REMINDER: Only 55 days until the Taft Diamond Jubilee Taft Oildorado celebrating Taft's 100th birthday, October 15-24 and the dedication of the Oil Worker's monument with Huell Howser present to videotape his program called, "California Gold" for public television broadcast on the West Coast. This is also the anniversary of the world famous Lakeview Gusher -- the granddaddy of all gushers -- that spewed 9,000,000 barrels of oil over a year and a half before it stopped flowing. A historical marker is located at the crater of the gusher on the old road between between Maricopa and Taft. The Taft Oildorado website is oildoradodays.com.
Historical Note: This comes from Larry Peahl's 53-page compilation of the "Chronology of History of Taft" from 1863 until 2009: (April 21,1910) Oil and Metals Bank first bank opened in Taft at 425 Center Street. (Oct.11, 1911) The First National Bank opens in Oil and Metals Bldg. (Jan 2, 1912) The First National Bank opens at new location at 501 Center St. The bank building was located at the south west corner of 5th and Center Street.
The main entrance was from Center Street and but there was a smaller entrance off of 5th Street. All of the employees worked behind a counter on the west side of the bank building. (Aug. 23, 1922) Bank of Italy takes over Taft National Bank at 501 Center St. (Apr. 21, 1923) Sam Orloff opens State Bank of Taft at 431 North St. (Nov. 1, 1930) Bank of America and Bank of Italy merge in bldg. at 501 Center St. By 1990 the buildings west of 501 Center were bought by the Bank of America to 519 Center Street and a new bank building went up with a parking lot on the east side of the bank and a drive-through area on the west side of the building for banking from your car at a window provided for that purpose with a teller who was inside of the bank.
Some years later this bank was closed and the Bank of America has operated a bank inside of Albertson's grocery store at the Albertson's location in the shopping center on the south side of the 900 block of Kern Street.This comes from Larry Peahl's 53 page compilation of the "Chronology of History of Taft" from 1863 until 2009: 1906 -- Town of Reward starts. 1909-- First oil well drilled in Sunset area. 1908 -- Town of Fellows started. Midway oil production 410,395 bbls. May 1,1908 -- Jack Maguire's Kern Mutual Telephone Co. of Taft starts with toll line from Maricopa to Bakersfield.
Remember When
(Part one of a two-part series)
Fading Memories
A good friend recently sent me a account of what Iwo Jima looks like today. The picture showed Mt. Suribache and the black sandy beaches and sand dunes that the Marines had to scale as they fought their way inward while being shot at from the machine gun bunkers on the mountain.
I have read some accounts of that battle where over 25,000 Marines were lost or 76 percent of their men. Okinawa was even worse with 83% lost in that battle.
According to William Manchester's excellent book called "Goodbye, Darkness," you probably did not hear too much about the war in the South Pacific or the Pacific Theater. Most people would read about the war in Europe. More supplies were going to Europe instead of for the Pacific war. When I arrived as a replacement to the 41st Infantry Division in 1943, they had not yet received the M-1 rifles. I was placed in the Intelligence and Reconnaissance (I and R) Platoon in Regimental Headquarters Company in the 163rd Infantry Regiment.
People probably never read about what was going on in New Guinea. If read the newspapers the stories that got the most attention were the battles being fought in Europe.
Stories from the war in the South Pacific came out of MacArthur's headquarters' in Australia, and they told about the battles being fought there but never mentioned the outfit that was doing the fighting. Because our letters were censored, my folks at home never knew where I was stationed overseas. We could never mention where we were stationed in our letters or where we were in combat.
According to Manchester, Andy Warhol once said, "In the future, everybody would be famous for fifteen minutes." The Papuan (New Guinea) clashes didn't even last that long.
The 41st Infantry Davison was the first to be sent to Australia, but the 32nd Infantry Division was the first to go into combat. Who would remember that the 32nd Infantry Division fought from Port Moresby on the south coast of Papua, New Guinea and over the Owen Stanley Mountains to Buna on the north side of New Guinea. The Owen Stanley Range rises to over 13,000 feet. As our ship was taking our division to New Guinea, we travelled around the east end of New Guinea, and we could see that enormous mountain range.
How many will remember the the 41st Infantry Division would battle the Japanese for seventy-six days at Sanananda, Lae and Salamoa in Papuan New Guinea. And, what about the amphibious landings at Aitape, Hollandia, Arara, Toem and Wakde Island and finally Bloody Biak Island in the Shouiten Island Group in the Dutch New Guinea. Combat lasted from April until August.
To go on, then, there were the two landings in the Philippines -- where it is said that "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboango" (not true) on the Island of Mindanao and finally on the island of Jolo where many Muslim Moro tribesmen had settled. Jolo was some times been called the "Jewel of the Sulus" and "The Crown City of Moros."
Most of the native population on Jolo were starving and lacked clothing which had been seized by the enemy.
It was on Jolo that every night at about the same time our company would be bombarded by Japanese artillery. When that occurred, we would run for a bunker a short distance from where we slept and stay there until the shelling was over
(To be continued)
Readers' Responses
From Pete Magee, Class of 1955, from St. Paul, Minnesota
Dear Pete-
I was interested in Paul Woodward’s comments about the industrial dark ages. I guess I grew up in the dark ages, when you could get a streetcar or a bus almost anywhere in any city and didn’t need a 4000-pound 4WD to go to the store; when Taft’s schools were among the best in the state, academically; when the ultraliberal mindset environmentalists set up national parks and wilderness areas for everyone to enjoy; and when the Antarctic Ice Sheet wasn’t breaking off pieces the size of Rhode Island. Come to think of it, maybe those weren’t such dark ages after all!
Pete Magee
