Aren’t we positively lucky, to be living in a Garden of Eden where it’s a million below zero back east and we’re lounging resplendent in T-shirt weather?
C’mon. Slip that left boot toe into the stirrup, add a little bounce and swing up into the saddle. We’ve a most darn interesting trail ride into Santa Clarita history and lore ahead.
First, it’s our birthday! We’re 107 and don’t look a day over 106. We’ll be saying, “howdy!” to movie stars, crooked politicians, ancient oaks wrongly felled and some rather creepy and recent supernatural encounters in San Francisquito Canyon.
Shall we tug on our hats, offer a can-do winning smile and head out into the mystic?
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
REMEMBERING DAD — A young lad by the name of A.B. Thatcher started up a newspaper called the Lucky Valley Era in the town of that name in Iowa, 1882. Except for a seven-year stint as a town clerk in Nebraska, Thatcher had been in the newspaper business. He also founded the Star newspaper in Sloan, Iowa, the Naber Enterprise in Naber, Nebraska, and worked on the Sioux City Tribune in 1923. Nicknamed “Dad,” he came to Newhall in 1925 to buy the Newhall Signal from Blanche Brown where he operated it for 13 years, selling it in 1938 to Fred Trueblood. Dad would eventually become the oldest working reporter in Southern California, writing a weekly column until his last breathing day when he was 88. I say this publicly. I’m going to break his record. But don’t ever call me Dad unless you’re my daughter, Indiana.
HORSESHOE HART — On this very day in 1921, William S. Hart, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, purchased the Horseshoe Ranch in Newhall from Mr. Babcock Smith.
ABE NEVER LIKED HIM — Abraham Lincoln dryly referred to him as, “master of all he surveys” and refused to name him surveyor general of the United States. He was a controversial character who amassed a fortune in crooked real estate deals and one of our state historic monuments is named after him. Gen. Edward Fitzgerald Beale was born Feb. 4 in 1822, back in Washington, D.C. Had he lived, he would have been 184 this week. That’s more than a couple of pounds of birthday candles.
FEBRUARY 7, 1919
HAPPY DARN BIRTHDAY TO THE MIGHTY SIGNAL!!!! — Well. This is where the whole mess started — Feb. 7, 1919. On that date, 87 years back, the first-ever issue of The Mighty Signal was published.
Best as we know, there is just one copy left of that original run. It’s crinkled and torn. The upper right hand corner is completely missing. I’ve taped the darn thing together more times than I can remember over the years.
That first issue carried stories about Gen. Pershing in France and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in Newhall, along with 200 cast and crew members. They were filming his new movie, which had the working title of “Douglas at the County Fair.” Downtown Newhall was transformed into a happy, festive place, complete with dancing horses.
Signal Editor Ed Brown, who died about a year later after starting this paper, ran a wish list of what the small community of 500 souls needed. Here’s the whole request: “Bank; Moving Picture; General Merchandise Store; General Machine and Implements; Chop and Feed Mill; Pool Hall; Millinery Store: Steam Laundry; Cobbler Shop; Harness Shop; Furniture Store; Cheese Factory; Skinning Station; Sugar Factory.” Well. Except for the cheese factory and skinning station, we’re just about there.
The very first classified ad cost just a quarter and read: “For your cigars, cigarettes and tobacco go to L.G. Pullen, the Barber.”
For some of you grammarian sticklers, the very first typographical error in the paper was, appropriately, leaving the “j” off the word, “jackass.”
The very first display ad was for Newhall Lumber. Which was still in business up until a few decades ago. So as you can readily see — it pays to advertise in The Mighty Signal …
FEBRUARY 7, 1926
A RIGHTEOUS SOAKING — In modern Santa Clarita, whether or not it rains is a minor question relating to whether one should take an umbrella and leave a few minutes early for work. But, 100 years back, we were primarily an agricultural community that lived and died on the whimsy of raindrops. After a long drought, we had about 4 inches fall within a week, soaking into the ground for both crops and foraging vegetation for livestock. Folks were standing under porches, looking up at the clouds and smiling.
A VALUABLE LIFE’S LESSON FROM A WORLD-FAMOUS MOVIE STAR — Tom Mix, the local movie star who had his own production company here and was, at this time, the most famous person in the world, was shooting an oater out at Vasquez Rocks. Mix’s company had a remuda of horses for the flick. At sunset, a couple of wranglers noticed a pair of ponies were missing. Come sun-up, the cowboys traced the horses to a box canyon where a pair of horse thieves abandoned their livestock and headed up to the hills. Agua Dulce was a small town and soon word got out about the thieves’ identity. A neighbor convinced two teenage boys to turn themselves in to not the law, but Tom Mix Himself. Mix confronted the red-faced youths and remarked: “Boys, this kind of work will get you nowhere. Quit it, go to school, learn your lessons, and if I can be of any help to you later, why let me know. Write to me.” The boys were released without charges being pressed.
PRO-BOOZE — Signal editor A.B. “Dad” Thatcher was a lifelong anti-Prohibition man and wrote frequent columns and editorials damning the constitutional amendment that outlawed alcohol in America. On this date, he noted the father of the country, George Washington, drank. Yes he did. Had ill-fitting wooden teeth, too.
FEBRUARY 7, 1936
EARNING OUR STRIPES — It had taken nearly a decade, but the new road stripes were being painted on Spruce Street. (That’s Main Street today.) Beginning in the 1920s, California began a project of running the new state highway smack dab through downtown Newhall. It was rather an epic project (and, aesthetically, not a real pleasing one). Starting as a back street, buildings were partially removed and a major four-lane road (that’s still there today) was built. Interestingly, it was the work of the local Kiwanis Club and a chicken rancher, R.C. Gibson, who kept both the county and state on task. On this date, a squadron of suits and mucky mucks were on hand for the ribbon cutting.
