Near this site in May 1867, the California Petroleum Company brought in Ojai No. 6 at a depth of 550 feet. W.W. Orcutt called it the first well drilled for oil in California that yielded extended commercial production. It was the first producing well drilled by mechanical power and the first to flow by its own energy, and it is regarded as the forerunner of the state's oil bonanza. The well was located by Thomas R. Bard of the California Petroleum Company, who came to California from Pennsylvania in 1865 at age 26 representing T.A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the company. Bard conceived of drilling away from existing oil springs on a projected oil structure and, with indomitable energy, was the principal figure in the first major effort to develop the state's petroleum resources. After the California Petroleum Company suspended operations, No. 6 played a part in the formative years of the Union Oil Company, of which Bard was the first President. Bard later became a United States Senator and holds a prominent place in California history.
