I promised Thunder that I would help him with his "ompany of the Month" so I guess I better get with it.
Standard Oil was well represented on the Central Coast of California in the early establishment of service stations. One of the main reasons is that they quickly established a bulk plant in the town of Los Olivos. If you have visited Los Olivos anytime in the last thirty years, you would know that it is an unlikely location for a bulk plant since it is not on a major highway and the town is relatively small (around 1,000-2,000 people today). However, at one time it was the end of the line for a narrow gauge railway running from Avila Bay in San Luis Obispo County. This allowed Standard to ship oil from San Francisco down the coast and unload it onto tanker rail cars destined for Los Olivos. From there it was trucked throughout the central coast of California to the outlying towns and ranches serving the commmunity from the early 1900's until the 70's.
The bulk oil products were unloaded from the tank cars into tanks and then into bulk cans and loaded onto trucks like this early one.
As a result of this central distribution point, Standard was able to establish stations in practically every small town and bend in the Coast Highways very early on during the development of the roads.
