Top of a fabulous 2025 April morning, o’ grizzled local old-timers and soft-handed newbie Yuppies alike. Sunrise is almost here. You know what that means: Time traveling.
Alas, with the beauty of monkeying with the cosmic clock, some of you can even sleep way in, until oh, say, to 6, and catch up with us without missing any scenery.
We’ve a most interesting trek ahead, filled with gee whiz factoids (like how Race Street got its name) and some good old-fashioned civics (like the very first order of business by the brand spanking new William S. Hart school board).
You know the drill. Find some way to hop into the saddle without embarrassing yourself and keep those pinkies tucked in on the reins. We wouldn’t want people to think we’re riding English …
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
LONG-FORGOTTEN LOCUST STREET — Ever wonder how streets get their names? Boulevards named Walnut and Maple are pretty easy. Almost every decent-sized city in the country has an avenue named such. We used to have a Locust Street. It disappeared by the 1920s. I’m not exactly sure on the location — I believe it was across the street from present-day Hart Park — but we used to have a Park Street. Around the turn of the 20th century, citizens were going to build an actual park there. But the old townsite agent forgot to make some tax payments and the land was seized by the county.
VROOM VROOM VROOM BOULEVARD — Speaking of street names, here’s some cool trivia. Race Street? Named after the human race. Again, I’m not positive, but developer Ted Lamkin (who came up with Arch, Market, Chestnut, Walnut, Locust, Spruce and Pine) may have come up with the Race Street angle. And to this day, there’s still humans living there …
OUR LOCAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE — Henry Clay Needham ran unsuccessfully for president three times as a Prohibitionist (he didn’t even carry his own Santa Clarita Valley). Needham was a big land mover and sold his first lot to John Buchert in 1889. A fellow Kansas-ite, Buchert had been mayor of Arcadia, Kansas. And Needham had been mayor of Arcadia, Kansas. Hence, Arcadia Street.
MERRY-GO-ROUND STREET — Pico Canyon used to run way different than it does today. In 1876, it was the original east-west valley connector, running from Mentryville to near the present-day Saugus Cafe. That was the original townsite of Newhall. When Newhall moved in 1878, so did Pico Canyon. For about 75 years, Pico continued to run from Mentryville all the way down to the intersection of present-day Main Street. In the 1950s, the county came in and changed everyone’s address and several street names. Pico Canyon was slashed. From the old Highway 99 (The Old Road today) to Newhall Avenue, it was Lyons Avenue (a gaffe by the county; it was supposed to be Lyon Avenue, after the Lyon twins, two famed settlers). From Newhall to San Fernando Road, the two-block stretch was briefly known as 10th Street. Confused?
APRIL 19, 1925
HE SHOULDA LET THE HAT GO — On this date, Wartelle Prade pulled off the side of the main state Highway 6 (Main Street today) to retrieve his hat that had blown off. He was struck letters-high by a speeding Jewett and had his anatomy seriously rearranged.
THE GOOD OL’ REAL ESTATE DAYS — Real estate agents A.B. Perkins, Jessie Sackrider and R.R. Riedel were selling acre lots on Newhall Avenue. They came hooked up to electricity, water and gas. Asking price? A smidge over $500. Today, that same Newhall land would sell for about $1.2 million.
AH, POLICE WORK — Constable Jack Pilcher had to motor up to Soledad Canyon after reports of a dead man lying by the side of the tracks. Turns out the corpse was feeling fine, thanks for driving all the way up to ask, and was taking a nap while he waited for the train.
‘YNTAX’ or ‘PELLING?’— Times were so tough back then The Mighty Signal was forced to scrimp on consonants. Note the advertisement for the Douglas Fairbanks’ movie, “inbad the Sailor.” Maybe “inbad” was the valley’s first rap star?
