California Oil Museum

This is a very small museum yet it contains so much history of oil in California. I visited this museum with a few class mates for one of my classes. When we arrive we walked around the first floor it has a few different exhibits; the oil machines that are used in offshore drilling, the oil machine that are currently used now, a few samples of the gas pumps, and they have videos to watch. We asked to go upstairs since it’s only for adults and the reason for that is the museum upstairs contains a lot of antiques. Overall I would recommend people to visit this museum and keep in mind the run by donations. Also ask for a tour, my friends and I got an older gentleman who was very nice, informative, and funny, I don’t remember his name I just remember he said he was in carpentry business before.

A small but cute museum, it’s worth $ 4 just to see the oil rig display in the back room. Should take about 20 minutes max to tour. Nice collection of old-​fashioned gas pumps and models of oil rigs, etc.

I really liked this place. Its a great short stop if you are in town. I would never drive out here to see it by itself but if you are in town you have to go. They have a really cool life size oil rig display from 1889. And the rest of the place is also well done. They have a few side exhibits that are unrelated but still fun.

I really wanted to like this museum. I suppose I shouldn’t complain because I used a free entry ticket from a local hotel, but if I had to pay for it, I would have been annoyed.
As we had walked past the door, I saw a poster displayed indicating that this was a «Passport to History» site. I was excited because I have that passport and had been wanting to collect stickers for it by visiting the sites listed. However, when I inquired, the staff person informed me that they ran out of stickers. Grr. Ok. I’ll just drive up an hour and a half from LA to get the sticker at a later time.
So then, I turned to the exhibits hoping to immerse myself in Santa Paula history which I know was centered around citrus and oil.
I saw an interactive exhibit that involved cranking two separate gears to demonstrate the difference between a lubricated gear and a non-​lubricated gear. I couldn’t discern a difference.
I saw a few historical photos. I liked that and wished there were more.
The film in the center room explained how oil platforms are good for the environment and give fish artificial reefs. That was entertaining.
I can find amusement in just about anything, so when they had a dinosaur exhibit featured at the oil museum, I thought, «Ok, I get it… (fossil fuel) oil is supposed to come from dinosaurs or some such thing.» You would think I would have learned something more about this by going to see the exhibit, but I was very distracted by the nature of the exhibits which were outlines of mammoths and sloths and such, painted (or taped?) on the wall. In the center of each one was a photocopy of the animal taped in the center so you would know what it was supposed to be. The highlight of that section was a large stuffed animal of a cat creature of some sort, dingy and waiting for people to touch it in spite of the sign. The other highlight would be the restrooms are in that room.
There’s not a lot going on in this museum, you can probably cover it in 10 – 15 minutes. I’m a huge supporter of military, so it was interesting to see a room attached to the museum which highlighted military residents of Santa Paula. It had nothing to do with oil, but it was interesting. I was a bit confused by the arrangement of displays. I was reading some letters on one wall which directed me to another part of the room to find the rest of the story (which wasn’t there). The areas didn’t make a lot of sense, but kudos to the Santa Paula Historical Society for at least trying. I get what they were going for. If the historic society was going to take over a room, they should have included an exhibit about the 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster which burst just north of Six Flags and devastated Filmore, Santa Paula, and Bardsdale, killing 600 people who were washed into the Pacific Ocean. Interesting, right?
. But I digress.
The most interesting part of the museum was actually outside, so make sure to head out there to see the «rig room.» It was related to oil with mural of oil fields and animatronic oil person telling you about drilling. The speakers weren’t great, so I only got the gist… it was about oil. I liked the old style gasoline pumps. It made for a few cool photos.
So there it is. Would I go again? I’m sure I’d peek in and get the sticker for my book… but then again there isn’t a lot else to do in Santa Paula.

A small museum that packs a lot in about the history of oil-​the oldest oil well in California is up on Hwy 150. The drilling rig display out back is fascinating. Currently, there’s a very moving display on World War II Veterans of Ventura County, and a small exhibit from the La Brea Tar Pits, with comparison skulls of the mammoth versus the pygmy mammoths found on the Channel Islands.
On a previous visit, I was able to tour the upstairs offices-​frozen in time from the early 1900s, it is worth a tour. There is a cute gift shop in front mainly aimed at kids. Buy them a lump of coal!

We stumbled upon this place while camping at the KOA in Santa Paula. My husband is from Texas and worked the oil fields when he was younger so this was right up his alley. I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting it all was. The best part came when we were ready to leave. An older gentleman was speaking with 3 other visitors and were planning a trip upstairs to the old Unocal offices, my husband asked if we could join them and he was super nice and said of course we could. We all caravaned up the very steep staircase to the offices above and a treasure trove of history awaited us there. The second story has been pretty much restored to it’s turn of the century glory and the stories of the «heroes» of the company are interesting and entertaining. Our «guide» (I can’t believe I forgot his name) was awesome and definitely showed us all a good time. If you get the chance to go through definitely ask about the upstairs tour you will not be disappointed.

I stumbled upon this place on my way to Ojai. $ 4 gets you about half an hour of distraction. Seriously, how excited can you get about oil drilling?

This is a nice fairly small museum. It definitely seems to be more about oil than water. They have an entire building that contains an old drilling rig that actually works, or at least moves like it does. They have displays on old drilling bits, early gas station pumps, etc. Everything you wanted to know about oil!
Upstairs they recreate the buildings rooms as it looked as a Depression and World War 2 era apartment. They also have an authentic recreation of the Union Oil Company’s offices circa 1890!
The museum has a small but nicely landscaped park bench type area, and a very small gift section.
Admission for an adult was $ 4.