A warm — but hopefully not too darn warm — and Western howdy to you, saddlepals.
C’mon. Up and out of those bunks and don’t even think about trying to climb into the saddle in those yuppie flip-flops, baggy shorts and wife-beater T-shirts. Put on something cowboyesque and let’s get to moseying.
We’ve a most interesting trek ahead.
There’s bone-crushing game fines, self-inflicted gunshot wounds and general mayhem hunting ahead, along with the most unusual bus/watermelon accident in SCV history.
Don’t let your pony bloat up on water or hay-flavored Gatorade, by the way …
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
CHOOGA-CHOOGA, WOO-WOO — The very first train steamed through the Newhall Tunnel from the San Fernando Valley on Aug. 12, 1876. I wonder how many trains, freight, passenger, military or otherwise, have chugged through that tunnel since …
LET’S GIVE IT OUR — ahem — OIL — August sure is a busy history month. On Aug. 14, 1875, Charles Mentry began drilling for oil in Pico Canyon.
SERIOUS BLING — And, on Aug. 15, 1849, an 8-pound gold nugget was found in Santa Feliciana Canyon here. That’d be something to put on your mantle.
OUR VERY OWN JOHNNY APPLESEED — Except he was more like Johnny Acorn. The Santa Clarita used to be heavily forested in spots in the 19th century and certainly prior to that. But, in came the Spanish and the Californios behind them and the Americans behind them, followed by statehood. Many of the epic oaks were cut down to make way for farmland grading. The wood was used for local and Los Angeles fireplaces and construction. Town founder Henry Mayo Newhall wanted his valley to look more like a New England habitat and commissioned John Saunders to start planting oaks. And Saunders did. There are stories that Newhall also had Saunders plant a row of eucalyptus trees that stretched from his house near present-day Magic Mountain all the way into town and into present-day Hart Park as a bridle path. Except for Hart Park and along McBean Parkway, most of those trees are long gone. Stories from former historian A.B. Perkins was that Saunders also planted those big eucalyptus trees along State Route 126. Kick up the chainsaw, they’re gone, gone, gone as well.
AUGUST 16, 1925
MUST’VE HAD A VERY SHORT BARREL — I can’t even imagine how he did it, but he did. Lassano Balro managed to shoot himself in the upper thigh with a hunting rifle. That’s willful …
WHEN THREE DEER COST TWO HOUSES — Unless you’re filthy rich, I can’t imagine paying a fine like this in 1925 dollars. Lester Burneson organized a small hunting party and his trio was caught lugging out three bucks. And it ’twern’t rabbit season, duck season and especially deer season. Ranger Mel Frowfelter met them at the trailhead and dragged them before local judge Perkins. Because Burneson was the brains of the outfit, Perk fined him $1,150 and didn’t let him keep any of the venison. People. That kind of money would buy two houses in town back then.
AUGUST 16, 1935
OWL BE SEEING YOU, IN ALL THE OLD, FAMILIAR PLACES — Gladys Thibaudeau-Laney, mostly her life unhyphenated, my dear friend up there in heaven right now, this one’s for you. On this date, Charles Kingsburry was visiting the Thibaudeau home when a little monkey-faced owl flew directly into his chest. Mr. Kingsburry reportedly captured the barn visitor and if The Mighty Signal back then rings true, the bird was kept as a pet for a short season.
TWO-PEN BILL? — Two-Gun Bill Hart published another novel on this date. “Law on Horseback” hit the bookstores and was about, believe it or not, a “semi-outlaw” who is won back to civilization and morality. Critics called it “Gripping …”
I THINK I’D CONSIDER SUICIDE IF I WORKED IN A BORAX MINE — I love the poetry of small-town papers. Here is an account, in its entirety, of a suicide attempt at a local borax mine camp: “A worker at the Borax mine tried the poison route to heaven and peace the other day, but quick work headed him off.”
IN PRE-PC CLIMES, WHEN YOU COULD USE THE WORD, ‘DUTCH’ — The Newhall Food Center had a sale on Dutch Cleanser — three cans for 20 cents.
AUGUST 16, 1945
A ‘MELONCHOLY’ TALE — How’s this for a freak accident? A Greyhound bus skidded out of control and flipped after hitting a slippery stretch over the Piru Bridge on Highway 99. Seems a large watermelon truck crashed earlier and the bus careened out of control, slipping on — cripes — watermelon juice. Gets better, or, worse. The overturned bus was then hit by a Santa Fe bus coming the opposite direction. Ten folk were hurt.
HOW HART BECAME HART — Here’s a landmark date. Eighty years ago, the newly formed high school district officially adopted the name of William S. Hart Union School District. Originally, the district had a working title of Santa Clarita. But, most people in the valley didn’t like the name. So, the board went to this area’s most famous citizen, silent film screen star Two-Gun Bill Hart. Lester Dalbey, the high school’s first principal and architect of essentially the district and campus, noted in a written letter to Hart that it would please the people immensely if he would allow them to name the district and first high school after him. Hart, in declining health (he would die in 1946) relented.
