Hi June,
This brief article from the March 3rd, 1896, issue of “The Call,” is a small piece of the puzzle of the history of oil production on the Coastside. Besides providing a date and a few names to research (Langley and Richards and the Taylor ranch) its usage of “Lobetus” as the spelling of Lobitas or Lobitos, illustrates the difficulty in locating all the relevant articles about a specific subject. I suppose given the fact the Coastside was the difficult-to-access hinterlands for “The City” folks at this time, I shouldn’t be surprised at the crude state of factchecking in the newspapers of that time. Enjoy. John
Langley & Richards, Los Angeles oil men, recently secured a lease of the Taylor ranch, on Lobetus Creek, about five miles southeast from Halfmoon Bay, and will bore for petroleum as soon as the weather settles.