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44-406: Compared to many of the other California oil fields, Coalinga is large and spread out, but contains a few areas of concentrated development around the richer pools. The field has a rough semicircular shape open to the southeast, approximately twelve miles long by six across, with the town of Coalinga at the southwestern limit of the semicircle, and the agricultural Pleasant Valley inside. The oil field

88-606: A 500+ mile trail encircling the San Francisco Bay along the ridge tops, open to hikers, equestrians, mountain bicyclists, and outdoor enthusiasts of all types. So far, over 300 miles (480 km) of trail have been dedicated for use. East Bay Regional Park District 's Iron Horse Regional Trail will join the Bay Trail along the waterfront, and the Contra Costa Canal Trail threads through the city from Pleasant Hill to

132-477: A continuous 400-mile (640 km) network of bicycling and hiking trails. It will connect the shoreline of all nine Bay Area counties, link 47 cities, and cross the major toll bridges in the region, including the Benicia–Martinez Bridge . To date, approximately 240 miles (390 km) of the alignment—over half the Bay Trail's ultimate length—have been completed. The Bay Area Ridge Trail ultimately will be

176-795: A full print edition when the local shelter-in-place restrictions are lifted. The newspaper continued to operate its online news website presence during the pandemic restrictions. WestCAT provides service to the El Cerrito del Norte BART station . The County Connection is the primary local bus operator providing service throughout the area. Among its destinations are the Concord , Pleasant Hill , and Walnut Creek BART stations. The County Connection also provides paratransit service. Tri Delta Transit runs express service between Martinez and eastern Contra Costa County. State Route 4 runs through Martinez westward to Hercules and eastward through Stockton and

220-621: A local news website covering community news and events, and the local news and talk blog Claycord.com. In December 2019, there was a flurry of reports from reliable sources including the Associated Press and the San Francisco Chronicle that the 161 year-old Martinez News-Gazette, one of the longest-running newspapers in California, may have to cease publication. But as of late May 2020, the threatened cessation did not materialize and

264-415: A male householder with no wife present. There were 928 (6.5 percent) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 137 (1.0 percent) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,920 households (27.4 percent) were made up of individuals, and 1,078 (7.5 percent) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42. There were 9,173 families (64.2 percent of all households);

308-633: A part of the Ohlone (Costanoan) Indian group. In 1824, the western side of Martinez, Alhambra Valley was included in the Rancho El Pinole Mexican land grant to Ygnacio Martínez . East of these lands was the Rancho Las Juntas , a grant made to Irish born William Welch in 1844; his land lay between the lands of Martinez and Pacheco. In 1847, Dr. Robert Semple contracted to provide ferry service from Martinez to Benicia , which for many years

352-544: A real pipeline, while simultaneously seeming to work on a "dummy" pipeline in a more prominent location. During this time, the independent operators also accused the Southern Pacific Railroad of working in conjunction with Standard to put them out of business. The operators of the Coalinga field attained peak production in 1912 – 19,500,000 barrels (3,100,000 m) of oil – a value which was to decline steadily for

396-567: A year later by the colossal Lakeview Gusher , by which California's largest oil field, the Midway-Sunset in Kern County, was first known. In the early years of the field, competition was fierce between different oil companies, with a particularly sharp conflict between a group of independent oil producers and Standard Oil , which operated as a gigantic trust until its breakup by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1911. According to an article published in

440-524: Is a densely built downtown valley threaded by Alhambra Creek and north of Highway 4. Suburban areas stretch south of Highway 4 to join the neighboring city of Pleasant Hill . Unincorporated areas include the rural Alhambra Valley and the Franklin Canyon area. The Martinez Regional Shoreline bounds the city to the north along the Carquinez Strait. Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline includes

484-695: Is a mature field, and closer to exhaustion than most of the other major fields in California. Its remaining reserves, at around 58,000,000 barrels (9,200,000 m), are less than 6 percent of its total original capacity; over 912 million barrels (145,000,000 m) of oil have been pumped from the field since the late 19th century. In the San Joaquin Valley, only the Buena Vista Oil Field and Kettleman North Dome Oil Field are closer to exhaustion, with about one percent and one-half of one percent of their original oil remaining, respectively. Oil from

