{"id":433919,"date":"2026-08-15T16:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T16:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/433919\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T16:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T16:58:20","slug":"only-45-minutes-from-l-a-this-19th-century-ghost-town-hides-the-ruins-of-the-longest-continually-operating-oil-well-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/433919\/","title":{"rendered":"Only 45 minutes from L.A.: This 19th-century ghost town hides the ruins of the longest continually operating oil well in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CA-Mentryville-featured-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\" alt=\"Red schoolhouse in Mentryville ghost town\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Did you know that there\u2019s a remarkably preserved, 19th-century oil boomtown right here in L.A. County? <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mentryville is tucked into Pico Canyon near Stevenson Ranch\/Newhall in northwest Los Angeles County. In the late 1800s, it grew around Pico No. 4, which was one of the most significant oil wells in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The well eventually closed in 1990, but Mentryville has been preserved as a small historic park where visitors can walk among surviving <a href=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/ghost-towns-los-angeles\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/ghost-towns-los-angeles\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_0\" data-category=\"click_internal\">19th-century buildings<\/a> and canyon trails.<\/p>\n<p>From oil field to ghost town<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Mentryville-2.jpg\" alt=\"Mentryville abandoned mansion\" class=\"wp-image-148070\"  \/>Los Angeles, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">French-born oil driller, Charles Alexander Mentry, launched Pico No. 4 in 1876. A small town began forming around it in the 1880s, and the subsequent oil operation helped shape the company that later became Chevron.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the oil business changed, the town declined, and most residents left by the early 1930s. But Pico No. 4 kept producing until 1990, an impressive 114-year run. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/mrca.ca.gov\/parks\/park-listing\/mentryville\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/mrca.ca.gov\/parks\/park-listing\/mentryville\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_1\" data-category=\"click_non_sales\">Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA)<\/a>, it was the world\u2019s longest continually operating oil well. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These days, a handful of structures are still standing, including Mentry\u2019s grand 13-room mansion, a one-room schoolhouse, and a barn. The town of Mentryville and Pico No. 4, which is tucked in Pico Canyon, are both registered as California State Historical Landmarks. <\/p>\n<p>Visiting Mentryville<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udccd Location: 27201 Pico Canyon Road, Newhall, CA \u2014 at the end of Pico Canyon Road, a few miles west of I-5.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83e\udd7e What to do: Stroll the compact historic townsite, see the exterior of its surviving buildings, and use the surrounding Pico Canyon trails for hiking, running, or horseback riding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Parking: There is a $5 fee to use the parking lot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you know that there\u2019s a remarkably preserved, 19th-century oil boomtown right here in L.A. County? Mentryville is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-433919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433919","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=433919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}