It’s actually Halloween smack dab today and I thought what better 5-pound box o’ See’s Candy (the no-nuts version) treat to give my two loyal readers (“Brains On The Outside” Bernice in Castaic; Robert Ghoul-Lay in Valencia)? So. Here’s a little slice from Volume II of my Santa Clarita Valley History book, “Monsters.” Following are just a few of the strange and/or funny things in the historical record that actually happened on EVERY Halloween Day here in our riparian valley the past century plus.
TROUBLE A-BRUIN — Legendary cowgirl and miner Annie Rose Briggs was out riding on Halloween day in the late 1800s. Annie reported seeing grizzly footprints spanning 17 inches and scratch marks on an oak that were taller than she could reach — while standing on her saddle. The young Castaiceanite high-tailed it back home. It’s a terrible Halloween when you become the treat.
WITH APOLOGIES TO JOHNNY CASH’S, ‘I HEAR THAT TRAIN A-COMIN’ — In 1919, the worst train wreck in SCV history occurred in upper Canyon Country, south of Agua Dulce. Ten people were killed and 75 injured. Reports of the cause of the accident differed. Some witnesses said the Southern Pacific flyer was speeding to race a car. Others say the rails had become spread and the train simply derailed.
ALL-TIME AWARD FOR THE DARKEST SENSE OF HUMOR — Spotted Halloween, 1929, up Mint Canyon. A front-yard tombstone was inscribed: “Died, male; aged three months; unmarried.”
SPARE THE ROD. SPOIL THE MAYOR’S COUSIN. — Halloween 1932, Holmes Maclay of Newhall had an argument with a kid who kept pounding the 72-year-old man’s house with a stick. Maclay went out and slapped the child. The child told his mom. The mom told the cops. Holmes took an ancient cap-&-ball pistol, went to his back yard and blew his brains out. His cousin was the mayor of San Fernando and Maclay Street is still one of the major thoroughfares.
GAS LEAK?— Mrs. Alice Ward, 58, dropped dead on Halloween day, 1936, while paying her bill at the Southern California Gas Co. office. Odd happenstance? She was the second person in 10 years to drop dead at SoCalGas on Halloween day while paying her bill. Can’t imagine either of them seeing a gas bill in the 21st century …
TRIPLE TRICK — Halloween weekend in 1937, in three separate accidents, three people were pinned under their cars for hours until help arrived. Three victims survived, but suffered minor injuries. The fourth, a woman passenger, was dazed after her collision and wandered off into the wilds of Castaic. They never found her.
WELL. OK. — In Downtown Newhall, five teens from upper Saugus were arrested for possession of an “Oklahoma Credit Card.” That’s 1940s slang for a rubber hose used for siphoning gasoline from a car.
OUCH. — Halloween day, 1943, sheriff’s deputy Charles Rittenhouse was savagely bitten on the arm by an infuriated Castaic woman during a domestic dispute. I guess when you think about it, he probably would not have been savagely bitten by a calm woman, would he? The couple drew the sentence of being banished, forever, from the SCV.
DOUBLE ZAPPED — Halloween night, 1957, lightning placed poor old Earl Fetters into the Santa Clarita record books as the only local person known to be killed by a direct bolt from the heavens. Same night? Telephone operator Fetters at Powerhouse No. 1 in San Francisquito Canyon had just come back from sick leave after a heart condition. Dumb luck? A bolt of lightning hit the ground a few feet from where he was working and he died on the spot.
TAKE US TO YOUR LEADER — We had a rash of UFO sightings Halloween of 1973. An elderly Newhall woman reported a flash of blinding light in her window, as did a Saugus shopkeeper. High beams were suggested as the culprit. Two youths out hunting in Calgrove reported hearing an explosion and cloud of dust rising out of Towsley Canyon. This followed the sighting of a meteor flying through Newhall’s atmosphere.
SCLARITA SASQUATCH — In 1974, an unlikely group of big game hunters, trackers and paranormal experts wandered our back canyons, looking for the legendary Bigfoot. Some locals were concerned the hunters (who were sporting automatic weapons) might kill the 10-foot-tall hairy beast. A spokesman for state Fish & Game confessed it wasn’t against the law to murder a Sasquatch, if one did exist. Meanwhile, some folks wondered if Bigfoot were involved in the Halloween disappearance of 59-year-old Thelma Gardes, who turned up missing while hiking through the mountainous terrain of Bear Divide. BTW? There were Bigfoot tracks spotted here in Mentryville, back in the 1940s.
THE LAST GHOST OF THE ST. FRANCIS DAM? — Halloween day, 1980, a worker from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power visited San Francisquito Canyon to study the topography and why the St. Francis Dam failed in 1928, killing around 500 people. The engineer also visited the old Ruiz Family Cemetery, also known as The Chinese Graveyard, in which several victims of the flood were buried. The DWP worker vanished without a trace.
HOT DIGGETY DOG — One of our weirder Halloween parties occurred Halloween, 1999. Barbara and Jesse Hogan hosted “Halloweenie” — a costume party for dachshunds. Some 50 of the miniature wiener dogs showed up, dressed as pirates, super heroes, devils, angels, G.I. Joe and G.I. Jane, witches, vampires and yet, not a single werewolf.
ZOMBIES & PUMPKINS — Speaking of unusual parties, the city of SClarita held its 11th annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest at the Aquatics Center. Also? The city hosted their annual Zombie Run. I’d like to say participants enjoyed themselves, but I’m not sure if anyone has ever escaped without being eaten.
Alive.
John Boston, with more than 100 writing awards, is Earth’s most prolific humorist and satirist. If you want to get the entire, 12,000-word list of SCV Halloween tales in the “Monsters” book, you’ll have to tippy-toe over to johnboston-books.com. Look there also for “Naked Came the Novelist” his long-awaited sequel to “Naked Came the Sasquatch, in a matter of days.
