Offshore drilling for oil began off

Offshore drilling for oil began off the coast of Summerfield, California, just south of Santa Barbara, in 1896. Closely resembling boardwalks in appearance, rows of narrow wooden piers extended up to 1,350 feet from the shoreline, their piles reaching 35 feet to the floor of the Pacific. Using the same techniques as then used on land, steel pipes were pounded 455 feet below the seabed. The hunt for oil ultimately produced only a modest yield. The field’s production peaked in 1902, and the wells were abandoned several years later. The project left behind a beach blackened by oil and marred by rotting piers and derricks, the latter