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Cockriel, Bo (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Cockriel's single interview was conducted in his office, among other oil well service, supply and equipment businesses, in Signal Hill. He was confident in talking about himself and the oil business. At the time of the interview, he had recently been featured in a local newspaper article and he seemed pleased to elaborate on that story. 9/20/1989
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- *** File: pebcockriel1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-0:08)... Brief introduction (0:08-5:08)... The City of Signal Hill is completely surrounded by the City of Long Beach. Signal Hill is only 1,400 acres and it was created to operate through a 5 member council. The city originally had its own fire and police departments. As oil production began to decrease the city looked for other means to raise money. Better housing and more people have moved into Signal Hill and have brought change to the city. The city council, at the time of the interview, was looking ways to bring sales tax producing businesses to the city such as Price Club. (5:08-10:15)... Pollution left behind by the oil industry has damaged some property values in Signal Hill; cleaning up the pollution is very expensive. Shell Oil Company drilled the first well in Signal Hill. Since that time, more than 9 million barrels of oil have been pumped out of Signal Hill. Signal Hill was home to 5 oil refineries, including MacMillan, Century and Hancock. By 1960 the refineries except MacMillan were gone. The Hancock Oil refinery burned and the fire left behind contamination in the area all around it Most of the people who received the benefits of oil production did not live in Signal Hill; most lived in Long Beach and other places such as Rolling Hills. (10:15-11:30)... Cockriel was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1906. He worked in the securities market and after the crash in 1929 he and his associates came to Long Beach. They were late for the oil boom. The first well they drilled was successful but the second one they tried was on a fault and didn't succeed. That slowed them down for a quite a while (11:30-12:37)... His grandparents lived in Oklahoma and he stayed with them on their farm. He was married while he was in Oklahoma but did not like farming so he moved back to Kansas City where another grandmother lived. Unable to find satisfying work, he moved to California. (12:37-14:22)... Cockriel's father was a pressman for Sears Roebuck. His family lived in Missouri when he started school; later his family moved to Austin, Texas, then Philadelphia, and Chicago. His parents separated and he went to the farm in Oklahoma. In 1917 he came to California with his mother and attended school in San Dimas. They then returned to Oklahoma. After he was married he went to Kansas City and later got work on his uncle's farm in the Palos Verdes hills in California. (14:22-17:53)... Cockriel found a job with Edison; he was hired after telling the interviewer he came to California by train and not by hitchhiking or driving. He worked for Edison until he got involved in the securities market, and he sold lots in Compton in 1925-26 for $1,500 each. The Depression hit real estate first and he ended up with real estate that he could not sell. At the end of the Depression he was selling lots for $100 or $150 a piece. It was his involvement in the securities market that really supported him. The only real estate investments he made in later years were related to oil wells and he has been much more successful with oil related property than property with real estate. (17:53-18:39)... Sol Alexander once asked him what he credits for his success and his response was an economical wife and hard work. Alexander told him he could not get rich working for money, that he had to make your money work for him. (18:39-23:07)... He worked for Edison in all 3 of its steam generation plants, and believed it was a good place to work. When the subsidence problem began, his bosses at Edison knew something was wrong but didn't quite understand what it was. Initially they thought the Navy shipyard was responsible for their plant sinking; later they realized most of Terminal Island was sinking and it was not the Navy's fault. The amount of sinking varied from place to place; some places it was 5 to 6 feet and others 28 feet. Subsidence was stopped by replacing one gallon of oil with 2 gallons of water. (23:07-26:38)... There was an earthquake on Terminal Island that cut off some oil well, scaring individuals who had wells close to the ocean. At first in order to drill in the harbor you had to own 2.5 acres. This caused a scattering of oil wells. Later a new law allowed drilling on a 1 acre parcel that was assembled from a group of scattered properties. These lease holders and the oil companies that drilled there were responsible for subsidence. He never had wells in the harbor area. He had some property west of the Los Angeles River that was condemned by the state but when that happened, he was able to keep the mineral rights. (26:38-30:33)... He went into business with 3 other men he knew from the securities market. One was named Spelts and he