A pool of bubbling white oil is a very rare geologic feature of translucent petroleum filtered by nature. This resource originates deep within the earth in the Placerita Schist basement complex of rocks, and geologists have theorized that the oil traveled along the San Gabriel Fault Zone, where it was filtered through various layers of sediments to reach its highly refined state. The oil was said to burn longer and brighter than kerosene, and early local residents could pour it directly into their Ford Model T and Model A cars for fuel. The Southern California oil industry began in the Newhall area in the late nineteenth century. In 1898 James Evans filed a patent on a mining claim that gave him title to the Placerita Canyon property, then leased the land to the New Century Oil Co. to drill for oil. In 1900 the well began gushing white oil rather than the expected black gold. In 1901 the company entered a sample of crude oil into the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, then the eighth largest city in the United States. The wells did not perform as expected, and in 1902 New Century Oil went bankrupt while drilling additional wells. The company's stock fell from $1.00 per share to $0.02 per share, and by court order all of its oil equipment assets were seized and auctioned off by the Sheriff. In the following years, Frank Walker, grandson of James Evans, inherited the Placerita Canyon property and used it as his primary residence with his wife Hortense Reynier and their twelve children. Walker invented a contraption that separated the water, white oil, and natural gas from the abandoned well, allowing the family to capture the oil in a storage drum and route the natural gas directly to their cabin's kitchen stove and lantern.