Hart wrote back that “It makes a man’s eyes go moist to realize its significance.” He gracefully accepted in a letter of his own, but asked that if the trustees would reconsider, he’d prefer that it be called the General Fremont school and district, after the pioneering war hero who passed through here in the 19th century. Parents, teachers and students would gather soon after to come up with the mascot — the Indians — in honor of Hart’s Montana heritage and love of the Native Americans.
AUGUST 16, 1955
OH DEER GOODNESS ME SEASON — Growing up here, it’s hard to even remember what the place looked like before suburbia invaded. Hunters by the thousands used to come here for the start of deer season. On opening weekend, 5,500 registered hunters were in the area. They bagged 197 bucks the first two days.
ALMOST SHAKESPEAREAN: WHAT’S IN A NUMBER? — Folks were still grumbling about the forced change of street names and numbers by the county. The Frew Blacksmith shop on old Spruce Street had a rather fetching black iron number: 715. It had to be pulled in favor of the more sterile new five-digit address to fit with L.A. County’s master plans.
ONE MAN’S TRAGEDY — Of course, one business in town wasn’t exactly crying. The Mighty Signal was also the town’s only printer. We did a land office business selling everything from purchase orders to business cards.
AUGUST 16, 1965
AND WHO WANTS TO MARCH OVER TWO MOUNTAIN RANGES IN THE HEAT OF AUGUST TO LOOT A SLEEPY RANCHING COMMUNITY? — The Watts Riots raged about 30 miles south and locals were worried that the mayhem would somehow move across Beverly Hills, through the San Fernando Valley and with an end destination of little old Newhall. Rumors spread through town that there was a race riot in the then predominantly Black community of Val Verde. Turns out the gunfire was from a couple of kids target practicing on some tin cans in an empty field. Some folks were so scared that gun sales tripled during this period — coincidentally the same ratio as during the Rodney King verdicts. Also, the 20th anniversary of the Mr. and Miss Val Verde Muscle & Beauty pageant was cancelled.
SORRY. DIDN’T HEAR YOU GUYS CALLING. — An intensive search that lasted an amazing 10 days finally ended when two Saugus brothers, 11 and 13, were found camped out on a beach above Ventura. They ran away from home.
AUGUST 16, 1975
DIFFERENCE OF OPINION ON THE CAUSE OF DEATH — Grayce Russell’s husband called paramedics early one morning to report his wife had died in her sleep. She may have, but sheriff’s deputies noted she was strangled. Max was arraigned for her murder.
DIDN’T STOP THE SO-&-SO’S 50 YEARS LATER — The William S. Hart Union High School District tabled any further discussion about changing its name. Besides a local furor, it would cost a small fortune to change the logos on stationery, buses, etc.
TEEN FIRE BUG — A 19-year-old Canyon Country — well, we can’t exactly call him a youth — was held on arson charges in the setting of six major brush fires in his area. The blazes consumed more than 2,000 acres of brush and property.
HANDSOME GUY, THAT CIEPLIK — Sports Editor Walt Cieplik interviewed a fledgling young actor, Chuck Norris, on this date. The karate great had just finished his first picture, “Return of the Dragon,” with Bruce Lee.
AUGUST 16, 1985
DID THE EARTH MOVE FOR YOU? — It did for us 40 years back. Developers moved a million cubic yards of dirt — about one decent-sized hill — to make way for a shopping center near Sierra Highway and Soledad. REALLY weird thing about that construction? Residents in the area reported thousands of spiders, ants and tarantulas stampeding the night before across Sierra Highway.
THAT’S JUST $333,333 PER HOLE — One of the country’s great golf courses was sold to the Uniden company on this date. For a paltry $6 million, the Japanese bought the championship Valencia Golf Course. It caused a lot of controversy back then because that was in the middle of Japan buying up so much American real estate and companies. I’m guessing the 175-acre, 7,171-yard golf course might go for a smidge more these days.
SOME SWINE STOLE SOME PIGS — A total of 23 sows and boars, valued at $3,500, were taken from a Lost Canyon hog farm. Although they had no brand, the owner said he could identify each and every one of them.
• • •
I treasure these Sunday mornings with you all, dear neighbors, truly do. Until our next Sunday’s ride together, I bid you — vayan con Dios, amigos!
Local historian and the world’s most prolific satirist/humorist John Boston will be soon launching a new eclectic bookstore and multimedia/commentary website on writing — johnboston-books.com. You can pick up his various local history books on a famous website named after a leggy ancient woman warrior and South American river but can’t, for some strange reason, be mentioned in italics. Look for “Naked Came the Novelist,” his long-awaited sequel to “Naked Came the Novelist” coming this fall.
