Before Brea became part of the suburban landscape, the hills around Olinda were an oil-boom town. California’s Office of Historic Preservation dates the first well Edward L. Doheny brought in to 1897 and describes a community that spread across the surrounding hills through the 1940s.
There is an unexpected baseball connection, too: future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson spent his boyhood here. That is a pretty good piece of local trivia to carry into your next Angels conversation.
Today, the Olinda Oil Museum and Trail make the industrial past easier to picture. The city lists the original Olinda Oil Well Number One, a former field office, a jackline pump and a records vault among the surviving features. The Field House, once the operation’s headquarters, is the centerpiece of the 12-acre historic park.
Find it at 4025 Santa Fe Road. The city currently lists museum hours as Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. A two-mile moderate loop trail offers a different view of the landscape. Bring water; the city says none is provided on the trail.