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528-539: Is a private Catholic school that serves grades K-8. Alhambra High School serves as the district's comprehensive high school. As of 2006, the district's K-12 enrollment was 4,194. Part of Martinez is served by the Mount Diablo Unified School District , whose Hidden Valley Elementary School is located in Martinez. St. Catherine of Siena School , a private Roman Catholic elementary school, also serves

572-633: Is mainly on the high ground around the valley, with the western part of the semicircle at the base of the Alcalde Hills , and the eastern part on the long and low Anticline Ridge , which separates Pleasant Valley and Coalinga from Interstate 5 and the main part of the San Joaquin Valley . The anticline in Anticline ridge continues to the southeast as the Guijarral Hills Oil Field and

616-558: Is still operational today (Currently owned by PBF Energy), maintaining the city's position as a significant petroleum processing center. The Golden Eagle Refinery (currently owned by Marathon Petroleum Company) was idled in April 2020 as a response to lower petroleum demand during the COVID-19 pandemic . Folk etymology in Martinez claims the invention of the Martini cocktail and that it is named for

660-517: Is the northernmost of a series of oil fields along anticlines extending along the western margin of the San Joaquin Valley, anticlines which parallel the San Andreas fault and have their origin in compression from associated tectonic processes. Other anticlinal oil fields in the same series include the Lost Hills , South Belridge , Kettleman Hills , and Cymric fields. The southernmost, and largest in

704-403: Is trapped beneath an impermeable layer, and stratigraphic traps , where oil is trapped within a rock unit due to changes within the rock itself. Drillers have found a total of four oil pools in the Coalinga field. The first to be discovered was the "Oil City" pool of Cretaceous age, discovered in 1887 or 1888; however, it had little yield. On the east side of the field, along Anticline Ridge,

748-573: The Kettleman North Dome Oil Field . California State routes 33 and 198 , which join together for the stretch through and north of Coalinga, cut across the Coalinga field and cross Anticline Ridge; along the route a passing traveler has a good view of oil field operations. As the climate in the region is semiarid to arid, most of the native vegetation is grassland and low scrub. Areas of particularly dense oil development are almost entirely denuded of vegetation. The Coalinga Oil Field

792-528: The San Joaquin Valley to the east. California State routes 33 and 198 , which join together for the stretch through and north of Coalinga, cut across the Coalinga field and cross Anticline Ridge. Anticline Ridge is the surface expression of an anticlinal structure which continues to the south as the Guijarral Hills and Kettleman Hills , and is the location of a major part of the huge Coalinga Oil Field . The anticline in Anticline ridge continues to

836-665: The Sierra range. From surrounding ridge tops views stretch to nearby Mount Diablo , Mount Saint Helena , Mount Tamalpais , and others. Martinez is one of the only two places in the Bay Area, the other being Golden Gate Bridge , where the Bay Area Ridge Trail and the San Francisco Bay Trail converge. The Bay Trail is a planned recreational corridor that, when complete, will encircle San Francisco and San Pablo bays with

880-709: The Southern Pacific had extended its rail line into the town of Coalinga. Around the "Oil City" area of the Coalinga Field, directly north of the modern-day town of Coalinga, several large gushers attracted attention, gushers still being a relatively new occurrence in the oil industry. The "Blue Goose" well, drilled by the Home Oil Company to a depth 1,400 feet (430 m), erupted in 1898, spewing over 1,000 barrels per day (160 m/d). The huge and productive Temblor oil pools were discovered around 1900, and by 1910

924-515: The 20th century: in 2006, the field's operators reported 5,700,000 barrels (910,000 m) of oil pumped. [REDACTED] Media related to Coalinga Oil Field at Wikimedia Commons 36°12′41″N 120°21′28″W  /  36.2115°N 120.3578°W  / 36.2115; -120.3578 Anticline Ridge The Anticline Ridge is a ridge, southeast of Joaquin Ridge , declining from its 3,629 foot / 1,106 meter high point, Black Mountain in

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968-637: The Etchegoin-Temblor pool on the westside is heavy crude, with a specific gravity of 11-18 API , and a relatively low sulfur content of 0.75%; oil from the Temblor pools on the Eastside is more variable, ranging from heavy to medium crude, having an API index of 12 to 30. Aera Energy, LLC sends its oil from the Coalinga field to its refinery in Martinez for processing. Oil was known in the Coalinga area long before

