THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Kern County Museum, Bakersfield California, Oil and Old

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

March 27, 2013

The Kern County Museum in Bakersfield California has a outstanding collection of oil well artifacts.  I'll be honest with you, I have very little idea what all these things are, but, they are large, interesting, Man was enthralled with much of it, and I found them photogenic.  Old, big, rusty, (or not).  I found I don't have to know what they all do to find them photogenic.

This first photo shows how large this stuff really is, look at that lady, she looks pretty small, eh?  These artifacts are part of the exhibit, Black Gold: The Oil Experience.

Sorry, no clue, as to what this is.

Oil derrick (replica):

Pumping arms:

Again, no idea, but this thing was wood and it was HUGE!  Looks similar to photo # 2 above.

This was in a large covered building, belt driven pullys of some sort, I used the panoramic it was so large!

Signs, fascinating, all those names:

Tucked in corner of the museum grounds I discovered a little "city" of businesses, delightful!

OK, now, wouldn't you be thrilled to know that your local museum had managed to save and display signs from around town?  I know I would be!

This is the Sonora Service Station, built in 1936, when gas was about 15 cents per gallon.  It was restored in 1993 by the Model A Ford Club.  They did a marvelous job of it, don't you think?

Man tells me this glass container would be filled with bulk (engine) oil from a large container.  This glass container was then used to put oil in your vehicle.

The Kern County Museum was a special place, a surprise to us, we spent a most enjoyable afternoon there. In a few more days we will finish up the legal issues and the taxes and we will move on down the road in search of the left coast and we SHALL find it!  Come along and fall in love with the left coast with me.  OHH MYYY!



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Looking for Oil, WHERE???

Got a letter in the snail mail a bit ago, announcing that they would be doing seismic testing on our road. Say what??? So, Moi gets on the phone and gives this company a little jingle. I am informed they are looking for oil or gas and this is the preliminary test for same. Interesting.

Today when Man returned from a short visit with his mom, he tells me to go have a little lookie see out by the road, here is part of what I saw, lines stretched from lot line to lot line, over 350ish feet, and on down the road for who knows how far. Man, they must have a lot of plugs and cords, eh??

A few hours later, here come the trucks (there were 3 of these):

Here is a close up shot of that seismic thingy:

That big square thing protruding from the bottom of the truck does some fancy dancy vibration stuff which they they monitor and record something or other from. If they get "favorable" readings, they come back with more sensitive equipment.

Man tells me he could feel the vibrations when he walked out in the road to talk to one of the dudes holding the "Stop/Slow" signs.

Our burning question is, but of course, WHAT HAPPENS IF THEY REALLY FIND OIL OR GAS?? Do they just come on our property and plop down an oil well??

And, who has enough $$ to fund such a search?? There were 3 trucks and drivers and at least two traffic controller types, and this was a SUNDAY??? Do they get overtime??

No, I don't think we own the mineral rights on our 4.9 acres. Another interesting day living in the country.

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