This photo gallery of Huntington Beach from the 1920’s shows just how many derricks there used to be on and near the beach. I had no idea how many had been taken down over the years, but I suspect the huge and oily wooden beams we used in front of our HB house as planter sidings 30 years ago came from that infrastructure.
I also found another related image through Google that I can’t find the source for:
Wow. I had no idea.
I’ve heard it said that Huntington Beach used to be called “tin can beach” back in the day, maybe from tin can picnickers?
very good