| Coalinga Centennial Celebration |
History does not record when the first people made their way to Coalinga. The Tache Indians found a permanent water supply at a place called Posa Chanet. From this encampment, they scoured the hills for trade goods. They discovered oil seeps and thick tar. The material was used as trade goods with coastal tribes. “Chaki” was used to waterproof baskets, applied to faces of women in mourning and even chewed by kids as a sort of gum. Eventually, the Indians were displaced by the Spaniards to nearby missions for the purpose of salvation. The Spaniards and Basques wanted the land for its cattle and sheep grazing potential.
Time passed. Southerners displaced by the civil war in the 1860’s came west looking for opportunity, as did second sons of wealthy Englishmen. A story was told of sheep herders who burned rocks at night to keep warm. It could only mean one thing, coal! Messer’s Robins and Rollins, English second sons, established a coal mine in a slash of hillside where the Coalinga Rifle Range now exists. From the first, the mine wasn’t profitable. The coal was actually an oil soaked rock called shale, producing two scoops of ash for every one burned. However, the promise of coal from the mine and more in nearby Priest Valley induced the Southern Pacific RR to extend its frost free southern route. It crossed Huron and stretched slightly beyond the Coalinga area to a place called Alcalde, the Spanish word for judge or elder. Huron at this time in the late 1800’s became the nations third largest wool shearing and shipping depot. Huron was named by the railroad as a tribute to the Indians of the same name, and was considered to be an exotic name at the time.
In order to finance the railroad and build commerce, government land was sectioned and made available for purchase. Settlements were created about every eight to 10 miles along the tracks. The settlements of Turk and Stanley since have disappeared, but the place called “Coaling” did not. As the world slowly found uses for the strange and ill smelling stuff, more and more people came to the area to make a living. The Melville Curtiss Homestead was bought in 1891 for the sum of $900 and a township was laid out as a square cut diagonally by the railroad tracks. Street numbers from one to eight went north to south, and letters A to H from west to east. The Coalinga Women’s Improvement Society later changed the alphabetical names to botanical ones. There is debate about the name Coalinga itself. One claim is that succession of three coaling stations or perhaps hoppers were situated along the rail line. They were Coaling Stations called A B and C. Coaling Station A persisted. This story does not stand close scrutiny A more likely explanation is that Coaling, was given the final “a” for musical effect, changing maps to Coalinga. Briefly, the area was also known as Coaling”o” . The truth may never be known, since the records were destroyed in the great quake and fire in San Francisco in 1906, destroying the SP Railroads office.
A succession of historically important wells were developed in the early days starting from the discovery well called “Blue Goose in 1897. It came in at a depth of 1400 feet and flowed between 500 and 1,000 barrels a day. Frank Cleary drilled Confidence #2. He discovered the West Side Pool, and boomers came by the thousands. An entrepreneur named A.P. May wished to build a brick business building, but needed fire insurance to do so. That meant having a FireDepartment, and a Fire Department meant having a city. Coalinga was incorporated on April 6th, 1906. When Silvertip went over the top in 1909, the stock market in LA was closed for the day and a special excursion train traveled to Coalinga so that potential investors could marvel at the sight. If visitors stayed out of the notorious whiskey row, they might return home better for the experience. Coalinga boomed! As it turned out, what was bad for the world was good for Coalinga. WWI was the first real mechanized war in history. Oil from Coalinga, and the Kettlemen Hills played an important role in winning it. In peace time, the overproduction of petroleum caused an economic depression here. And so it went historically. During the early years of production, several important developments happened in Coalinga. A six inch oil pipeline was laid from Coalinga all the way to Monterey for the purposes of providing tanker oil to be sold to overseas buyers. Baker Oil Tools and Republic Supply got their start here. It is said that the Shell Oil Logo is the Coalinga Pecten fossil. A&W Root Beer was formulated in downtown Coalinga. Coalinga oilfield workers fought for and won the industry’s first 8 hour workday. When the Second World War followed, Signal Hill in Long Beach was brought in. The supply was so great that the existing pipeline flow from Coalinga to the Los Angeles refineries was reversed and the excess Signal Hill oil was stored in a massive tank farm called Caliola about 10 miles east of Coalinga.
From the outset, it was said that whiskey was easier to get than water in Coalinga. The natural well water supplies had sickening amounts of dissolved minerals in it, making it suitable for only the most basic uses of washing and irrigating. Drinking water was delivered by rail from artesian wells in Armona. “A dime a bucket, and carry it yourself” was the cry. In time a municipal water service was provided for the central area of town, leading to Coalinga’s famous third faucet (hot, cold and drinking). Several innovative and experimental solutions were tried to increase the amount of drinking water for the city including a reverse osmosis process. The real turning point came in 1972 when the people of Coalinga, with the help of Congressman Bernie F. Sisk, completed the Coalinga peripheral canal, a side branch of the aqueduct that conducts water from Oroville to Los Angeles. That year, the annual carnival event was called the Water Festival. Since then the name has reverted back to Horned Toad Derby. The derby was inspired by Mark Twain’s short story of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. The event was started in the 1930’s to raise money for the local boy scouts. It evolved into a pari-mutuel betting opportunity at its peak, and now the horned toads race for the delight of spectators with cameras.
The second time the nation’s attention was focused on Coalinga was May 2nd 1983. A high angle reverse thrust fault produced a magnitude 6.7 quake. The epicenter was very near the aforementioned Caliola Tank Farm. In a state primed for “the big one”, the international media eye turned to Coalinga in a very big way. In less than a minute, the face of the city changed. Buildings constructed from bricks from the 1906 San Francisco quake, toppled. Houses slipped off their raised foundations, and chimneys fell. Miraculously, there was not a single outright fatality from the quake, marking it for all time as “the miracle of Coalinga”. A similar seismic event should not happen again for two hundred years if the geological evidence is believed.
Subsequent to the quake, there was a general feeling of uncertainty about the city and its future. Oil is a non renewable resource. Who would have expected a boom town to live ninety years (at that time) in the first place? The people of Coalinga knew better! In the oilfields, a process of steam injection promises to produce 2.3 billion more barrels of oil, perhaps as much as has already been mined. The State has established two correctional institutions in the area. The newest one, the Coalinga State Hospital promises to be a world wide example of the application of modern theories and practices in the understanding and treatment of the disordered offenders sent there. Coalingans have built a new airport, an industrial park, city hall and a hospital. Both the Unified School District and West Hills College have passed bond measures. The city is poised for residential and business growth. Coalinga, “the boom town that lived”, is a San Joaquin Valley jewel. It’s an interesting place to visit, a wonderful investment opportunity and a great place to call home.