As those doomed fiberglass mammoths in the bubbling ooze at La Brea Tar Pits attest, oil in Los Angeles is an old story. But how much of that story do you know? Have you seen the Echo Park parking lot where two desperate prospectors dug Southern California's first oil well? The tiki-tinged oil well islands of Long Beach? The derrick in disguise at Beverly Hills High School? When you're awash in dire news about the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it's easy to forget that Los Angeles is a major petroleum producer. That may be because much of...