Huntington Beach Photos: Ellis Street Oil Derrick in Central Park

Huntington Beach--Up on the Ellis Street at Edwards Hill where the Urban Forest trees grow, sits an oil pumpjack which works day and night, pulling precious oil out of the ground in Huntington Beach, Calif. Seen in the distance is a mountain formation called Saddleback, named for its shape. Edwards Hill was once filled with pumpjacks and oil derricks. Today, the hill has luxury homes and estates, some overlooking the Pacific Ocean in a residential community called The Bluffs.

Several tributes to oil in this part of the city can be found at Peninsula Marketplace and Discovery Well Park nearby. 

Pumpjacks are above ground drive units to mechanically lift liquid out of the well if there is not enough bottom hole pressure for the liquid to flow all the way to the surface. In Huntington Beach you will see numerous pumpjacks around the oil fields, on Edwards Hill, and in neighborhoods in downtown Huntington Beach.  Pumpjacks are often used for onshore wells producing relatively little oil. Producing anywhere from 1 to 10 gallons of a crude oil at each stroke.

The size of the pump is also determined by the depth and weight of the oil to be removed, with deeper extraction requiring more power to move the heavier lengths of sucker rods.

Pumpjacks contain a set of pulleys, a transmission, a pair of cranks with counterweights and a curved metal box called a Horse Head or Donkeys Head because of the way it looks. The entire structure and its operations are more complex than you would imagine, but the design cleverly accomplishes its task.