April 10, 2024 - Wednesday - Today we were back in Brea, CA to visit the Olinda Oil Museum & Trail. This park, in the Olinda Ranch neighborhood, features the original Olinda Oil Well Number One, the former field office building, a jackline pump, records vault, and assorted antique oil operation tools.
Olinda was a company town that grew up from a Portuguese rancher's land. Olinda, in Portuguese, roughly translates to "beautiful land."
We first toured all of the oil drilling equipment outside of the museum.
This hill was the inspiration for Edward Doheny to buy this land, oil was seeping out of it.
This is the original Olinda Well #1, which is still working and is still pumping oil.
This is the museum, which was originally the Olinda Oil Field Office.
This is the oldest building in Brea that now houses a huge jack pump that powered eight oil wells.
A replica of a typical company house for workers was built in the rear of the museum.
It's a great museum with a lot of artifacts reflecting the boom times for Olinda.
Before the museum, we tried a new place for us called the De Oro La Puerta Restaurant, which translates to either "golden door" or "golden gate." It is also in Brea and bills itself as an "authentic" Mexican restaurant.
Judy had a Chili Relleno.
I had their shrimp and garlic dish.
The food was good, not great, but the day was wonderful.