{"id":41160,"date":"2025-11-06T18:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T18:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/41160\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T18:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T18:50:09","slug":"this-slice-of-long-beachs-shoreline-hides-the-worlds-most-aesthetic-oil-rig-and-most-people-have-no-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/41160\/","title":{"rendered":"This Slice Of Long Beach\u2019s Shoreline Hides \u2018The World\u2019s Most Aesthetic Oil Rig\u2019 \u2014 And Most People Have No Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"THUMS
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Sergey Novikov
\nvia Shutterstock.<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

Every day, people stroll, jog, sail or simply soak up the sun along Ocean Boulevard, catching sight of what looks like a string of tropical getaways just off the coast filled with palm trees,<\/a> waterfalls, and resort vibes. But most don\u2019t know that these picture-perfect spots aren\u2019t open to visitors, and they hide a much different purpose\u2026<\/p>\n

The deal that changed Long Beach for good <\/p>\n

Back in the early-to-mid 20th century, the area around Long Beach was already being shaped by oil. The enormous Wilmington Oil Field, stretching under Long Beach and its harbor, had been producing since the 1930s, Long Beach\u2019s<\/a> official website explains. <\/p>\n

But drilling along the shoreline and close to local neighborhoods<\/a> posed major visual, environmental and subsidence problems, one of them the sinking ground. That is why by 1962, local voters approved the controlled exploitation of oil beneath the harbor (reversing an earlier ban) and gave permission for offshore production under strict design and mitigation conditions, as the American Oil and Gas Historical Society<\/a> states. <\/p>\n

Five major oil companies, Texaco, Humble, Union Oil, Mobil, and Shell, formed the THUMS consortium and set out to devise a plan that would allow drilling to continue without turning the scenic coastline<\/a> into an industrial wasteland.<\/p>\n

Palm trees, waterfalls, and\u2026 Crude oil <\/p>\n

The THUMS islands reach roughly 10-12 acres each, with outer rims made of around 640,000 tons of boulders hauled from nearby Catalina Island<\/a> and millions of cubic yards of sand dredged to fill the islands\u2019 interiors.<\/p>\n

But what makes this place unique is its one-of-a-kind example of \u201curban makeup.\u201d While many other oil rigs around the world (and even in L.A.) are hidden behind walls or fake fa\u00e7ades, there\u2019s nothing quite like the THUMS Islands. The famed designer Joseph Linesch gave the site a landscape makeover that included waterfalls,<\/a> palm trees, and even pastel towers visible from the shore.<\/p>\n

The islands are named after U.S. astronauts<\/a> who died in service, Grissom, White, Chaffee, and Freeman, and operations continue today under the Wilmington Field Unit. Though production has declined from its peak, the sites are still active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Sergey Novikov via Shutterstock. Save Every day, people stroll, jog, sail or simply soak up the sun…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-41160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}