1012-599: The Franklin Hills west of downtown, stretching west to the unincorporated community of Port Costa and the town of Crockett . Briones Regional Park borders the Alhambra Valley to the south. Waterbird Regional Preserve and the McNabney Marsh border the city and Highway 680 to the east. Martinez's location at the east end of the Carquinez Strait as it widens to Suisun Bay includes dramatic water views stretching to

1056-727: The Martinez area was built in 1904 at Bull's Head Point, a then-unincorporated waterfront area two miles east of the downtown district. That area soon became known as Mococo, following the 1905 arrival of a smelting works, operated by the Mountain Copper Company (Mo Co Co). That first facility, operated by the Bull's Head Oil Company, was followed in 1908 by a test refinery built by the Pacific Coast Oil Company. Shortly thereafter, Pacific Coast became part of Standard Oil (now Chevron), and consolidated their oil refining operations in

1100-734: The Martinez community. The Martinez Library is part of the Contra Costa County Library and is located in Martinez. The Art Deco style building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in early 2008. Martinez and the surrounding area is served by several local newspapers, including the Martinez News-Gazette, the Martinez Tribune and the East Bay Times . Martinez is also served by Martinez Patch,

1144-471: The New York Times in 1905, Standard attempted to force its competitors out of business by artificially holding down the price of oil to as little as ten cents a barrel. The Coalinga independents responded by building a pipeline to San Francisco Bay, the construction of which was itself obstructed by continuous harassment from Standard, until the independents were finally successful by ruse: secretly building

1188-777: The Point Richmond, Hercules, Rodeo waterfront corridor some 12 miles (19 km) to the west of Martinez. In 1913, the Golden Eagle facility became the third oil refinery to be built in the area. It was located in the newly created company town of Avon, immediately to the East of Martinez. A fourth refinery, built by the Shell Oil Company on land adjacent to the Martinez City limits, went online in January 1916. The Shell Oil refining facility

1232-468: The arrival of Europeans, as the Native Americans in the region used the tarry substance from natural seeps as lining for baskets, as well as for trade. The first attempt to drill for oil was in 1867, but success was limited both due to the difficulty of transporting oil at the time, and the relative disinterest in petroleum prior to the era of motorized transport. In 1890 the first oil boom began, once

1276-723: The average family size was 2.95. The age distribution of the population showed 7,329 people (20.5 percent) under the age of 18, 2,842 people (7.9 percent) aged 18 to 24, 9,193 people (25.7 percent) aged 25 to 44, 12,121 people (33.8 percent) aged 45 to 64, and 4,339 people (12.1 percent) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.8 males. There were 14,976 housing units at an average density of 1,140.2 per square mile (440.2/km ), of which 14,287 were occupied, of which 9,619 (67.3 percent) were owner-occupied, and 4,668 (32.7 percent) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate

1320-590: The city is within a USDA hardiness zone of 9b. The 2020 United States Census reported that Martinez had a population of 38,290. The population density was 2,727.4 inhabitants per square mile (1,053.1/km ). The racial makeup of Martinez was 27,603 (77.1%) White , 1,303 (3.6%) African American , 255 (0.7%) Native American , 2,876 (8.0%) Asian , 121 (0.3%) Pacific Islander , 1,425 (4.0%) from other races , and 2,241 (6.3%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5,258 persons (14.7 percent). The Census reported that 34,528 people (96.4 percent of

1364-531: The city. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 13.1 square miles (34 km ), of which 1.0 square mile (2.6 km ) (7.64 percent) is covered by water. The city is largely surrounded by water and regional open-space preserves. The Martinez–Benicia Bridge carries Highway 680 across the eastern end of the Carquinez Strait to Solano County . The city

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1408-560: The field was the most richly productive oil field in California, exceeding those in the Los Angeles Basin for the first time. A dramatic oil gusher erupted in Sept. 1909 at the "Silver Tip" well, producing 20,000 barrels a day, the biggest gusher in California until then. This was an event of such excitement that Los Angeles Stock Exchange closed down for a day so that its members could come by train to view it. This gusher would be dwarfed

1452-617: The huge Temblor pool of Miocene age, at depths of 700 to 4,600 feet (1,400 m), produced an enormous amount of oil in the early 20th century, and is now mostly exhausted. The other large pool is the Etchegoin -Temblor on the west side, of Pliocene -Miocene age, and at depths of 500 to 3,500 feet (1,100 m); this area is currently active and subject to enhanced recovery methods such as steam flooding, fire flooding, and water flooding, methods developed in recent decades in order to extract previously submarginal deposits. The Coalinga Oil Field

