered moving the refinery elsewhere. In a June meeting between Chevron and the city, Chevron suggested that the refinery and land around it be donated to the City of Santa Clarita. The city apparently liked the idea, but the donation process went into limbo. It wasn't until 1998 that the city council finally accepted Chevron's donation of the refinery and 4.5 acres of land.
The proposed Center at Needham Ranch (formerly the Gate-King Industrial Park) project will have a major impact on the refinery. The north corner of the project surrounds the refinery (see map at the bottom of this page). The final Environmental Impact Report was published in June of 2003, but no construction has started due to legal issues. The developer has agreed to contribute cash for the preservation of the Pioneer Oil refinery. The EIR for the project states that (in Table ES-1):
CR-2(a) As provided in the Development Agreement, the applicant shall make a payment to the City which the City, at its discretion, may apply towards the construction of a new fence that will be effective in preventing unauthorized individuals from entering the Pioneer Oil Refinery site.
CR-2(b) Construction contractors shall take precautions to either avoid using heavy equipment in the vicinity of the acid tank on the Refinery property or stablilize the acid tank to prevent its collapse and potential destruction.
CR-2(c) The drainage system for the areas surrounding the Refinery shall be designed to prevent any further deposition of materials onto the Refinery site.
From the Newhall Signal webpage of 8/27/2010 comes this article "City hopes to renovate Newhall oil refinery" More recent is this article titled "Oil-refinery tour reveals potential for the property". The $40,000 comes from the developer fees.
On July 12, 2011 the City Council approved a park and restoration project that could cost up to $1 million dollars (see below for the plans). The money is supposed to come from the developer.
As of January of 2021, work is finally beginning on the eventual restoration of the refinery and building of the new refinery park. For now, the refinery will be stabalized. The pump house has been carefully taken down. The pump house engine and pump have been stored in a container nearby (see the Pioneer Pump House web page). The refinery tanks have been moved to a nearby location (see here for photos of that process). At some point in the future the city will begin construction of the refinery park. During the final stages of that process, the tanks will be brought back, the pump house rebuilt in new locations, and the fallen refinery chimneys will be rebuilt.
Hopefully, when the new park is finally built the city can get Chevron to return the two missing stills. We now know that Chevron still has them. They were removed in 1961 for a now-defunct museum. Maybe Chevron would even help out with the moving and reconstruction costs.
***In 1961, Still #1, Still #2, and the boiler from the Pioneer Refinery were removed by Standard Oil for their new oil museum in Richmond, California. Over the years, the museum was closed and the stills just disappeared. We didn't know if they still existed somewhere or if they were scrapped. In 2016, Chevron notified Leon Warden of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society that they were still at the long-closed museum site in Richmond, California. See here for that story with photos.***
Map of the Center at Needham Ranch (formerly the Gate-King Industrial Park). The gray "PR" marks the Pioneer Oil Refinery property in the north section of the project.
California State Historical Landmark markers for the Pioneer Oil Refinery and the Oak of the Golden Dream on Lyons Avenue just east of the 5 freeway in front of Burger King
California State Historical Landmark #172 - Pioneer Oil Refinery. The marker says that it is the first commercial oil refinery but that statement is probably incorrect. George Gilbert built a small refinery near Ventura in 1860. He produced about 300 - 400 gallons of refined oil for 3 - 4 years with three stills. He shipped it all to San Francisco. But a fire destroyed the refinery and it was never rebuilt. Gilbert changed occupations. The Buena Vista Refinery near the modern city of McKittrick in the San Joaquin Valley, California, shipped about 4000 gallons of illuminating oil to San Francisco between 1864 and 1867, before the Pioneer Oil Refinery in Newhall was built. However, it is hard to tell if it was actually commercially successful because it only operated for three years before going out of business due to high transportation costs. It has a California Historical Landmark (No. 504), dedicated in 1954. See here for more information on that refinery.
Photo of finished N scale (about 1/6" = 1 foot) model kit of the Pioneer Oil Refinery that was designed and engineered by Tom Knapp. A link to the kit is here.
Model of the refinery site in the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society at the old train station in Newhall. It was built by Michelle Watson and her father Walter as a school project in 1997. (My photos taken in 2010.)
Closer view of the stills. The model is covered by a glass or plastic cover, so it was hard to get a good picture. But you can always go down to the train station and see it for yourself. There is a slight error in the labeling. Stills 1 and 2 are actually part of the same brick base and there was a steam boiler next to them. The model incorrectly labels the boiler as still # 1, but does have the two stills in the same base, so the model is right, but the label is wrong.
There is also a watercolor painting by local artist Jeanne Anderson above the model. On November 26, 1982, this painting was donated by the Newhall Woman's Club to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. There is a label on top that says "California's First Oil Refinery, 1876 in Newhall, Presented by, Newhall Women's Club, C.F.W.C.". However, this was not California's first refinery and it was built in 1877.