Normally, I stand quietly in your hallways, hat in hand, waiting for you to wake, being careful not to scratch your linoleum with my spurs.
But, this morning? Let me just say this and say it with due sincerity. Jump your yuppie butts into those jeans and boots. Hop in the saddle. Quick. Mad dog full gallop, do not trot, to the Santa Clarita Valley time portal. We’ll get coffee in the next dimension.
This may be the most exciting Time Ranger trail ride of all time and you know what they say about time. There’s sure a lot of it …
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
HOW’S THIS FOR A BARGAIN? — On Oct. 20, 1873, a couple of Santa Barbara barristers, Charles Fernald and J.T. Richards, went to a sheriff’s bankruptcy auction. There, they purchased the entire Santa Clarita Valley. It was called the Rancho San Francisco back then. The law dogs paid $33,000 for the land, or, about 75 cents an acre.
OCTOBER 25, 1925
MEMO TO GREG AMSLER — On this date, famed movie star and San Francisquito Canyon rancher Harry Carey expanded his Trading Post. Back then, the canyon road was the main state highway to the Grapevine and Central California beyond. Carey opened a 24-hour “up-to-date” restaurant called the Navahogan. You know, note to my pal, Greg Amsler, owner of Salt Creek. Next posh eatery you open up here, amigo, you should call it the Navahogan!
DON’T GET SICK NEXT TO AN OSTRICH — One of the oddest darn stories took place exactly a century back. A truck loaded with 20 ostriches stopped in Newhall to have a flat tire fixed. They were headed to San Francisco for an exhibition. Only 12 made it. Somewhere along the winding Ridge Route, eight got car sick. The sick birds were trampled to death by the well birds.
OCTOBER 25, 1935
WE ALWAYS GET THE BIG STORIES FIRST — That’s the wonderful thing about The Mighty Signal — you always hear the important news first here. Back on this date, the page 1 headline in your august community weekly was: “DEPRESSION OVER.” The article went on to quote R.R. Riedel, manager of the local Bank of America: “The Depression seems to be over. People have been hanging back on anything like investments for the past five years and paying debts and only using money for expenses. Now they are beginning to ask about real estate, and stocks and buildings. The tone of business seems much better, and men go into deals in confidence, rather than in fear.”
AHHHH. DOES A WRITER’S HEART GOOD — “Two-Gun” Bill Hart’s latest novel, “Law on Horseback,” was released on this date, to positive reviews. He was in town and he did pretty well locally, selling about 200 copies. That number amounts to about one copy per every 15 people in the valley.
THE FUTURE, GOOD OR BAD, IS WITH OUR YOUTH — Signal editor A.B. Thatcher wrote perhaps his best editorial on this date. It was a simple tome about a lack of civic pride and community glue. Thatcher’s solution? Build a local high school.
THE UNFAIRNESS OF BUREACRACY — One thing that brought passion to the issue of our own high school was our relationship with the Los Angeles Unified School District. They wouldn’t build a campus out here and local kids had to use LAUSD school buses to get to San Fernando or Palmdale highs. Sometimes, the buses would break down, or be late. The SCV kids were still given tardy slips nonetheless. What kind of booger-eating pinhead school administrator gives tardy slips when the bus breaks down?
THERE WAS NO FOOD BANK FOR HORSES BACK THEN — Today, we don’t think much of brush fires unless they’re threatening structures. Back on this date, a blaze singed hundreds of acres of rich pastureland in Hasley Canyon. Rancher R.R. Sloan had to quickly find a lot of feed for his cattle and horses and it wasn’t like the Red Cross was going to fly in any alfalfa.
UFO ALIEN ORB? — One of the strangest items I’ve ever come across is a snippet in The Saturday Evening Post from this date about a strange rock, the size of an egg, yet, so heavy, several men couldn’t lift it. The orb reportedly burned in a truck fire near present-day Sierra Highway.
OCTOBER 25, 1945
POSTMASTER ARRESTED FOR ARSON — I suppose it’s the same, wherever you go, small town or large. On a regular basis, some figure in the public trust will be caught in some heinous and/or stupid stunt.
Eighty years back, Acton postmaster Clarence Rush was arrested for burning the Acton Hotel to the ground. Rush was also the manager of the historic retreat. He had been entrusted with a thousand dollars from Samuel Schorr, owner of the A.H. When Capt. Schorr came back from World War II, he was saddened and horrified that not only had his close friend absconded with the funds while he was defending America, Rush had also pocketed the hotel’s receipts during Schorr’s tour of duty AND sold off the furnishings for personal profit.
It gets worse.
Schorr confronted Rush. The postal executive then threatened to burn the high-ceiling circa 1890s landmark to the ground if Schorr went to authorities. Schorr turned him in. Rush was arrested, released on bail, then promptly set a torch to the building and, by morning, all that was left were a few charred timbers and the brick foundations. Interestingly, Rush’s wife helped battle the flames.