1496-524: The newspaper appears to have weathered that storm. The newspaper did cease publication of a print edition effective April 2, 2020, but this was characterized as a temporary measure arising from a lack of advertising revenue. This in turn arose as many local businesses were forced to suspended operations or even ceased to exist, when the area was under shelter in place regulations arising from the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The newspaper plans to resume

1540-399: The next several decades. During the 1960s and 1970s, enhanced recovery technologies such as water flooding, steam flooding, fire flooding, and polymer flooding were employed to increase the declining productivity of the field, and to reach and recover previously submarginal deposits. Even with such methods, the current oil output of the field has declined considerably from the early part of

1584-496: The north at 36°18′16″N 120°24′12″W  /  36.30444°N 120.40333°W  / 36.30444; -120.40333 , to the southeast into low hills bound on the southeast by Los Gatos Creek that divides it from the Guijarral Hills . It is located in the inner California Coast Ranges , in Fresno County , California , east of the town of Coalinga . Anticline Ridge and Guijarral Hills divides Pleasant Valley from

1628-429: The population) lived in households, 235 (0.7 percent) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 1,061 (3.0 percent) were institutionalized. There were 14,287 households, out of which 4,273 (29.9 percent) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 6,782 (47.5 percent) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,751 (12.3 percent) had a female householder with no husband present, 640 (4.5 percent) had

1672-590: The series, is the Midway-Sunset Field in the southwestern corner of the valley. The eastern part of the Coalinga field is a southeast-plunging anticline. Most of the oil in the Coalinga field comes from a large-scale geologic formation known as the Kregenhagan-Temblor petroleum system, a body of Eocene -age shales rich in organic sediments. Oil in the field is found in both structural traps such as anticlinal folds, in which oil migrates upwards and

1716-675: The south. Martinez has a mild Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa/b ). Summers are warm and dry, with some morning fog during sea breezes. The maritime influence is much less significant than in other parts of the Bay Area that are closer to the Pacific, which causes very high daytime averages compared to San Francisco and Oakland in summer. However, nights normally cool off significantly, which results in daytime highs around 87 °F (31 °C) and nighttime lows of 55 °F (13 °C) during July and August. Winters are wet and cool with occasional frost. The majority of

1760-546: The southeast as the Guijarral Hills Oil Field and the Kettleman North Dome Oil Field . This Fresno County, California -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Martinez, California Martinez ( Spanish : Martínez ) is a city in and the county seat of Contra Costa County, California , United States, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area . Located on

1804-483: The southern shore of the Carquinez Strait , the city's population was 37,287 at the 2020 census . The city is named after Californio ranchero Ygnacio Martínez , having been founded on his Rancho El Pinole . Martinez is known for its historic center and its waterfront. The beautiful, lush Alhambra Valley was probably a seasonal foraging “pantry” for the stable population of the Karkines Indians. The Karkines are

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1848-807: Was 1.4 percent; the rental vacancy rate was 4.9 percent. 23,876 people (66.6 percent of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 10,652 people (29.7 percent) lived in rental housing units. According to the city's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are: Covering most of Martinez, the Martinez Unified School District encompasses four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and two alternative/independent study schools. Students in K-5 attend John Swett, John Muir, Las Juntas, or Morello Park Elementary School. Martinez Junior High School serves students in grades 6 through 8. St. Catherine of Siena

1892-666: Was buried about a mile south of the building that is now the John Muir National Historic Site . Also nearby is the Vicente Martinez Adobe, built in 1849 by the son of Ygnacio Martinez. The first post office opened in 1851. In 1860, Martinez played a role in the Pony Express , where riders would take the ferry from Benicia (particularly if they missed the steamer in Sacramento). The first oil refinery in

1936-520: Was the only crossing on the Carquinez Strait. By 1849, Martínez served as a way station for the California Gold Rush . The town was laid out in 1849 by Col. William M. Smith and named for Martinez. It became the county seat in 1850, but could not incorporate at the time because it lacked the 200 registered voters required, and would not become a city until 1876. Martinez was the home of naturalist John Muir from 1880 until his death in 1914. He

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