Trust you dear saddlepals survived Halloween yesterday all ducky and intact. Isn’t it funny how there can be not that much going on for most of the year and fall comes traipsing around and we enter the gauntlet of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hannukah and New Year’s. Nothing too epic after that until April and my birthday.
We’ve got hog farms and hot dogs, duck fires (Yes. Duck fires.) and the story of when the inventor of the modern Halloween mask moved to Newhall. We’ve also got our very own water psycho to visit. Be very afraid. We’re also going to pay a lengthy visit to the valley’s official warlock — and his name was Johnny Boston.
Considering the date, I’m guessing most of us dressed up as cowboys yesterday and are still in costume. Shall we slip into the past and do a little post-trick-or-treating on horseback? This many of us going through to the Santa Clarita Valley past at the same time, it sure would scare the locals …
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
RING-A DING-A DINGY — There were 10 telephones total in the Acton-Agua Dulce region of the SCV back in 1908.
WHEN NEWHALL WAS SAUGUS AND SAUGUS WAS NEWHALL — Back on Oct. 28, 1876, the Newhall Train Station was dedicated. Sorry about the confusing nature of this, but the Newhall Train Station was first built in Saugus, across the street from the present-day Saugus Cafe. It moved, along with the rest of the town, a little over a year later due to lack of water. Do you suppose it would be a violation of some time traveling ethic for all of us to tell the pioneers of Newhall to build the train station at Market and Railroad and save themselves a lot of grief?
MORE PIGGIES THAN PEOPLE — In the 1920s and 1930s, there were more hogs than people in the SCV. Former garbage mogul, banker and hog farmer Aggie Agajanian had a 200-acre ranch then. He alone had 2,500 hogs. We had more hogs than people here up until the 1950s.
GANGSTER BROTHERS — Legendary pistol fighter and road agent Tiburcio Vasquez had three brothers and two of them lived in the area. Francisco was a citizen of Rabbit Lake (today, Lake Elizabeth). Claudio lived in Soledad City. While visiting Claudio one day in 1871, Tibby discovered the perfect hide-out, a place locals called, “The Rocks.” By 1876, it was called “Vasquez Rocks,” named after our dashing but evil friend. Tiburcio would build a house that would be smack dab in the middle of the 14 freeway at Placerita Canyon (and, several feet below, as the freeway is raised). Vasquez also had a home on what is Railroad Avenue today in Downtown Newhall. Vasquez owned the property under the name of Ricardo Cantuga. His other spread was called Rancho Posa de Chane.
STANDS FOR ‘ORIGINAL CATTLE?’ — The first herd of cattle The Newhall Land & Farming Co. ran in the SCV bore the brand, “OC.” It was from a ranch where they bought the steers.
NOVEMBER 1, 1925
HOT DIGGITY DOG — A. Arnoldstein ran a hot dog stand up Castaic way and he packed serious ordnance. On this date, a bold robber held up Mr. A.A. and liberated $12 cash from his stand, escaping in a Model T under a hail of bullets from the vendor.
NAGGING, CUBED? — Famed actor Harry Carey employed an entire Navajo Indian village to work his 1,000-acre-plus spread in San Francisquito Canyon. What raised a few eyebrows was a cultural tidbit that in some Navajo enclaves, it wasn’t unusual for a man to marry several sisters from the same family. Boy howdy. Talk about ganging up …
NOVEMBER 1, 1935
ONE CHICKEN LEFT — Not a good evening for Bill Gulley. The Newhall rancher lost about everything except his family and one (1) chicken. A flame started in the chicken coup, killing hundreds of prize birds and quickly spread, taking every building in the compound including the Gulley house.
NOVEMBER 1, 1945
FINALLY! A NEW CAR IN TOWN!! — About 500 people — a significant portion of the valley’s population — showed up at the Doty Ford dealership to check out the first 1946 model for sale. America’s car manufacturers stopped making cars in 1942 because of the war. Also on sale were Army surplus Jeeps. They went for $1,250, with a small catch. You couldn’t buy one, unless you were somehow connected to the government.
THE SCV ADOBE RECIPE — Prominent local physician Dr. William Ross started construction on his beautiful 8th Street home, one hill across from the Hart Mansion. What made the construction unusual was that we were going through a shortage of building materials. Ross circumvented that by literally building from the ground up, using the soil on his property to make a special “Newhall version” of adobe, which was much more waterproof and stronger than the Southwest recipe. All master brick maker Juan Mojica had to do was add a little sand to the mixture to make a few thousand bricks. The process is thousands of years old. The house, one of the best of the valley’s older ones, still stands today, after a few major earthquakes, too. Good hustle, Señor Mojica, wherever you may be …
A FIRE MOST FOWL — Local firefighters had seen just about everything that could be burned, burn. But this blaze was anything but ducky. Four dozen wooden decoy ducks somehow caught fire in a car trailer here. All of the fowl mannequins ended up as charcoal.
