More than 300 families passed through the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society’s first-ever Polar Express Experience on Saturday.
The event combined the popularity of the nonprofit’s Mogul 1629 engine and Christmas-themed activities aimed across generations, from a storytime session featuring “The Polar Express” to tours of the inside of the steam locomotive at the Santa Clarita History Center in Newhall.
But the Historical Society also had more normative historical artifact displays as part of the event – pieces that are just as interesting no matter the season, especially for Santa Clarita residents interested in the region’s fascinating 20th century.
Brad Jorgensen, a volunteer with the Historical Society, had brought several historical artifacts he’d uncovered in the Santa Clara riverbed and other areas. Jorgensen’s involvement with the society started with an internship while he was finishing his bachelor’s degree in history, he said.
“I wanted an excuse to get into the Saugus Train Station, so I reached out to do an internship, and I did some scanning and things. But my real passion is outside,” Jorgensen said. “I do a lot of hiking in the hills and the canyons, and you find a lot of cool stuff when you know what to look for.”
Items brought for display Saturday included insulators – or old-fashioned power line parts – cosmetic jars from the 1930s and ’40s, and a piece of one of the worst engineering disasters in modern history: concrete from the St. Francis Dam, which collapsed in the 1920s and killed more than 400 people.
“After Hurricane Hillary a couple of years ago, the river washed out a lot of their banks, and people used to just dump things off the side of the river bank, so it exposed a lot of history,” Jorgensen said. “Same with these cosmetic jars. I found them right behind the Saugus Cafe.”
Jorgensen said he’s at most SCV Historical Society events, regardless of theme – both kids and adults visiting the Polar Express Experience passing by Jorgensen’s table seemed pleasantly surprised at being able to see and touch pieces of local history.
But combining the ever-popular steam engine with the Christmas theme was a huge hit for drawing in families, said Philip Scorza, a member of the nonprofit’s board of directors.
“It is a steam engine, first off, which is totally different from today’s engines. And you can climb up on the steam engine, and you can hear the kids are ringing the bell. They’re loving it,” Scorza said. “I think we’re safe to say that we’re seeing something that we’re going to do every year.”