APRIL 19, 1935
OH DEARLY HOLY CRIPES! — Newhall’s Carlton Thompson, pitching for the valley’s semi-pro team, threw a no-hitter on this date against Sepulveda. Odd thing, Thompson was the cause of missing his own perfect game. He faced only 29 batters in nine innings. One got aboard on a fielding error by Thompson and the other made it to first when the hurler nailed him in the shoulder with a high fast ball.
PRE-WAY STATION — On this date, Ossie Simmons and C. Hays bought the Soledad Hotel and Coffee Shop. Today, The Way Station sits there. Heard a few years back the city was going to paint a mural on the 9th Street side.
ALL NOT WELL AT HOME — The wife of a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed her teenage babysitter and maid, then turned the revolver on herself in a failed suicide attempt. Deputy A.C. Carter heard quarrelling just as he was coming home from work at Substation 6. He reported hearing the gunshot and rushed into the house. As he was trying to revive the dead girl, his wife, Gladys, pointed the gun to her chest and fired. After she recovered from the self-inflicted gunshot wound, she was tried for murder. Jealousy was listed as the motive. The couple had a 10-year-old daughter. The friends of Gladys reported she had reasons for her rash act.
AS USUAL, DISINTEREST FOR THE KIDS — The movement to build a local high school out here date back long before 1944 when the first ninth graders attended the brand-new Hart High (it was so brand new, they didn’t have a campus and held classes at Newhall Elementary). Mrs. A.E. Thibadeau, president of the Newhall Woman’s Club (That’s right. It’s singular for some odd reason.) noted that only 66 people in both the entire Santa Clarita Valley and Chatsworth voted in a special election to build a campus here.
SMART OLD CODGER — The father of Mrs. Harry Chacanaca of Honby lived in the mountains of Oregon. A big rancher there, he invented an ingenious method to irrigate his crops. In the winter, he strung a pipeline that channeled water from a lake to an east-facing mountain, creating his own glacier. It got him nearly free water year-round. Mrs. C’s dad obviously couldn’t reproduce the process here, where you can have a 95-degree heat wave in December.
APRIL 19, 1945
HARD TO FIND A LOWER LOWLIFE INDIVIDUAL — Not only is this a most heartbreaking story, it’s also one reflective of different times. Naomi Littler and her three children were found starving and freezing in a ramshackle Acton shack, abandoned by father and alleged husband, Paul Leon Littler. It seems Naomi and Paul were married years earlier by a Methodist minister in Springfield, Ohio. The pastor got out of a sick bed to wed them. After a couple of years and children, Naomi grew concerned that they never got the marriage license. It turned out the minister died the same night he married them and never filled out the paperwork. Technically, the couple was never married. Paul abandoned his family and took up with another woman, marrying her and moving in with her in Mint Canyon. He was arrested at Bermite. Turns out Paul was also an ex-con.
FROM THE WILE E. COYOTE PLAYBOOK — On this date, George Graham failed miserably trying to pass as a cow. A guest of Wayside Honor Rancho, Graham tried to escape by bending over and walking out with a herd of cattle. His prison garb stuck out against the cowhides and he was corralled back to the pokey. Actually, an industrial pokey. Graham went from the comforts of honor ranch life to maximum security of the penitentiary.
BOOZE DAY — As America and the SCV prepared for the end of World War II, so did the Southern California Tavern Association and the county of Los Angeles. As soon as V-Day would be announced, word would first go to the SCTA and outlets that sold liquor. All such stores and bars would be closed. As Signal editor Fred Trueblood noted: “Nothing left but to go to church, folks.”
LA-LA-LAND SHRUBBERY BANDITS — Local law enforcement went to war against Hollywood. Seems the SCV was a favorite target of what locals called Brush Pirates. Set directors would brazenly wander through the valley, trespassing and digging up people’s shrubbery. I know. Sounds like a Monty Python skit. But on this date, Milton Crawford, 26, was arrested for moseying onto the Jauregui ranch and filling up a truck with Western-looking fauna for a movie. He paid a $100 fine and drew a suspended 30-day jail sentence.
