Ellwood Oil Field (also spelled "Elwood")[1] and South Ellwood Offshore Oil Field are a pair of adjacent, partially active oil fields adjoining the city of Goleta, California, about twelve miles (19 km) west of Santa Barbara, largely in the Santa Barbara Channel. A richly productive field in the 1930s, the Ellwood Oil Field was important to the economic development of the Santa Barbara area. A Japanese submarine shelled the area during World War II. It was the first direct naval bombardment of the continental U.S. since the Civil War, causing an invasion scare on the West Coast.
- ^ Several prominent and public sources, including the California Department of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, use the "Elwood" spelling in their database and publications. The fields are named after 19th-century rancher and olive grower Ellwood Cooper, and many other local place names use the "Ellwood" spelling.