During Dad’s nine months or so in California, he and Ed worked on pipeline construction for Standard Oil. Thanks to an article he saved from a Standard Oil newsletter, we get a tiny view into what was involved. (Click the image to get full-size version that you may be able to zoom into so you can read the writing and printing.)

Dad’s handwritten note at the top says that the pipeline trench was 3 feet wide and on average, more than 4 feet deep. I believe the top image shows a trenching machine digging the trench. The bottom image shows how they laid the pipe sections into that trench.

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Also in Dad’s album is a photo he took in 1930 of the “Union Oil Plant in Bay Section”. If “Bay Section” is a place, I can’t find any reference to it today. I’m guessing this is the a view of part of the Union Oil terminal in Richmond.

As you can see, petroleum was big business in California at this time.