Quote:
Originally Posted by HossC
One of the billboards says "Proposition 10 will ruin our beaches!" - does anyone know what this is about?
Detail of picture at USC Digital Library
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Sounds like Prop 10 was a measure regarding oil leases on state-owned tideland in Huntington Beach - on the ballot in 1938:
http://librarysource.uchastings.edu/..._pdf/1938g.pdf
Arguments against stated that this
"vicious act...will result in the ruination of several miles of the finest public beach in the State"
Huntington Beach was already pretty packed with derricks by this time - here's a photo from the 20's of Clay and Alabama Streets, about a mile and a half from the beach.
The ballot was defeated but it didn't stop the Great Pacific Coast Highway Fire of 1949. Even today Goldenwest Street and the PCH is the south end of a huge, mile-long strip of oil infrastructure owned by Aera Energy and Occidental Petroleum.
In 1949, though, it was a "nightmarish three-and-a-half days of horror when the gas in a well at Goldenwest Street and Pacific Coast Highway caught fire. That fire lit up the sky and could be seen as far away as Catalina Island as the flames of the devil's torch reached skyward for 150 feet. The fire started as gas came up to the surface and was accidentally ignited.
Saturday came and went, the steel 100-foot derrick above the well had now melted and fell across Pacific Coast Highway. There were hundreds of onlookers by now to contend with, and traffic up Beach Boulevard caused a heavy jam that was 1 1/2 miles long.
Flames reached 150 feet into the air, and the intense heat was as if hell had surfaced. It began melting the asphalt pavement of Pacific Coast Highway and warping the Pacific Electric tracks."
The Huntington Independent
Anyone got a photo? All those onlookers and no cameras?