A dramatic black plume of crude erupts skyward and mirrors itself perfectly in a spreading lake of oil — this striking real-photo postcard captures the Lake View No. 1 gusher near Maricopa, California, at the height of the great San Joaquin Valley oil boom. Copyrighted in 1910 by West Coast Art Co., the image was taken just months after the well blew wild on March 15, 1910, becoming the largest oil gusher in U.S. history and flooding surrounding fields with millions of barrels before it was capped in September 1911. Derricks march across the horizon like iron sentinels, their reflections doubling the industrial spectacle in the petroleum-slicked water below; two figures stand silhouetted at the lake's edge, dwarfed by the geyser's scale. Published as card no. 29 in a California sales series titled "On the Road of a Thousand Wonders," this image appealed to travelers marveling at California's industrial transformation — an era when oil towns rivaled gold-rush camps for excitement and danger.