Tip of the O’Farrell (for you non trail-riding Santa Clarita Valley newcomers, that’s like an upscale cowboy hat?) and top of this fine, April morn to you, saddlepals. We’re about to enjoy a most riotous spring just around the corner.
As far as this historical time traveling via horseback goes, we’ll have to brave a few April snowstorms, avoid yet more lions in the street (as in AFRICAN lions) and watch out for poor Guiseppi Stradiola, soaring earthward toward the tops of our chapeaus (er, French for hats, cowboy, feed lot baseball cap but no mime-like berets).
Make sure you’ve got the balls of your feet placed just right in the stirrup for good balance, just like the kids at Don-E-Brook Farms, yonder up San Fran-cis-keet.
Shall we mosey through the Santa Clarita time continuum?
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
ETERNALLY OILY VALLEY — Two years before Newhall was founded as a town — on April 8, 1874 — oil refining began at Lyon Station, near present-day Eternal Valley. The refinery then moved over to Pine Street.
I’D BUY 10 LUNCHES AND EAT SLOWLY — For just 15 cents you could buy an ENTIRE hot lunch at the Woodard coffee shop in Newhall. Is there ANYTHING you can buy to eat for 15 cents today besides a piece of bubblegum?
OUR FIRST, OF MANY, SEX SCANDALS — On April 6, 1772, Pedro Fages returned to the SCV after a three-year absence. Fages was second-in-command to Gaspar de Portola in the original Aug. 8, 1769, expedition here. Fages would become first military governor of Southern California and the state’s fourth governor under Spanish rule. He was also embroiled in the state’s first sex scandal. His wife accused him of philandering and worked in cahoots with Father Junipero Serra to get Pete ousted from his post. I guess the post of California governor is always a beleaguered one …
APRIL 11, 1926
MORE THAN A LITTLE MOIST — It was a pretty wet year to date, with 21 inches of rain. (Normal’s about 16 inches.) A severe thunderstorm punished the valley, wiping out sections of the Southern Pacific tracks near Ravenna. (That’s the old mining community of 1,000 souls that used to sit between Acton & Agua Dulce.) Many bridges were damaged by flash floods and roads were impassable.
GOTTA STRIKE IT RICH JUST TO PAY FOR LUNCH — We had a mini-gold rush that didn’t pan out for ore, but for some healthy dollars to local merchants. Miners were all over the canyons, trying to track down a story about a big strike. In the meantime, merchants were charging the outlandish fee of $5 a meal and 25 cents just for a drink of water.
THE FIGHTING HONBY, ER, UM … — Favor? Any of you like truly ancient time riders happen to remember the name of the mascot from Honby Elementary? Spur your pony up to the front and tell me or, when we get back to the 21st century, text me with the answer. Anywho. Students from the now long-extinct Honby Elementary went for a field trip to the Harry Carey Ranch in San Francisquito Canyon. The world-famous movie star had brought in nearly 100 Navajos to work his spread. The tour included a visit to the caged wildcats, coyotes and a cougar, plus a tour of some the hogans (adobe Navajo houses with a hole in the roof). The Native Americans had a rather spectacular operation along what was then the main highway to Northern California. Besides tending cattle, the artisans spun clothes and blankets, along with making jewelry for sale for the tourists.
HONBY FYI — Most good souls in the SCV have no idea that the community along Soledad between Canyon Country and Saugus (where the Home Depot is today) is still called Honby. Learn it. Live it. Memorize it.
APRIL 11, 1936
PAZZO IN TESTA — A week earlier, Guiseppi Stradiola went after his neighbor, Tony Suraco. The deranged Stradiola had been having a series of mental episodes, the cherry on the sundae being trying to shoot Tony with a high-caliber rifle at close range. Seven shots all missed. Stradiola warned authorities he didn’t want to hurt anyone, but that he felt he wasn’t “right in the head.” After posting a $1,500 bond, he was released. He promptly visited the home of friend, Louis Percivalle, in Soledad Canyon, where he chatted of suicide, then — disappeared. Tony S. climbed to the top of the Percivalle roof and vaulted off, killing himself. He left 120 acres of prime farm land to the Italian-American council.
THAT’S, THE MAYOR, NOT, DUH, MAYOR — Long before there was a Canyon Theatre Guild, Honby Men’s Club Straight Men’s Chorus or Repertory East Playhouse, there was the Castaic PTA. They put on the comedy, “Her Honor, The Mayor” for the benefit of what was called the Little Santa Clara Valley Council PTA. Admission was a dime for kids and a quarter for grown-ups. As the bill boasted: “Given with the same cast that put on the play so successfully a few days ago.”
SNOW BLIZZARD IN APRIL — Saugus was in the midst of a “snowstorm” 90 years back. The snow was actually the shedding of several hundred cottonwoods planted in the wash 20 years earlier by the Bercaw clan. They were the primo merchants of the community at the turn of the 20th century. The Bercaws originally went to Happy Valley to the Gibson Ranch to pull hundreds of saplings and replant them along the river. Cottonwoods shed a cotton-like thin fiber that’s highly flammable.
