Hope you didn’t have one of those “Lost Weekend” benders of a Friday night, dear Santa Clarita saddlepals over the age of 21. Top of a July Saturday morn to you, dear ones. As you settle into your seat, try not to groan. Sigh expansively. It’s more Western.
We’ll be exploring miles of forgotten history backroads this fine day. Might want to make sure you tied on your slicker. We’ve got rare July rainstorms ahead.
There’s movie stars and UFOs waiting. Keep a decent rein …
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
BILLY THE GOAT MAN STARTS FIRST NEWSPAPER — There is always a little bit of confusion and debate on this. It’s a double trick question: “Who published the first newspaper in the Santa Clarita Valley?” Neophytes quickly blurt out “The Signal.” ’Tain’t so. The Signal was founded on Jan. 1, 1919, and published its first issue a month and change later. Some junior varsity historians vote that it was Rudolph Nickel, who was publisher of the Acton Rooster. He launched his first edition on July 15, 1891, and it lasted under his administration into the early 20th century.
But the valley’s first newspaper may have appeared in a newly born Newhall in the 1880s. The editor was reported to be Billy Carlson, bookkeeper for the Coast Oil Co. Carlson’s weekly took up both sides of a big piece of paper, written in long hand. Apparently, Carlson wrote out 10 copies a week. He probably was a better newspaperman than a farmer. He tried raising goats and wondered why they were not being fruitful and multiplying. Turns out Billy hadn’t bought any boy goats. He later became a real estate millionaire, but lost his entire fortune in the same endeavor.
WHEN SOLEDAD WAS WILLIAMSON PASS — Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (who would later quit to lead the rebel forces during the Civil War) saw a need for the United States to provide railroad services for the newly acquired state of California. Davis sent Lt. R.S. Williamson to explore the Santa Clarita Valley area for possible railroad sites. For a long time, the Soledad dirt road was called Williamson Pass.
‘MAY I SPEAK TO THE PARTY TO WHOM I AM SPEAKING?’ — On July 12, 1900, the little village of Newhall had its first-ever telephone installed. It would be 13 years later when the second one got put in — and then, they took theirs out and we had just one phone until 1914 again.
JULY 19, 1925
PUHHHHH-LAAAAAAY BALL!!! — Wonder if he had some ringers. On this date, Tom Mix’s baseball squad played the Newhall squad. The world’s most famous human of his day whipped ugly on the locals, 23-7. We had some busy (and famous) baseball squads in action 100 years back. Harry Carey’s “Indians” (they actually were) played the Lopez All-Stars of Van Nuys and followed against the Sullivan Truck Co. The St. Francis Dam team crossed bats with the City Shops of Los Angeles, and, later, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Ape Men a la Tarzan fame. Without anybody famous playing, Saugus beat St. Francis Dam, 23-21. Some pitching …
CHAMBER OF NO COMMERCE — As was the custom, the Chamber of Commerce just sort of faded out of existence. Some nagging by this newspaper asked, on its front page: “What’s Wrong?” and urged the moribund body to return to life.
BIG WET STORMS IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY — More odd weather for Newhall. It rained, thundered and lightning here 10 decades back.
FROM FEED STORE TO NEWSPRINT — A.B. Thatcher sold his interest as a partner in the Newhall Feed Store on this date. Old “Dad” wanted to devote his full attention to the paper. That’d be this one, The Signal.
JULY 19, 1935
HERE’S A GREAT NAME FOR A RESTAURANT NO ONE’S USING TODAY — The Placerita Cafe. It used to sit on 10th Street (Lyons) and Spruce (Main Street). On this date, they had the Rio Grande Rangers “featuring Hillbilly singers and Cowboy yodelers.” I’m not sure I’d want someone yodeling at me while I’m having dinner …
JULY 19, 1945
ARE WE GETTING A RARE JULY DRENCHING? — If this goes in 20-year cycles, we’re due. Just like in July of 1925, we had a series of unusual summer storms. Sand Canyon got drenched and much of the valley was pelted by lightning and claps of thunder.
AHHH, GOVERNMENT EUPHEMISMS — The county approved $2.3 million to build another prison. This one was to be in the Acton area. It never got built, but it had a rather friendly handle: Rancho Amigos.
