Pico Canyon
Park Details
Address:
27201 Pico Canyon Road, Newhall
Features:
Located in the north end of Santa Clarita Woodlands Park, Pico Canyon was the site of the first commercially successful oil well in the western United States—Pico No 4. Today the canyon offers hikers, bikers, and equestrians not only a glimpse of California history, but shaded trails into the rugged and lushly vegetated headwaters of Pico Canyon, and the Santa Susana Mountains. Trails into the backcountry are accessed from a paved road leading out of Mentryville, the 1880’s oil boom town built around Pico #4
Named for Charles Alexander Mentry, the oil well’s tenacious driller–and later superintendent of the company that would become Chevron—Mentryville was home to over 100 families until the early 1930’s. Pico No. 4 went on to become the longest continually operating oil well in the world, closing in 1990. Historic buildings still stand including Charles Mentry’s grand thirteen-room mansion, a one-room school house, and a period barn. Pico No. 4 and Mentryville are registered as California State Historical Landmarks.
