Tunnel Area wells - West of Sierra Highway - South part

This aerial photo was taken between July 18, 1930, and August 25, 1930. The resolution is good enough to see the shadows of four out of five derricks for for the following described oil wells. Needham 3 is in the shadows. Needham 4 was plugged and abandoned in 1943. The Needham 1 here is 037-12979. The other Needham 1 (037-12837) is not in this image. It is above York 1 (to the north). All this land, and much more, was purchased by Gate King Properties, Inc., in 1977. In 2020, it was deeded to the City of Santa Clarita, who assumed responsibility for these oil wells. In late 2025, the city awarded a contract the plugging and abandonment of the wells. That work was done between January and March of 2026. I show many photos of the abandonment process for each of the wells. I could only get close-up shots on the weekend when nobody was working. That area is open space, so you can hike up there if you want. There is a trail that starts near York 1 on the north and heads up the south face of the hill.

The Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) performed an environmental inspection of these wells on October 12, 2017, and found many violations. A Notice of Violation was subsequently sent to Mark Gates of Gate King Properties LLC on October 23, 2017. By December 12, 2017, all the violations were satisfactorily rectified. Needham 1 (037-12837) was not inspected because it could not be found by DOGGR until May of 2018.