Montebello highlight
Historic oil
Oil was discovered in Montebello in April 1914 by a child on family property, triggering Standard Oil Company development and ushering in a boom that transformed the city from a rural hamlet into an industrial and residential center.
The oil story of Montebello begins in 1914, when a young boy named Thomas W. Temple II discovered oil on his family's property in the Montebello Hills. Standard Oil Company of California seized the opportunity, executing leases and beginning drilling operations. The first productive well, the Baldwin well, came into production in March 1917 and immediately yielded 500 to 600 barrels per day. The Temple family's first well followed in June 1917, producing at similar rates before eventually reaching 6,100 barrels per day, making it one of the most productive wells in California at the time.
Between 1917 and the early 1920s, the oil field provided what local historians have called 'a tremendous boost to the little town of Montebello.' The industry brought jobs, infrastructure investment, and permanent settlement to a region that had been primarily agricultural—known until then for flower and produce cultivation. Though the field's shallow nature meant production would eventually decline, the wells that came in during those early years left an indelible mark on the city's growth and character, establishing Montebello as more than a farming community.
The transformation from agricultural village to an established city with schools, services, and neighborhoods happened because people had work and reason to stay. Today, that legacy of stability—the sense that Montebello is built to last—remains. Families making long-term plans to live and work here find that stability worth protecting, which is where term life insurance enters the picture: securing the arrangements that took a generation to build.