The oak and steel drilling rig was manufactured by the Star Drilling Machine Company of Akron, Ohio, and was used to drill for water on the Temple Ranch between Fillmore and Santa Paula. This self-propelled model traveled at around one and a half miles per hour and was powered by a single-piston engine commonly called a hit and miss engine. The Star Drilling Machine Company began manufacturing portable drilling rigs in the 1890s mainly for the oil industry, but the machines were also well suited to drilling for water. These rigs became widely popular, and the company at one time claimed that ninety-five percent of all oil wells in the world drilled by portable machines were drilled by Star Drilling Machines. Star continued to manufacture portable drilling rigs until just after WWII, when it ceased manufacturing.