HART HIGH THINGS TO DO — Here’s some high school trivia for you. Eighty years ago, the William S. Hart Union High School board of trustees held their first meeting ever. Tom Frew was elected president. The first business taken care of was:
• Order some temporary buildings for Newhall Elementary to house the ninth graders there for the 1945-46 school year;
• Look into switching Hart from a four-year school to a six-year school. (They did. I think there’s still a plaque out front, stating Hart accommodates grades seven-12.)
• Buy two school buses to transport SCV kids in grades 10-12 so they could continue going to San Fernando High. (It cost $42 a day per bus to rent.)
• Officially acquire the 20 acres of land on Newhall Avenue into the new district.
SHAME ON THOSE WHO DROVE PAST BY — There’s always the story behind the story. On this date, an old man was caught walking during a blinding freak snowstorm on the Ridge Route. A car, skidding out of control, hit him, then drove off. An Army private home from the war and hitchhiking saw the accident and rushed to the man’s aid. Three times he flagged down cars. Three times, the drivers refused to pick up the dying man. One even waved a disgusted hand and said: “Ah, somebody’ll come along and pick him up.” Finally, a Samaritan did arrive to take the soldier and old man to the hospital. The latter died. Wrote Signal editor Fred Trueblood: “We hope no service man reads this item. Why he would want to fight for so-and-so’s like the people in the first three cars we cannot see.”
APRIL 19, 1955
SUPPOSE THEY GAVE A PARADE MEETING AND NOBODY CAME? — That’s what happened 70 years ago. Only two folks showed up for the April meeting to plan the Fourth of July fest. Next month, only one showed up. In June, no one showed up. We did have a parade that Fourth, though. When we ride in July, I’ll share the details. It’s a charming story and sorry you have to wait, but you do …
A MINOR SCOLD — Signal owner Fred Trueblood II was one of the two who did show up to the non-meeting. He published a perfect little editorial just 22 words long: “… not preaching … not scolding … just dropping a furtive tear for Newhall’s Old West Fourth of July … a great pity … a great shame …”
APRIL 19, 1965
HISS! — A hiker up Bouquet Canyon was startled when he found a Cobra in the brush. It wasn’t the poisonous snake kind, rather, the neck-yanking high-speed sports car that had just been stolen from local Ford dealer Clyde Clymore. Two Newhall youths, Jerry Lee and Franklin Nichols, were arrested for the theft. You know, today? That darn car buried under all that sage brush would be worth well over a million bucks.
THAT HITCHIKING RULE STILL HOLDS TRUE — What the heck was Clara Robinson thinking? The 57-year-old picked up three young hitchhikers in Bakersfield. They returned the favor by kidnapping her and stealing her car. She managed to escape and the trio was soon arrested.
APRIL 19, 1975
SMOOTH SHAVING LAWMAN — A young sheriff’s deputy was picked as the SCV’s official Adopt-a-Deputy. The job of Carl Walper was to visit all 24 local elementary schools and talk with kids about law enforcement. Back then, Carl had a baby face and dark brown hair.
APRIL 19, 1985
FUN WITH NUMBERS — Signal gossip columnist Ruth Newhall snitched on evangelist and new The Master’s College prez, John McArthur. A press release touted that McArthur’s sermons were heard on 185 radio stations by “a listening audience of 10,000 people each Sunday.” Doing the math, that works out to 54 people per station.
NOT THE BRIGHTEST BULB IN THE BASKET THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN, HE WAS — A local construction worker was severely injured. While working on a local project, he ducked into a garage under construction, sawed some fireworks in half and lit them. Ka-BLOOEY. He received burns over 15% of his body and some hearing loss.
• • •
See you in seven, dear saddlepals, friends and neighbors, with another exciting Time Ranger adventure, and, until then — vayan con Dios, amigos!
Local historian and the world’s most prolific satirist/humorist John Boston hosts an eclectic bookstore and multimedia/commentary website at johnlovesamerica.com/bookstore. Also? Pick up a copy of Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America — The Santa Clarita Valley” there.