FEBRUARY 7, 1946
THE GREAT WHITE SLAVE TRIAL ESCAPE — The “Trial of the Century” (at least up to that date) ended with a spectacular escape. A pair of “white slavers” were being tried for a variety of charges, from pandering to kidnapping. The Hollywood gangsters drew the attention of national media in the little Newhall courthouse on Market Street. (You know. The one the city just tore down?) Lon Gamble and Ed Clark were both given stiff sentences for operating a prostitution school in the tony Arcadia neighborhood. One problem? They set up shop right next to Judge Art Miller. When Miller banged the gavel to send them to the pen, Gamble vaulted over the wooden railing and ran outside to an awaiting, “swank Buick convertible,” as Signal Editor Fred Trueblood described it. The getaway was short-lived. When Gamble made it over to the San Fernando Valley, his Buick hit a Ford and he was re-arrested.
FEBRUARY 7, 1956
A DROUGHT PATTERN ENDING IN SIXES — Kind of odd how this happened. But in February of 1926, 1936, 1946 and 1956, the Santa Clarita Valley was in the midst of a drought. Big rainstorms the first week of February in each of these years saved crops and herds. Five inches fell in one day a half-century back. The Earth sighed in relief. Jumping ahead, in 1976, another blessed rainfall in the same week of February ended the driest SCV season in 104 years.
FEBRUARY 7, 1966
SOMETHING’S COOKING — Wearing different hats as a time traveler and journalist, the latter sometimes winces. On this date, 60 years back, the front-page lead story was: “Bake Students Ready.” The 11th annual Bake Contest was underway. Oddly enough, the event drew a large crowd in the Hart Auditorium. Judges were required to taste around 150 cakes.
WE’RE GETTING A LAKE! — Progress was quietly coming to Castaic. Once one of the wildest spots in the West, Castaic was famous for having America’s last major range war, in which between 27 and 40 people were killed. But, in 1966, with a $100 million major dam being planned, old-time ranchers were becoming millionaires as property values quadrupled. Really, the population of Castaic hadn’t changed much since the post office opened at the beginning of the 20th century.
FEBRUARY 7, 1976
IT WASN’T YOUR TYPICAL RIBBON CUTTING — Dignitaries were on hand to open the new, widened Lyons Avenue. Several of the officials were booed by bystanders. Why? A 400-year-old heritage oak had to be axed to widen the boulevard. Meanwhile, progress earned more enemies a few blocks away. The county put up several “No Parking” and “1 Hour Parking” signs along San Fernando Road — all of them on the same posts.
TALKING ABOUT AN UNMARKED HAZARD — On this date, a pair of 22-year-olds were arrested for driving onto the Friendly Valley golf course in a Volkswagen, getting out, shooting two rabbits dead and fleeing the scene. The pair were later arrested on a variety of charges.
FEBRUARY 7, 1986
I’LL PAID YOU NOT TO RUN — Bobbi Fiedler, the 48-year-old congresswoman representing this valley, faced felony political bribery charges for reportedly offering her opponent, Ed Davis, $100,000 to drop out of the race against her. Talk about multi-tasking. While all this was going on, Ms. Fiedler announced she would wed her aide and fellow indictee, Paul Clarke.
WAYSIDE/PETE — Back in 1962, the comfy-cozy Wayside Honor Rancho for minimum-risk criminals changed its name to Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho. But progress has an ugly twin and with the growth of Los Angeles, so grew the county’s criminal population. By 1966, Pitchess was the second-largest county jail. Still. The Castaic farm was responsible for supplying all of L.A. County’s inmates with bread and milk, besides doing all the inmates’ laundry. In a few short years, Pitchess jumped from about 500 low-risk inmates to 5,000 of the dredges of civilization. On the bright side, because they beefed up security, escapes fell from 82 in 1981 to 28 in 1984.
THE HAUNTED SAN FRANCISQUITO CANYON — Just about anyone who has lived up San Francisquito has a ghost story. Many residents lost their lives when the St. Francis Dam burst in 1928, sending a huge wall of water down the canyon. On this date in 1986, former SCV historian Jerry Reynolds was videotaping at the old “Chinese” graveyard. (Why it’s called “Chinese” is a semi-old mystery. There are no Chinese buried there.) His friend came out of the wash with a mysterious acid burn on his arm. When the pair got back to civilization, Jerry found his videotape was completely blank, even though frequent inspections during taping showed the video was good. Jerry went back for a second shoot. The camera caught on fire in an odd case of spontaneous combustion. Property owners of the unofficial cemetery weren’t surprised. They mentioned that a half-ton watering trough had been mysteriously moved in the middle of the night — with no tracks. Another time, a solitary man was painting his barn. When he looked up, there was a wet palm print of a child. No children were in the area.
• • •
Hope to see you next month at Rancho Camulos off Highway 126 just west of Castaic where I’ll be lecturing on the Ruth & Scott Newhall history days at The Mighty Signal. It’s Sunday, Feb. 22, and starts at noon. There’ll be a $10 donation and stay tuned to these paragraphs for more details. That shameless plug aside — tip of the O’Farrell to you saddlepals. Thanks for the company. See you Santa Claritans next Saturday in another exciting Time Ranger adventure, and, until then — ¡Vayan con Dios, amigos y Bienvenido a febrero!
Local historian and the world’s most prolific satirist/humorist John Boston has launched his new eclectic bookstore — johnboston-books.com. His hilarious adventure/family/supernatural sequel to the national bestseller, “Naked Came the Sasquatch,” — “Naked Came the Novelist” —is on sale now. Ditto with his two-volume “Monsters” series about the supernatural in the SCV.