The Acton Hotel had once hosted some of the world’s most famous people. Several presidents, including Teddy Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, stayed there. But, it went through several owners during the 20th century, declining slowly. Damage to the totaled hotel was listed at $15,000 in 1945. Over the years, people helped themselves to the unique red bricks (which were made locally) in the walkways and foundations. By the early 1960s, any last vestige of the great hotel was gone.
BANISHED FOR BEING NUTZOID — I’m sorry. I lack any words better than Signal editor Fred Trueblood’s on this description of a bungled suicide attempt: “A 4-foot headlong dive, repeated, from the top bunk in the detention cell at the Soledad Courthouse, to the hard concrete floor below, was not enough to put an end to the troubles of Sharon Earle Morris, age 32, of Los Angeles.” Seems Morris had been found on the side of Highway 99 under the heinie of C.D. Gross. The teamster had given the hitchhiker a ride, but pulled over to let him out when Morris started acting, well. Colorful. Morris got out, but he took Gross’ keys while yelling, “I’ll teach you how to drive a truck without grinding the gears.” Gross caught up with him and some passers-by called local law enforcement. Gross sat on Morris until they arrived. This last part I rather enjoyed. When he had failed his last suicide plunge from the top bunk, a deputy ran into his cell and ordered him to sit in a chair, noting: “You can’t break your neck from that short distance.” Judge Art Miller gave the former mental patient and Folsom inmate a sentence of banishment from the SCV for one year.
OCTOBER 25, 1955
HOG RUSTLIN’ — Ranch foreman Antonio Oropaso Salas was arrested all the way down in Norwalk for stealing 10 prize Hampshire hogs and a pickup truck from the Jim Kasabian ranch in Castaic. Upon arrest, Salas, in handcuffs, offered a Hall of Fame comment: “Hot pigs. She’s hard to get rid of. I shouldn’t have done it.”
THE BLACK ‘LORD OF STEALTHY MURDER’ — A pure black mountain lion was reported spotted in Railroad Canyon, by Hart Park. Two residents and some rail yard workers offered the reports on different times. No need to steady your horses. That cougar’d have to be about at least 77 years old by now.
MIGHT BE A SCV COLLISION RECORD — Joe Burt of Redondo Beach drifted over the center line and struck five separate cars. Luckily, no one in the six cars was seriously injured.
YOU OLDTIMERS REMEMBER NEWHALL LAKE? — The new storm drain system for Newhall Avenue near 16th Street was completed. That part of town used to turn into a lake during the rainy season.
DAM IT ALL … — Same week, the final bulldozer shovel full of dirt was ceremoniously placed on the giant Santa Felicia dam. It was quite a sight, too. A giant bulldozer had to help push the first bulldozer up the steep hill so it could drop its final load. The entire dam was ahead of schedule and was finished at the end of 1955. Today, Santa Felicia is better known as Lake Piru. That project helped tame the sometimes-violent Piru Creek.
OCTOBER 25, 1965
THE SCV’S MOST AMAZING CHILDBIRTHING STORY — I’ll eat a hat (not mine) and say, “Boy, howdy” if you can nominate a better Entering the World tale. It starts like this:
Val Verde sculptor Fred Wilson and his wife, Jessie, had more adventure than the average pregnant couple care to enjoy. In the midst of contractions, they were rushing to Sun Valley to have their baby when Jessie, between puffing sounds, told her husband she didn’t think she could wait to get to Sun Valley and asked her hubby to try Holy Cross.
Problem:
Fred didn’t know where the heck Holy Cross Hospital was.
Racing down San Fernando Road at supersonic speeds, Fred couldn’t get the attention of two sheriff’s deputies parked along the road. He tried honking the horn, but his horn only worked when he rubbed two wires together in the wheel.
He sped on, running a red light in front of another cop car while waving frantically out the window. Wilson reported the officer just watched him and shook his head.
He ran a third light, this time, with a motorcycle cop behind him. Nope. The cop didn’t give chase.
Finally, Wilson just ran in to a drive-through restaurant to get directions to Holy Cross. When he got back to the car, his wife was much calmer. And happy. She had delivered while he was in the restaurant. Talk about short labor.
It’s not over.
On the way to Holy Cross, Wilson hit a car but didn’t stop. He was followed all the way by the motorist, who was swearing at him in Spanish.
Zoi Tremayre Wilson happily joined her mom, dad and three brothers.
