Well. Somehow, here we are, summer. Belly of the Beast. Hope you don’t mind. I’ve installed personal equestrian misters to spray a gentle ghosting of refreshing water over us as we ride our ponies into the backtrails of Santa Clarita Valley history. Sure beats the last invention — The Mounted Swamp Cooler.
We’ve a most interesting trek ahead (like, has there ever been a non-interesting trail ride???). We’ve got feuds, bootleggers and a look at the very first telephone installed in the SCV.
You know what they always say in those old Westerns:
“Stay hydrated. Stay Western.”
Or some such …
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
BETTER’N MENTRYBERG — July 8, 1876, Demetrius Scofield forms the California Star Oil Works and hires a young driller named Charles “Alex” Mentry to work for him. Mentry would go on to develop oil fields up Pico Canyon and a town that would be called Mentryville.
HOW AMAZINGLY UNPLEASANT. AN ALL-RUBBER SUIT IN THE MONTH OF JULY. — Just six days later, rubber-suited Chinese railroad workers would lay the last line to complete one of the longest train tunnels (6,940 feet) in the world — the Newhall Railroad Tunnel.
NICKEL FOR YOUR THOUGHTS? — On July 15, 1891, R.E. Nickel publishes the SECOND Santa Clarita Valley newspaper ever — the Acton Rooster. There are reports that Newhall had a small paper for a while in the late 1860s — a single broadsheet. No one I know can remember the name of the periodical. It lasted for maybe a year and there are no known copies left. The Signal, of course, has been around since 1919.
RING-A-DING-A-LING — Happy birthday to Pacific Bell. In 1896, they made a deal with The Newhall Land & Farming Co. for a right-of-way easement through the ranch property. Those first phone lines went from Newhall and stretched into Santa Barbara. This very week, in 1900, they installed the first telephone in the SCV. It was hooked up at Campton’s General Store. Up to this point in my study, I had read that Campton’s had the only phone in the valley. According to a Signal article, the Newhall Ranch field office in Castaic also had a phone installed in 1900. They also noted that Ralph Carr, a telephone company employee, was the first private resident in Newhall to have his own phone. He lived on Kansas Street and that was in 1910. Apparently, a second, separate line belonging to the United States Long Distance Telephone Co. ran from Santa Maria to San Diego and passed through the general store. That was in 1898. Pearl Russell worked in that store and part of her job was to answer the rare phone call, and physically walk or ride a horse over to a person’s house to tell them they had a long-distance call. By 1959, there were only about 6,000 phones in the entire valley, including Castaic, Acton and Agua Dulce. Back then, we still had the old-fashioned operator-assisted phone system and telephone numbers like “1” and “2.”
JULY 12, 1925
IMAGINE. THAT’S ALMOST A $2 MILLION FINE IN TODAY’S MOOLAH — The same week Jim Biddison was appointed local constable, he and his partner, Jack Seltzer, broke up a moonshining operation up Violin Canyon. They nabbed Rube Hutchinson with a good quantity of sour mash, but couldn’t find his still. The judge threw Rube into the pokey and later fined him $1,000, or, in 1930 money, two houses.
UNHEARD OF. CAN’T BELIEVE IT. A MEDIA OUTLET MAKING UP NEWS STORIES. — The Signal went to war with a few Los Angeles newspapers after their reporters made up several stories about a hillbilly feud up here. Never happened. At least, not in early July 1925 …
GONNA HAVE TO GET A MINT CANYON FARM BUREAU T-SHIRT. AND, THE MOUSE PAD. — What the papers were referring to was a small argument between a couple of housewives at the Mint Canyon School and the Mint Canyon Farm Bureau. The latter had asked to use the auditorium for an ag meeting. The district said sure, then tried to tack on a $10 rental fee and a $10 use-of-piano fee. The farmers, outraged, canceled, pointing out they were the ones who built the darn school and kept it going. Point well taken …
BOB KELLAR USED TO DANCE THERE. — We had a place called The Green Oaks Dance Pavilion 100 years back. It housed a 40 x 60 dance floor in Honby, about 3 miles from the Saugus Cafe. It had live orchestra dancing Wednesday through Sunday nights.
JULY 12, 1935
HEY-HEY, HAY — Bill Mahue was called the Hay King of Southern California. He might have been demoted to Hay Duke on this date. One of his barns burned, engulfing 2,000 bales. The 25 tons was worth about $3,000 in Depression-era money.
THERE’S AN ELECTRIC MACHINE JOKE SOMEWHERE BUT WE’RE NOT GOING THERE — Little Charlie Perkins, youngest son of historian and water works mogul A.B., was bitten by a large rattler on this date. The reptile left fang marks nearly 1.5 inches apart on the boy’s leg. The hospital had an electric “sucking” machine that got out the venom.