had some experience with promoting oil drilling in east Long Beach. They wanted to drill in Signal Hill because they felt that city would treat them better than Long Beach. Raising money was not a problem, because many people were willing to put their money into drilling oil. This was in 1929. End of tape *** File: pebcockriel2.mp3 (0:00-2:23)... There were people like Decatur Mitchell, who owned equipment and Free Fairfield, who worked in supply that were interested in investing in oil wells. Mitchell did very well in the oil business and his son has gone on to do well. Their homes were built out of brick from their boilers. (2:23-11:45)... His first well was successful but the second well was on a fault and he and his partners could not get to the oil. His partners went on to drill in Torrance while he went back to work. Later they got back together and drilled more oil wells in Long Beach. In the 1950s he drilled in Signal Hill in other areas like Santa Maria and Coalinga. In 1964 he had a heart attack and his son came to work for him. There is a fault line that runs across Signal Hill. As the production on the hill dwindled, some oil companies decided to use water flooding to try to increase production. He bought 10 wells from ARCO north of the fault. Later he sold these wells to a company named Sun. At the time of the interview, Texaco was the only big oil company left in the area; Shell and ARCO have sold all of their interests. There are now many abandoned wells and the land will have to be brought up to environmental standards before it can be developed for other purposes. There are 192 wells abandoned by ARCO along. (11:45-16:05)... He is involved in an oil service company called Consolidated Oil Well Service which he started with his partner McFarlane. The 2 of them also drilled wells together. They lost 2 of wells when the San Diego Freeway was built. This service company operated in oil fields north of Signal Hill including Bakersfield and Coalinga. The business is highly competitive and dependent on labor, which is hard to get. When McFarlane died from Valley Fever, Cockriel took over the business and wanted to incorporate the name but could not because there was another company with of a similar name. (16:05-18:51)... Oil production in Signal Hill is in its last 10 or 15 years. Environmental laws and regulations make oil production harder all of the time. Cockriel is thinking of selling out and getting out of the oil industry. The oil industry is unusual, Cockriel believes, because there is loyalty among oil people and few people go back on their word. Sol Alexander is this kind of a businessman; he was and oil buyer and a hard worker. (18:51-23:36)... Cockriel describes a map of Signal Hill he's looking at. What became the site of Memorial Hospital earlier had been an oil field; when they built the hospital, they found many abandoned oil wells. Richfield Oil Company, one of the predecessors of ARCO, had a compression plant on Signal Hill and it blew up on June 10, 1933. He heard this explosion from his home on Pine Avenue. He got in his car to go and see what happened. When he arrived, there was nothing left standing. Wooden derricks in the area were all in splinters. Later, in 1971, he bought the property where the explosion happened. (23:36-26:36)... When the Long Beach earthquake hit on March 10, 1933, he was home. His son was scheduled to have his tonsils removed but as a result of the earthquake, the surgery never happened. People moved out of their homes following the earthquake. He lived close to Seaside Hospital and heard sirens for 36 hours following the quake. He thought the compressor plant explosion that happened 3 months later was another earthquake. (26:36-30:51)... When he bought property from ARCO he wrote the check to Atlantic Richfield and it was sent back. It had to be changed to ARCO. ARCO probably didn't want to be associated with the Richfield Oil Company which went bankrupt. Its assets were eventually bought by City Service and Sinclair for $39 million. He had to give up his City Service stock and take ARCO stock. He is glad he has dealt with ARCO and not Texaco. End of tape *** File: pebcockriel3.mp3 (0:00-0:08)... Brief introduction (0:08-3:27)... When the Petroleum Club was organized in Long Beach, Shell, Mobil and other big companies bought memberships, but Texaco never has. When Texaco employees come to the Petroleum Club, members ask them why they don't own memberships. They reply that other people invite them there; why should they buy memberships? The refineries on Signal Hill were built early in the oil boom and never upgraded. They made gasoline but were nothing like the refineries of today in Wilmington. They were just "tea kettle" refineries. (3:27-7:32)... In 1953 some people in the oil industry decided to organize a club, called the Petroleum Club. They started their club on the second floor of Art Morgan's restaurant. At first it was a men's club. The club grew in size and moved to their current location on Linden. The club became more family oriented with the move and women became active. There were 350 charter members and only 25 or 26 were still alive at the time of the interview. At that time, there were 600 to 700 members and the club's rules specify that 1/3 