APRIL 11, 1946
FROM BOMBS TO ROAD FLARES — With the end of World War II, one of the Southland’s biggest defense contractors, Bermite, switched to a peacetime production schedule. They stopped making ordnance and started manufacturing flares and commercial demolition products. Before WW2, the Saugus company made fireworks. Little trivia? The technical word for a road flare is, “fusee …”
OUR FIRST HOUSING PROJECT — About 35 of the so-called “Bermite Houses” went on the auction block. The neighborhood around Walnut, Chestnut and Spruce Streets in Newhall had gotten special permission from Congress to build rental units for the wartime workers. Owned by Bermite, on this date, the units were sold. A two-bedroom home went for just $7,250 and a three-bedroom house was just $700 more. Most of them are worth in the $800,000 range today.
APRIL 11, 1956
THE WEEKLY TEEN PUNK BLOTTER — An old wild West shootout blazed at Oscar’s Cove up Sierra Highway. Owner Oscar Neumann exchanged pistol fire with a pair of Teen Armed Robbers (good band name). They got the best of him, shooting O in the hand and making off with $30 from the till. On the bright side, Oscar didn’t serve the beer requested by the underaged thugs.
THE HIGH COST OF GRAFT & USELESS BUREAUCRATS — On this date, the state sales tax in L.A. County jumped from 3% to 4%. It’s currently 9.75%, with a proposed increase to be voted on in June, hiking it up to 10.25%. Thank goodness with all that extra income, the county’s running better.
APRIL 11, 1966
YOU KNOW WHO IS RISEN, LOOK BUSY — As far as the schools are concerned in modern times, “Easter” is a dirty word. But, 60 years back, local students took off a week for “Easter Vacation.” There. We wrote, “Easter.” Let them come at us with guns drawn …
NOTE TO SELF: NEVER GET IN A VEHICLE WITH MANZER —On this week 60 years ago, Pico Canyon teen Darryl Manzer crashed his motorcycle and wrecked himself up pretty good. The former SCV historian (he actually LIVED IN Mentryville as a kid) later would become a Signal columnist — AND — a submarine captain and a cruise ship captain. We like to kid that Manzer started the other way around and unintentionally turned the cruise ship INTO a submarine. I’m guessing the Navy and the tour lines didn’t check his driver’s record because he surely crashed more than a few vehicles those early days. We’re glad he healed up pretty good and we’re tempted to note the former member of the Honby Men’s Club’s brain transplant went swimmingly, but, we’ll take the higher road. Which is what Darryl should have done in 1966 …
APRIL 11, 1976
THE SLOW ADVANCE OF CRAZY — All news is eventually local. On this date, the Castaic Lake Water Agency had to fork out an extra $800 to print ballots for their June election. Seems the new Federal Voting Rights Act No. 9473 required the CLWA to print an addendum Spanish-language version. No one would fill out the Spanish portion of the CLWA ballot.
LIONS ON THE LOOSE, OR, AT LEAST HELEN’S LAST NAME WASN’T, ‘WHEELS …’ — Well. Maybe he had one of those weekday work furloughs. Or, maybe he wanted to meet his lunch at the bus stop. But bus driver Helen Snow hit the brakes hard 30 years back when she spotted a full-grown African lion lazily walking along Soledad Canyon Road. Seems it got out of the Lions, etc, compound, which today is Shambala. Owner and actor John Marshall sheepishly (uh, guess we shouldn’t say that so close to a lion) noted they had a fence down for some new construction.
THE OTHER SNOW — From Helen Snow in Acton to regular snow in Acton — yup. It snowed 30 years ago, leaving a couple of inches on the ground in early April.
PRETTIEST CHURCH VIEW IN TOWN — Back in the day, I used to teach an SCV History Class up at Lake of the Hills Church in Castaic. On this date, I can’t believe it was a half-century ago, it opened as the Castaic Lake Overlook and museum. Shoulda bought it when it came up for sale …
MEDITATION WHILE GAZING AT A YUPPIE NAVEL — I’ll bet here’s an honor Newhall Land has forgotten. The Transcendental Meditation Society named the new community of Valencia, “an enlightened city.” There were, at the time, only about 500 on the whole planet. Guess we showed Canoga Park …
FIRST CIF FIRST — Mark this date. For the first time in the history of the valley, a local school was ranked No. 1 in CIF. That first honor went to Hart High’s baseball team. If memory serves, the forever Mighty Indians were upset in the first round.
A CLUSTER ‘H’ — On this date, a group of high-powered property owners from Sand and Iron canyons successfully protected their zoning status. A developer wanted to come in and build “cluster housing” of one house per acre up there. They weren’t allowed and the minimum acreage continued to be at least 2 acres. Son of a gun. Two acres. An absolute Ponderosa Ranch from “Bonanza.”
APRIL 11, 1986
WELL BOWL ME OVER — Perhaps it was on this date when the SCV truly became modernized. On this date, Santa Clarita Lanes installed a $300,000 computerized scoring system in their bowling alley. The automatic scorers had been around for about 10 years, but had a reputation for not being too reliable.
AN ANCIENT AND TRAGIC STORY — A tearful mother made a plea at her son’s funeral. Her request, sadly falling on many deaf ears, was that teens not drink and drive. Her son died in a DUI accident. She held up her teenage boy’s prom picture. His date from the year before had likewise died in a drunk-driving related accident.
• • •
Well pards and pardettes. See all of you next weekend in another darn exciting Time Ranger. You take good care of yours and yourselves. Vayan con Dios, amigos!
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.
