Red Bank Jack Plant
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 35° 23.607 W 119° 01.316
11S E 316370 N 3918553
This is one of many historical interpretive signs on the grounds of the Pioneer Village at the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield.
Waymark Code: WMJE4Y
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 11/06/2013
Views: 1
Red Bank Jack Plant
Early oil field workers utilized ingenuity and invention to overcome great obstacles to find and retrieve oil from the ground.
A jack plant uses an engine, wheels, and belts to move a steel cable connecting the jack plant to a pumping unit located over an oil well. As the jack plant moves, a cable connecting it to an oil well moves back and forth. This causes the pumping unit over a well to move up and down drawing oil from deep in the ground to the surface.
Built around 1912, this jack plant originally operated on the Red Bank lease in the Kern River Oil Field north of Bakersfield. The Red Bank Jack Plant provided power to 18 oil wells.
The Tidewater Oil Company donated the Red Bank Jack Plant to the museum in 1964. The National Supply Company building covering the jack plant was originally located on property south of the museum. In 2001, the building was moved to the museum to protect the jack plant.