VISITORS FROM OUTER SPACE — On this date up San Francisquito Canyon, W.R. Haynie reported a UFO. He said he saw an object hurtling through the post-midnight skies. He suspected it was either ball lightning or possibly a meteor. The thing landed in the lonely canyon with a huge explosion.
NOT BEEING VERY COOL — Mrs. Redmond up by present-day Le Chene discovered that there weren’t any laws on the books concerning bee straying. It seems a Pasadena beekeeper’s truck broke down a quarter mile from her ranch. He unloaded 40 hives on the side of the road and had his truck towed. The bees wandered over to her spread, stinging her and her daughter, killed seven turkeys and pretty much took over the water rights. Mrs. Redmond called the sheriff, who said his hands were tied about getting the owner to remove the pollinators.
OR, FREDERICKSBURGITA — Some folks were complaining that a possible name of Santa Clarita for the valley and new school district was “too Mexican.” Signal editor Fred Trueblood pointed out that the Soledad Township (our name then; Soledad was Spanish for “lonely”) sure sounded a lot better than the English description of “Stoney Lonesome.” Trueblood penned a rather humorous column, noting that the jingoists would have San Fernando change its name to Fredericksburg.
AS PINK FLOYD ONCE CROONED, ‘WE DON’T NEED NO, ED-YUH-KAY-SHUN’ — On this date, the Lake Elizabeth School District was abolished. By state law, you had to have an average daily attendance of five students to have a bona fide district. Lake E had 4.82 for the year. Plus, the district couldn’t find a teacher for the last two months of 1945’s school year.
THE DISTRICT’S FIRST TEACHERS — Sure is fun finding out about the early years of the William S. Hart Union High School District. Its working title was Santa Clarita for the first couple of months. The trustees met with William S. Hart on his last leg to ask permission to name the district and high school after him. On this date, the first trustees met to figure out how big to build the new high school. They expected about 400 students for 1946, but figured that soon, it could grow to more than 1,000. The first two teachers to be hired by the district were Mrs. Herma Pfister, of Seattle, and Miss Dorothy Diebel of Concordia, Kansas. There wasn’t a campus yet for Hart and the first crop of ninth graders would go to Newhall Elementary and attend class in temporary army barracks.
YES. THERE IS LIFE OUTSIDE THE WINKLER FAMILY — I loved the small-town aspect of this little ditty. Mrs. Norma Winkler used to write a short column on her community. Called “Castaic,” it pretty much featured what the various branches of the Winklers had done that last week.
JULY 19, 1955
OUR FIRST FREEWAY INTERCHANGE — Two years and $3 million later, the new three-level freeway interchange of Highway 6 (Sierra Highway) and U.S. 99 (Interstate 5) opened. It streamlined this major junction dramatically. For a while. There wasn’t much fanfare. A barricade was removed at 9 a.m. on a Monday, a few lower-case bureaucrats shrugged and the traffic flowed.
PUTTING THE SPIN ON IT — Saugus resident and big-time movie star Harry Carey Jr. visited the tony Circle J Ranch (off Railroad Avenue today) to film a new series: “Spin & Marty.” Circle J was about as close to a country club these parts had seen up to the 1950s.
THEY TREATED US LIKE A RED-HEADED STEPCHILD — Folks were ticked off — again — at an intrusion forced upon us by the county. Los Angeles gave us literally a two-week notice to change from our old fashioned two- and three-numbered addresses to the county-wide five-digit numbers. Locals were still smarting at having to change several street names in the valley. This seeming avoidance of local citizens was one of the first perceived slaps by L.A. County and would ultimately lead to a couple of failed city formations and three new county building attempts. Turns out, L.A. County DID notify us — several times. They wanted to hold community meetings and sent notices to the local honorary mayor, who just ash-canned the requests. So, the county went ahead and changed street names and addresses and everyone except the honorary mayor thought the worst.
JULY 19, 1965
NO NO NO TO NAUGHTY NAKED NUDIES — Congressman Ed Reineke launched a campaign to stop pornography. The Signal made fun of the U.S. representative. Sixty years later, both the congressman and Scott Newhall, publisher of this paper, might not recognize the lax pop culture society of the valley today.