of them can be from outside the oil business. (7:32-12:32)... He discusses a book that Chevron Oil Company put out about the Alaskan oil spill and a magazine about the Navy League. He is afraid that Signal Hill will not be able to live up to the standards of new people who are moving in and believes Signal Hill will someday be part of Long Beach. He gets along well with the Signal Hill city council. When he had dirt brought onto his property and he found city officials very accommodating. The city, however, faces a big task in cleaning up the land for the auto mall that was proposed at the time of the interview. (12:32-15:34)... Cleaning up Cherry Avenue has been expensive. At the time of the interview, there is a big hole on Willow and Cherry from the railroad track that was there in the 1920s. He looked into buying this property but did not. The lots are 90 feet deep and have a useless alley. (15:34-22:01)... He belongs to the Mounted Guard which was formed after the 1933 earthquake to ride the rivers. They are available to be called out to help the government with any tasks that can be done on horseback. At the time of the interview, the groups worked out of a property off Wardlow near the Los Angeles River. Each member owned his own horse and worked under the jurisdiction of the Long Beach Police Department. He kept his horses in a barn on Signal Hill as did the Jones family who owned Midway Fishing Tools. After he could not keep his horses on Signal Hill any longer, he kept them at the mounted guard facility. He finally got rid of his horses, but kept membership in mounted guard. He is not sure how much longer they will be able to keep their facility on Wardlow. There is development all around there. (22:01-24:52)... When Eunice Sato was running for a seat on the Long Beach City Council, she came to his door to ask for his vote. At the time, he was watching the President Reagan's speech on television. He told her he believed serving on the City Council was a man's job and that if she were any kind of politician, she'd be listening to the President that night as well. She also wasn't an enthusiastic supporter of horse owners in her district. (24:52-32:09)... Businessmen tried to organize a federally chartered bank in Signal Hill. They went to San Francisco to meet a representative of the agency that issues charters. He told them that the income of people in the area was too low, although they told him that they were planning on the oil industry for support. Another factor that prevented them from getting a bank charter was that there was a recently organized bank nearby that was not doing well. At the same time, other groups were trying to organize other banks nearby. Federal regulators finally told them they did not believe that the bank would be successful in 3 years. (32:09-36:26)... Joe Ball was his attorney all of his life and he banked at Farmers and Merchants Bank. He used to have an account with Security Pacific bank, but moved to Farmers & Merchants because it was easier to get the bank to make to decisions about loans. He knew Gus Walker whose family owned the bank and later worked with Kenneth Walker. The bankers at Farmers & Merchants helped out when he needed financial services. (36:26-38:10)... Cockriel owned an oil well near the Long Beach traffic circle. It was originally drilled by Jim O'Donnell. O'Donnell had a couple of sons and Cockriel bought it from one of them. The son wanted to sell because the well didn't provide enough income. (38:10-40:49)... He was interviewed by the Press-Telegram and feels the article was written very well. The oil industry has been very good to him and his family. He has worked hard and his son has worked for him since he got out of the service. He believes success is dependent on the people you associate with. His 6 grandchildren are all college graduates. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Bo Cockriel invested in producing oil wells and drilled new ones beginning in the 1930s. He started out on Signal Hill in the 1930 and after World War II extended his operations to include other oil fields as well. He also invested in an oil well servicing company and was among the founders of the Long Beach Petroleum Club. In this single interview, Cockriel discusses his background and decision to migrate to southern California. While he began investing in oil wells, he worked at the Edison electrical generating plant on Terminal Island. Along with a variety of partners, he sought potentially profitable oil investments and became acquainted with other people in oil related businesses. Over his years in the oil patch, he has observed the impact of increasing environmental laws and government regulations. Cockriel's interview was part of a project to document the history of Signal Hill. TOPICS - oil industry; pollution; petroleum refineries; Depression; family background; farming; migration; and subsidence;oil industry; secondary recovery; Consolidated Oil Well Service; Bakersfield, California; Long Beach Memorial Hospital; Richfield compressor plant explosion; and 1933 Long Beach earthquake;oil industry; Long Beach Petroleum Club; Wilmington, California; pollution; Joseph Ball; Jim O'Donnell; and elections;
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