In one of my ongoing timeline projects, I am working on taking a certain 1850's businessman and turning him into the richest and largest business owner in California.
Part of this grand plan involves the purchase and 'accidental' discovery of the
Midway Sunset Oil Fields in 1892 by his son.
The problem I have is that while there is plenty of information about the size of the fields, when they were discovered, PSI mineralogical surveys, etc; there is not much information about WHO drilled the oil during the early years. one would think a company as large as standard oil would be mentioned if they had bought up the place, or is it just assumed that any oil form 1890 to 1911 was owned by Standard Oil?
Obviously the reason I ask is because, as mentioned, my secret plan is to have this business man "on a hunch" buys up large amounts of the whole area long before anyone discovers oil. The hope is in 1892, two years before oil was discovered in the OTL, his son discovers it, starts pumping and becomes immensely stupidly rich.
This then circles back to the question of how ruthless Standard Oil was? If they find out someone, even a financially powerful someone, is pumping vast amounts of oil out in California, are they going to send some "Muscle" out to take things over? Buy him out?
Or...Is it just possible to run a small operation till they break up in 1911,and then go nuts and expand pumping?