TAFT, Calif. -- The vision of a monument to oil workers is closer to becoming reality, as community members selected a final design for the homage to those who built up one of Kern County's most vital industries.

"Oil was the lifeblood of this community," sculptor Benjamin Victor said. "It's why the city of Taft budded here, and it's also the lifeblood of the country in a way as a source of energy."

Victor's design was selected as the one that will be built as the Oil Worker Monument over the next 18 months in the heart of Taft.

Residents envision the monument as the centerpiece of the future development on a former railroad right-of-way recently bought by the city of Taft, which is currently in the preliminary planning stages as a mixed-use area.

The monument serves as a homecoming for Victor, who was born in Taft and grew up in east Bakersfield before moving on to art school in South Dakota. There, he became an up-and-coming sculptor, designing a piece that currently stands in Natural Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol building.

"Since then it's been a real snowball of a career," Victor said. "It's just gotten bigger and bigger and it's so fun to get to do something you love so much for a living."

The figures in Taft's Oil Worker Monument will be larger than life, but to convey the emotions of Kern County's first oil workers, it took Victor many sleepless nights and hours of research.

"Each of the figures is a unique piece," Victor said. "They've all got a different emotion, and I tried to get across the toughness of these turn-of-the-century oil workers."

Those details are part of why Victor's design was selected.

"The attention to detail and the fact that he had done tremendous research on the project" were why the monument committee chose Victor for the job, said Vic Killingsworth, the committee chairman. "It was authentic and it will be to scale."

Leaders say the monument will help the community recognize the blood, sweat and tears that went into building the oil industry on which the nation relies.

"It's such a great thing to monumentalize the oil workers and also to do it for your hometown." Victor said. "It's just amazing all the way around."

The monument committee is still raising funds for the Oil Worker monument. To find out how you can contribute, contact the Taft Chamber of Commerce at (661) 765-2165.