There was triumph and tragedy in the Coalinga-Monterey Oil Pipeline because it was the first oil pipeline of California and it's use in Monterey ended in a colossal fire. It was established in 1904 and the fire was in 1924.

The Coalinga Oil and Transportation Co. started to build the pipeline in September of 1904. By October 1, 1904, they had built a mammoth tank and were building a well.

By October 12, 1904, They had finished the pipeline and were testing it with water of 1000 lbs. of pressure. The pipeline was 165 miles long and the pipes themselves were 6 inches in diameter. There were 3 pumping stations at the time but they were building a new one. The project had costed about $750,000. An estimate of 1,500,000 barrels (63,000,000 gallons) of oil was believed to be handled by the pipeline each year. The oil was shipped from Monterey to Hawaii, Portland, Tacoma, Alaska, and other places. At this time they had 2 vessels could hold 40,000 barrels (1,680,000 gallons). The company also had a private telephone line. They had two storage tanks that could hold 55,000 barrels (2,310,000 gallons) each and they were planning to have more built. The pipeline's highest elevation was 2568 feet above sea level.

On November 23,1904 Oil steamer's arrived at the wharf and a big celebration including fireworks. There was speaches by the mayor and other important citizens followed by more speaches by officials of the pipeline and the wharf. The total amount of money they spent is three quarters of a million dollars.

By August 2, 1905, the barge called Santiago was making constant trips every three days from Monterey to San Francisco transporting liquid fuel. They were building a third storage tank in Monterey.

In July 26, 1905, they were planning to build four more stations and to double the capacity of all the stations that existed at the time.

In June 28, 1906, they had recieved the iron for a new 55,000 barrels storage tank.