Positively and simply staggering, how time flies. First Saturday of August. Each of you ask yourselves what you’re doing with your lives. Make a slight face. Shrug. Say, aloud, “Well there you go” and climb aboard that saddle.
We’re time travelers.
Not cowboy poets.
Well. Most of you …
We’ve a pretty interesting trek ahead, amigos. There’s fire-causing rats and fire-causing rats of the human variety. We’ve got a few gangs of bold-as-brass robbers, snake thieves and our own mini-Alcatraz (sans alligators).
You know how I normally suggest we mosey into yesterday?
To heck with that.
Let’s just jump out of the chute with our ears back and let the young and feeble land where they may.
Those of you on the left yell, “Yee.”
Those on the right scream, “Hah.”
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
OIL BE SEEING YOU, IN ALL THE OLD, FAMILIAR PLACES — On Aug. 1, 1876, the Pioneer Oil Refinery moved from its original location near where Eternal Valley cemetery is today over to its present-day location on Pine Street. It was the first successful commercial oil refinery in California. You can still visit the locale today — on Pine Street.
THAT BIG, LONG HOLE IN THE HILL — Back on July 27, 1876, the Soledad Canyon Railroad Tunnel was completed. Pretty much before that, you had to walk around and not through the mountain.
I’LL TAKE A PASS AT IT — Speaking of tunnels, on July 28, 1938, the Newhall Tunnel was replaced by the Newhall Pass. Let me make this one crystal clear. Starting in 1910, there was a car and truck tunnel linking Newhall with the San Fernando Valley. For nearly 30 years, that tunnel was the main road in and out of our valley. The tunnel was eventually filled and a cut in the hill was dug and that’s where Sierra Highway ends today.
WONDER IF ANY OF THE KIDS HAD THE TEMERITY TO ORDER ROOM SERVICE? — While Newhall and Sulphur Springs elementaries were in their infancy, the Presbyterian Church held an evangelical school in the old Southern Hotel with a Mrs. Hubbel.
AUGUST 2, 1925
RATS GNAWING ON MATCHES: GOOD BAND NAME. — After four days in hot, tough terrain, a small army of firefighters put out the last of a huge blaze in San Francisquito Canyon. It was as if Nature were trying to tell man not to keep working on the ill-fated St. Francis Dam. Of all things, the fire was thought to have started in the Frank Raggio home. Cause? Rats gnawing on matches.
COULD’VE HAVE USED SOME HART DISTRICT PEARL CLUTCHERS TO GET HARRY TO CHANGE THEIR NAME — Harry Carey’s baseball squad, aptly named the Indians (they were mostly made up of Navajo) beat up on the Latin Athletics, scoring in every inning. Sorry. The sports editor back then didn’t include a score.
ANYONE FOR BRIDGE? — Today, thousands cross over the Bouquet Bridge to get from Bouquet Canyon to the Soledad/Valencia intersection. A century back, workers were finishing up on the Soledad Bridge, near the Cheney Ranch. It was 12 feet high and over 200 feet long, crossing the mighty Santa Clara.
GOOD BLUEGRASS BAND NAME — Local constable Jim Biddison offered up an auction for some confiscated items: six large water barrels and three 600-gallon water tanks. If you drank from them, you might notice a curious aftertaste. They were taken from a gang of whiskey moonshiners.
AUGUST 2, 1935
OH WELL. THERE GOES MALE GENDER SUPERIORITY OUT THE WINDOW — An early blow for equality between the genders was struck with a baseball bat. The girls beat the boys at Newhall Elementary, 23-22. The lasses broke a 22-22 tie in the 9th.
AUGUST 2, 1945
WHEN THE HUMAN BRAIN GETS BROKE — A maniac roaming the Ridge Route in a black car, throwing flaming bottles of kerosene with rags sticking out, was blamed for setting a half-dozen fires through the northern part of the valley. Meanwhile, dry temperatures and lots of brush endangered Bermite from going up in a huge explosion. All fires were, obviously, extinguished.
THREE CHEERS FOR LUCY & THE SECOND AMENDMENT! — Dave Withers pulled a knife on the wrong person, in this case, Lucy Dixon. When he threatened to slit her throat in her own eatery, she pulled a revolver from behind the counter, placed it on his nose and had a customer call the cops. Withers was arrested and then some.
AND NARY A PENNY IN THE BUDGET FOR HUMAN RESOURCES — The very first budget for the 1945-46 school year of the infant Santa Clarita Union High School District was made public. The first year was a whopping $97,050 — but much of that was capital outlay for the actual building of the school.
AUGUST 2, 1955
THE DEMISE OF OLD LAKE NEWHALL — It’s the little things that make us happy. On this date, county road crews repaired the big indentation at the end of Newhall Avenue by 16th Street. During the winter rains, it used to fill up into a rather nice lake. Kids used to create makeshift rafts and float on it. Well. Until they tipped over.
REST WELL, O MIGHTY JOHN HENRY — He survived the St. Francis Dam disaster but he didn’t survive time. John Henry Kirkpatrick was buried in his Ruiz family cemetery up San Francisquito Canyon. He was born in 1877 and lived most of his life here.
TOO CLOSE TO HOME — Where’s a cop when you need one? Less than 100 yards from the CHP headquarters, armed bandits forced their way into the American Legion headquarters and took $1,877 at gunpoint. The masked men escaped without leaving a clue.