THERE’S GOLD IN THEM-THAR CHICKENS!! — Frank Schneider took a red rooster for his family’s Fourth of July dinner and made more than enough money to buy dessert. Seems the bird had found a discarded shirt somewhere that had solid gold buttons and cuff links. Mrs. Schneider discovered them before anyone lost a tooth.
JULY 12, 1945
QUIT YOUR ‘WININ’ — A truck carrying precious cargo of several tons of primo wine caught on fire. Crews rushed out and doused the blaze. Dozens of disappointed motorists were parked nearby on Highway 99, waiting for the Fire Department to start chucking cases off the truck. It never happened. The fire didn’t reach the wine and not a single bottle was damaged. “DRAT!” said the motorists.
THEY WOULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT THE HOUSING PICTURE LOOKS LIKE TODAY — During the 1940s, there was a building boom in the Newhall area. Because there weren’t enough houses to fill the needs of the big explosives plant in Saugus, we got a special federal dispensation to build the neighborhood that is now the north end of Walnut and Chestnut streets. They were called the Bermite houses. From this paper, 80 years back: “Some folks shook their heads and asked: ‘Where are they going to get enough people to fill them up?’ The houses are now built, and full up, and just as many house hunters as ever are hunting for a place to live.”
WONDER WHAT THEY’D THINK OF $20-AN-HOUR BURGER FLIPPERS? — The newly formed William S. Hart Union High School District put up some help wanted signs for people to help build three temporary classrooms for the new high school. It housed only ninth graders in 1945 and the campus was actually Newhall Elementary at first. Truck drivers (for any vehicle under 6 tons) were paid 95 cents an hour, just a smidge over general laborers, who earned 87 cents an hour. Highest paid worker on the buildings was the electrical foreman, who earned a whopping $1.95 an hour.
JULY 12, 1955
AND, THEY’D HAVE A RATHER SLOW GAIT — Someone rustled a strawberry roan from Glen Hoag along Highway 99, along with a bay mare. If you see either horse today, they’re probably about 3,000 years old in human years.
A TRAGEDY AS OLD AS THE AUTOMOBILE — Two young local men, bright and popular, were killed in a car accident after a Fourth of July party.
JULY 12, 1965
HEAT WAVE, NO H2O — The water woes of customers for the Bouquet Canyon Water Co. reached crisis levels when a young girl was rushed to the hospital for dehydration. Some customers of the Saugus provider were without water an average of eight hours a day. Some customers were forced to fill every tub and sink in the house in the mornings before the water pressure shut down. The Bonelli family, which owned the private water company, had a plethora of woes, trying to provide water. In the midst of digging new wells and pipelines, a heavy equipment operator strike crippled the projects. Then, a new tank that was being put up collapsed. Then, a water main burst. Adding insult to injury, developers kept building new houses in the water-stricken areas and people kept buying them. Eventually, L.A. County Supervisor Warren Dorn would slap a freeze on new construction in Bouquet Canyon. You might have noticed. It’s been lifted.
JULY 12, 1975
WHEN WE TRIED TO BE OUR OWN COUNTY — An odd contingent of locals in business suits and ranch attire were milling about Olvera Street in Downtown Los Angeles. They had formed a caravan from the SCV to meet in the historic square to deliver the petition to form our own government: Canyon County. Noble effort. Alas, it passed locally by about 65-35 percent and failed countywide at the same level.
I DOUBT THEY’LL BRING THIS EVENT BACK WHEN THE PLACE TURNS INTO A CONDO PROJECT — Many folks at the Saugus Speedway weren’t exactly interested in the stock car races 50 years ago. The auto track was hosting Hot Pants Night.
WHEN HOUSES WERE AFFORDABLE — Clyde Plott became the first Realtor in both Ventura and Los Angeles county to make it to his company’s Millionaire Club. It took the Forest E. Olson salesman in the Newhall office until July to sell a million bucks in real estate. Back then, that was about 20 houses. In today’s market, you make the Million Dollar Club in less than two deals.
JULY 12, 1985
OW, OW AND OW SOME MORE — Forty years back this week, there were temperatures recorded as high as 117 in Canyon Country. The official reading on the Fourth was 108. That was during the running of the 10K run. Ow.
RHYMES WITH PRIUS — Many of the residents of the SCV watching the Fourth of July fireworks 50 years back decided they wouldn’t “Trius.” Seems right during the big fireworks show, a skywriting plane hired by the Trius Construction Co. marred the opening of the show. Some folks were so mad, they wanted the plane shot down.
• • •
That about wraps up another trail ride through Santa Clarita lore and history. After de-saddling and brushing down our dear mounts, when you go home and are about to jump in the pool? Don’t forget to take off the boots. It makes the HOA gendarmes just grit their teeth fiercely. See you back here at The Signal hitching post next week with another exciting Time Ranger adventure. 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. Pick up his two-volume set on SCV ghosts, maniacs, murderers and monsters about America’s most-haunted town — the Santa Clarita Valley — and other books.