OLD VALENCIA WELCOMES NEW VALENCIA — When they had the ribbon cutting for a brand new planned urban community back in October 1965, the mayor of Valencia, Spain, was on hand as guest of honor. For the record, that would be Dr. Don Adolfo Rincon de Areliano. The eminent European heart surgeon (he worked from early morning to 11:30 as mayor then spent the rest of his day with family or at his practice) brought with him a tasseled bag of earth from his native city. Also on hand was the valley’s honorary mayor, Judge C.M. MacDougall, who, obviously, didn’t have as far to drive. Another honored guest? Fred Wilson, the artist who just drove through the stuntman childbirth episode.
THE ORIGIN OF VALENCIA — I’ve mentioned last week the name, “Valencia” came from Signal publisher Scott Newhall. Another tidbit: The original name, “Valencia,” was given to the area in Spain by the Romans 2,000 years earlier. It means: “City of the Valley.”
OCTOBER 25, 1975
BIGFOOT ON A MILK CARTON? — Usually, you see “Garage Sale” or “Missing Cat” signs on telephone poles. But up in Acton and Agua Dulce, the California Society for the Exploration of the Unexplained were hanging “wanted” posters for a creature known as Ohma, Mountain Devil, or, the more popular: “Bigfoot.” For several years during the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were several expeditions searching for the North American yeti right here in the good old SC of V.
JANITOR LOUNGE — Great name for a blue-collar bar in East Newhall? The former local office of Fifth District county supervisors Warren Dorn and Baxter Ward were remodeled at the Valencia Civic Center. They were turned into a janitors’ lounge. Cost to taxpayers: $6,755. Put me down for a Janitor Jin ‘n’ Tonic or a Custodian’s Cosmopolitan Cooler …
OIL SHENANIGANS? — Jack Anderson, whose column appeared in The Mighty Signal, wrote 50 years ago today that the upcoming oil, gasoline and natural gas shortages predicted for the winter of 1975 were a hoax, perpetrated by the major oil companies.
SOME, WOULD NOT BE MISSED — Hard to believe, but with William S. Hart Union High School District budget woes, they actually axed all ninth grade sports. On this date, a special session of the district brought the sports back from the dead. Meanwhile, local high school teachers, angered by a lack of a promised pay raise, voted for a one-day job walk-off.
RESCUE TWO MILES UP — Bailey McRoberts, a 19-year-old Newhall teen, almost never made it to his grandmother’s house in Bishop. McRoberts stopped to do some deer hunting near Independence. He was snow-blinded at the 10,000-foot elevation, but, by making a smoldering fire of pine cones, he aided rescuers in finding him.
THAT DARN RUTH NEWHALL HAD A WAY WITH WORDS — The California Highway Patrol released a list of items recovered from an ag-theft ring. Among the itemized: a $25,000 harvester; 35 cows and $52,000 in bull semen. As managing editor Ruth Newhall put it so succinctly: “They don’t say whether that’s a little or a lot.”
AND YOU THOUGHT HOUSE CATS WERE TEMPERMENTAL — Signal photographer Craig Fougner learned the lesson the hard way. On assignment to photograph a local full-grown African female lion, Fougner agreed to help its owner by taking it to the vet in the back of his station wagon after the shoot. The sickly lion perhaps didn’t like the car because she tore the back to shreds, threw up on it and relieved herself several times. “You know what it smells like when a pet has an accident in your car?” Fougner asked. “Multiply that times 10.”
OCTOBER 25, 1985
AND TODAY, THERE SEEMS TO BE A STOPLIGHT EVERY 22 FEET — For me, who was here before there were stoplights, this was a dark day in history. A stoplight was ordered to be placed at the Lyons-Apple intersection.
TREE KILLER — Same week, developer Fernando Farura turned himself in to regional planning. His contractor “accidentally” knocked over a heritage oak on a development along Vermont Street.
SHIRLEY, YOU JEST — Shirley Clarke of — dare I say it, Palmdale — was arrested four decades back for being, well. If not dumb, then perhaps too honest. After she was pulled over by the CHP, the officer noticed a baggie filled with pills on the seat next to her. When asked what she was doing with them, Clarke’s reply: “They’re just some bennies I’m selling for a friend.” That little theater of probable cause unearthed more than 1,000 amphetamine tablets, boxes of drug paraphernalia, vials of marijuana, cocaine and a loaded pistol. Too Honest Shirley was promptly arrested.
AND, THIS WEEK’S TIME RANGER COLUMN IS OUT WITH A BANG — A Los Angeles woman, Valerie Heekin, sued Magic Mountain on this date. Charge? Sexual discrimination. Seems the Happy Hump wouldn’t allow Heekin to hold a gay pride celebration there. Magic Mountain spokesperson on the project was, clearing of the throat here, blushing and not making this up: Sherrie Bang.
• • •
Phew. Dear me, that was exciting. I’m headed for the oaks near Little Tujunga for a nap and contemplation. You think we can top this one next Sunday? Let’s give it a college try. 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 online. Look for “Naked Came the Novelist,” his long-awaited sequel to “Naked Came the Novelist” coming this fall.