NOVEMBER 1, 1955
FRED. THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE HALLOWEEN MASK. —Long about this time of year, all over the world, people will celebrate the work of Newhall resident Fred Hagemann. He is best known as inventing the rubber latex Halloween mask. He retired here in the early 1950s after selling all his patents and his factory in Connecticut. Prior to the mid-1940s, the trick or treat disguise of choice was the paper mask.
GENE AUTRY’S TRAIN — On this date a half-century back, Gene Autry’s narrow gauge railroad train arrived in Saugus. The legendary movie and TV superstar bought the little coal-carrying tender from the Denver & Rio Grande line. The train arrived on regular Southern Pacific flatcars and was transferred to Melody Ranch. That train is still with us today at Hart Park. Well. Actually, the Santa Clarita History Center, home of the beloved SCV Historical Society.
NOVEMBER 1, 1965
BURROBOYS? — Four wranglers left for a three-week trek from Mint Canyon to Beatty, Nevada. What’s so interesting about that 600-mile round trip? The four cowpokes were riding burros. Even better, they were entering the World Championship Burro Race. The gang was sponsored by the Canyon Country Chamber of Commerce.
THE TIME RANGER’S NAMESAKE — Agua Dulce had its very own warlock. His name? Johnny Boston. Owner of Boston Hardware, he was known from there to Lone Pine for his ability not to cast spells, but to find water. Boston began his side career of finding underground water back in Blair, Nebraska. Actually, JB wanted to become a concert violinist. He worked at the Boston Iron Works with his two brothers in Los Angeles. In 1940, he moved up here, opening his own rural hardware store, specializing in well drilling and builders’ supplies. But mainly, he became known for “witching” wells — finding that right spot where to sink a water well. Watching Boston (the other one) was a treat. He used a “divining wire” and mumbled to himself as he walked across a dry area. Then, the rod would start vibrating strongly, Boston would stop suddenly and point straight down. Usually, there was a hidden stream underfoot. Again — I get this quite a bit. Water warlock John Boston of Agua Dulce? No relation to Yours Truly. None whatsoever. What are the odds?
REDISTRICTING, 1965 STYLE — Most folks thought there wasn’t enough of Newhall to bisect. But, the state Senate found a way. They agreed to give the area two state senators. Each would represent the valley on their side of the Southern Pacific railroad tracks.
NOVEMBER 1, 1975
TEACHER STRIKE — Just before dawn, the phones started ringing off the hook at the William S. Hart Union High School District. Teachers staged a one-day sick-out to protest a computer glitch that lost the district a sizable six-figure sum, which was to partially go for small raises. About two-thirds of the teachers didn’t show and classes were run by substitutes and parent volunteers. The average teacher salary 30 years ago was $15,211 a year.
NUTS & NAKED — Nope. Not an X-rated vaudeville act. A water enthusiast wearing just a smile tumbled for a wild ride through the California Aqueduct. A couple of truckers tried to pull him out, but he didn’t want to leave the cold waters of the canal. Waving and grinning, he sped through aqueduct at 30 feet per second before hitting the Gorman Creek siphon.
The man was sucked into the 8-foot diameter pipe and fell 22 feet, continuing his strange odyssey down the 500-foot-long pipe. Out the other side, he was splashed into the lake. He then dashed over a chain link fence where he was confronted by California Highway Patrol officer J.H. Walls.
It was a cold October day with the wind howling. Walls offered the nudist a blanket and the sanctuary of the back seat of his black-&-white. Instead, the swimmer, one Bob Duncan from Indianapolis, ripped the CHiPster’s badge from his shirt and threw it into the deep and mysterious waters of the Pyramid. He ran off and was quickly apprehended.
Turns out Mr. Duncan was a triple-threat: an escaped mental patient/nudist on LSD. Duncan said he stopped by the California Aqueduct for a drink and decided to disrobe and jump in for a swim. Well, sure.
ALL THE WRAGE — Good thing I don’t believe in age because you might think I was approaching maturity. But, 50 years back, in The Mighty Signal’s sports section, the lead headline was about how an impish munchkin of a little kid — Randy Wrage — helped propel his AYSO team to victory. Yipes. I used to babysit the guy. Randy currently is a mucky muck SCV developer.
NOVEMBER 1, 1985
CROOKS VISITING CROOKS — Some folks bemoan the high number of people incarcerated in the nation’s prisons. On this date 40 years back, I guess you could make a case that maybe the numbers were too low. Local sheriff’s deputies conducted a sting operation, attempting to crack down on outsiders smuggling everything from drugs to guns to the inmates at Wayside Honor Rancho. They nabbed 16 people. Seized were three revolvers, two martial arts throwing stars, cocaine, amphetamines and marijuana. Of the total, 12 were women. On a typical weekend, officers will arrest an average of four visitors, some of whom are wanted felons.
• • •
Time surely flies. Twenty years ago, my honey bunny daughter, Indy Pie, was 2 and we had gone trick-or-treating the night before. Indiana went as a game warden. See all y’all in seven, and, 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. 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.