AGAIN WITH THE NAZIS — The Mighty Signal went after the local California Highway Patrol with both boots. Owner Scott Newhall likened the CHP to the pre-World War II Nazis — brown uniforms included. It seems an overzealous captain of the day was having his forces launch yet another wave of ticket assaults. Cars in distant canyons were written up for not being within 18 inches of a curb — on a dirt road. Scotty wondered if the CHP operated like the Fourth of July Queen contest, where contestants won prizes via the most tickets they could muster. Quoth Mr. Newhall: “In any case, this grisly competition that makes the valley seem more like Munich of 1934 than California of 1965. May be a fine fund-raiser but it doesn’t help the traffic situation. It elevates the blood pressure of the helpless victims, sending them onto the highways in an accident-prone rage.”
JULY 19, 1975
WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, CALL AN AMBULANCE — You wonder what are the odds. On this date, Howard Benson of Lodi stopped at Jose’s (later, it would be Cafe Mike) to make a phone call. While he was in a phone booth, a flatbed truck backed into the booth, shattering the glass and knocking it over with Benson inside. He suffered various cuts and bruises, but was alright. Jimminy Christmas. Hit by a truck while you’re in a phone booth …
THIS JUST STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN — I don’t know how the stars were aligned, but, same day, a woman out for a walk with her dog in Texas Canyon was bit by a skunk. The dog killed the skunk. When the woman went home to get a bag to put the skunk in (she wanted to take it to the hospital to check for rabies) a carload of four boys was seen grabbing the dead animal and taking off in a white, four-door car. If you happen to see the car driving around … oh, never mind.
WAGES? NOT SO MUCH. — Housing prices have jumped more than TENFOLD in the SCV since 1975.
THE HIGH PRICE OF LIVING IN CALIFORNIA — Folks were also complaining about the high cost of gasoline: 71 cents a gallon. With more taxes coming and oil refineries scheduled to leave the state, we might see gasoline jump tenfold in 2025 …
THE DARK SECRETS OF CASTAIC LAKE — A few locals thought they may have been filming a movie at Castaic Lake. Four frogmen were spotted diving into the deep waters. They were just on their regular job of patrolling the briny deeps, making sure pumps and valves were working properly. It was dangerous and dark work. Most of the time, divers couldn’t see a foot in front of their faces. Despite it being 110 degrees at the surface, the men had to wear full wet suits because it’s mighty cold on the bottom. They pulled all manner of odd things out of the lake, too, like phone booths, motorcycles and even a dead body. Many drowning victims have yet to be found in Castaic Lake.
HEAVEN PROTECT US FROM DO-GOODERS — Three biddies showed up at Katherine Hyde’s kennel, pretending they were looking to buy great Dane pups. Instead, they just were snooping. They snitched on the woman to Animal Control that she had seven cats on her premises. It ended up in court and Mrs. Hyde got a 30-day suspended jail sentence. The ridiculousness of it was that her kennel was on 120 acres in the middle of the national forest.
THE VANGUARD OF THE FAST FOOD INVASION — Here’s a major historical bookmark. On this date, they broke ground for the SCV’s first McDonald’s — right next to Denny’s on Chiquella Lane. I remember when they put up the construction sign. My pal Phil and I danced around it.
JULY 19, 1985
FIRE VISITS ONCE AGAIN — Once again, the residents of the Crescent Valley mobile home park on The Old Road had to flee. About 150 were evacuated when a big brush fire threatened. Almost 500 firefighters battled the Wildwood blaze that had jumped the mountain ridge.
MONSTER FROGGIE — It looked like a creature from “Star Wars” and if there were others like him, it could have been an ecological nightmare for the valley. A bullfrog nearly a foot long was found in the Santa Clara River by a couple of boys. They captured it and their parents brought the creature to Placerita Canyon Nature Center. The bullfrogs will pretty much eat anything smaller than themselves.
NOT WHAT YOU’D CALL PATRIOTIC. OR NICE. — Can you even imagine? What kind of creep(s) steal an American flag around the Fourth of July. That’s what happened — twice — at the McMullen Nursery in Placerita Canyon.
• • •
Just like real-life cowboying, our butts are a little tougher, we’re more interesting and we’ve got true-life Westerns tales to share with the unenlightened. See you back here at The Mighty Signal hitching post with another exciting Time Ranger adventure. Until then — vayan con Dios, amigos!
With more than 11,000 columns and 100-plus awards (119!), Santa Clarita’s John Boston is the most prolific humorist/satirist in world history. Look for his long-awaited sequel to “Naked Came the Sasquatch” — “Naked Came the Novelist” coming out this fall.