WAIT FOR A GOOD RAIN TO ESCAPE — Today, it’s that curious, abandoned little antique building baking in the back parking lot of the Newhall Library. In its last incarnation, it was the Antique Flower Garden on Spruce Street. It was built in the late 19th century and served as the valley jail for years. In its first creation, they didn’t quite get the ratio right for mixing the adobe mortar (either that, or some crooks were involved in that end of construction). The bricks were so porous, convicts could literally moisten a finger with spit, worry at the wall and tunnel their way out. The once-great Los Angeles Times ran a front-page cartoon with several convicts crawling out all the manmade holes. On this date, August Henkel bought the dungeon at auction for $1,500. They’d later sell it to attorney El Holt. The mini Alcatraz is still there. Alas, I don’t think if there’s any flowers left, there’s any freshness to them.
WOW! YOU LOOK LIKE A MILLION BUCKS. ALMOST. — Hart’s budget for 1955-56 was set at $938,201.
WATER YOU DOIN’ MAKING ALL THAT MONEY? (groan and sorry at the pun) — In its first year’s operation, the Newhall County Water District took in about $65,000 in revenues and spent just $28,000, earning a tidy little profit of about $37,000. NOTE TO SELF: I got to get me a water company …
AUGUST 2, 1965
AS THE OLD ‘HAPPY DAYS’ TV THEME SONG WENT: ‘WEDNESDAYS, THURSDAYS, HAPPY DAYS!!’ — Sixty years back, The Mighty Signal changed from being a Thursday paper to a Wednesday paper. It was delivered free of charge to every house in the valley then.
‘ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, WHAT’RE WE FIGHTIN’ FOR? — “If our country’s military affairs keep rolling along the way they have been going lately, a lot of our boys are soon going to find themselves a long way from Valencia Valley.” So wrote Scott Newhall in an editorial about our increasing involvement in a conflict called Vietnam. It was this paper’s style then to refer to the future and official Santa Clarita Valley as, “Valencia Valley.” Seems Scott Newhall came up with the name for the giant urban planned community years earlier.
AUGUST 2, 1975
SHE WAS ONE HECK OF A GAL, YOU SHOULDA KNOWN HER — Bobbie Trueblood was picked as chairman for Newhall’s and America’s centennial-bicentennial celebration. Talk about aliens taking the good jobs, Bobbie was a war bride and British citizen.
THE HANDMAIDEN OF GROWTH IS OFTEN CRIME — While the SCV continued to bulge, so did a variety of felonies. In the first six months of 1975, burglaries jumped 39%. Grand theft auto was up 20% locally as was aggravated assault by 9%.
HANG HIM. — A San Fernando Valley suspect was arraigned on a bevy of serious charges, from rape and kidnapping to attempted murder on two 14-year-old girls he picked up. The perp calmly offered the excuse that the two girls attacked him.
A WEIGHTY MATTER — Some young kid named Mike Herrington made the 1,000-Pound Club. The Hart football star and future Mighty Indian football champion head coach combined to lift a half-ton in the squat, military and bench press. I can’t remember. Is former city councilman Cameron Smyth a member of the 1,000-Pound Club?
AUGUST 2, 1985
THE EARLY DAYS OF SOUL-DULLING PORNO — “The lusty appetite of tens of millions of Americans for unadulterated cultural garbage is a matter of continuing wonder.” So wrote Scott Newhall in his front-page editorial’s lead paragraph. This week, 40 years ago, Scott railed again against the disintegrating moral fiber of America. I’m not sure Scotty, rascal that he was, would even recognize today’s cultural landscape.
OLD JOKE: ‘SORRY. I CAN’T TALK ANY LOUDER. I’M A LITTLE HORSE.’ — Down Pine Street lives one of the planet’s best horse trainers. On this date, Corky Randall was training Diamond Night. His screen name was the Black Stallion. Small world department? Corky ended up giving the stallion to a young, pretty handler and my pal, Kristi Parks. In fact (I still grin at this) we used to go riding together and I got to ride the black stallion …
KLEPTO-HISSIA — Speaking of critters, Placerita Canyon Nature Center was lighter by exactly two snakes. Someone — probably boys — broke in and swiped two reptiles. Luckily for the kids, the snakes weren’t poisonous.
TAKING A CHANCE ON COWBOYISM — Back in 1963, a retired merchant named Howard McKeon mortgaged his house to open up a Western clothing store in Canyon Country. His five sons, including future Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon, helped build the little mom-and-pop operation into the largest Western retailer in the United States by 1985.
AS THE BEATLES ALMOST USED TO SING, ‘STRAWBERRY FLAMES, FOREVER’ — This is a first for me. On this date, I believe the valley’s only strawberry stand fire occurred. The Tapia Brothers were hawking their fine berries out of a custom stand on Lyons Avenue when the thing went up in flames. Capt. Scott Franklin suspected arson. Well it sure wasn’t spontaneous strawberry combustion. Actually, the fire was set as a diversion to rob a jewelry store several miles away.
• • •
Well for the doldrums of August, this was sure one hoot of a trail ride into the backtrails of Santa Clarita history. What say we meet up again next weekend at the always-be-there-for-you Mighty Signal hitching post with another exciting Time Ranger adventure? Until then — 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. Look for “Naked Came the Novelist,” his long-awaited sequel to “Naked Came the Novelist” coming out this fall.
