Ouch. Eeeesh. Amen. Boy howdy. The way the mercury’s been bubbling, perhaps we ought to just monkey with the time continuum a smidge and go back in history to some distant November.
In Switzerland.
Well. Let’s not be thermometer sissies. Splash a little water on the bandana. Pour the canteen into your hat then put on your hat (I just l-o-v-e doing that, albeit not in a good hat). Funny thing is, it’s always cooler up in the saddle.
It’s the elevation.
C’mon. Let’s mosey to …
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
WORKING IN THE HEAT — Just a few days after thousands of Chinese laborers dug through to complete the Newhall Tunnel, a few more thousand Chinese laborers working up in Canyon Country finished the east-west link-up, finishing the Soledad Tunnel on July 27, 1876.
A COOLER TIME — Time and temperature is relative. It was a lot cooler here about 7,000 years ago. You can still drive a few back roads (and even some main ones, like Interstate 5 at the top of Newhall Pass) and see pine trees — the relatives of an ancient pine forest that covered the valley in 5,000 B.C.
JULY 25, 1926
A PERFECTLY SWANK NAME FOR A MAN LIVING THE BANDIT’S LIFE — Martin Sinwell and his partner, Darril Graham, hitched a ride with a school teacher north of Castaic and robbed him good, using a revolver with no cartridges. While being pounded about the head and shoulders with the empty pistol, the driver motored up to the National Forest Inn where diners rescued him. Sinwell and Graham were carted to the Newhall pokey.
THE SANTA CLARITA VALLEY: A HOME FOR ORPHANS — The life of a parentless child wasn’t so bad for many here in the Santa Clarita Valley. The valley was sanctuary for many orphans. Up Castaic and Mint Canyon way, Mrs. Stubbs cared for two boys not hers. A mile away at the Hare house, they cared for six, and seven more were housed at the Hartford ranch. Hasley Canyon housed dozens …
A SWING AND A MISS — Old A.B. “Dad” Thatcher swung and missed on yet another one of his editorials. The Signal owner predicted that the 18th amendment banning liquor consumption would never be repealed, primarily because of women having the vote.
AN OVER-ABUNDANCE OF LIONS — A parade of more than 100 cars, all filled with lions, passed through the SCV. They were escorted by several state police. Oh. My error. That should read, “Lions,” capital “L” — the men’s service group, not the sneaky mountain predators.
JULY 25, 1936
THAT’S WHY SO MANY SCV OLD-TIMERS LOOK FUNNY — Charles Kellogg drew praise from his neighbors for building a makeshift swimming pool for kids on his Saugus ranch. But, it was usually filled with irrigation runoff water. And pesticides. Locals were calling for the building of a community pool. It wouldn’t come until 20-some years later, when Newhall Park opened.
H2O FOR OAKS — The Signal asked locals to form a bucket brigade to save several ancient white oaks. The summer was being pretty brutal on them.
FINALLY PUNCHED THROUGH — On this date, Supervisor Roger Jessup approved a motion to modernize Soledad Canyon Road and connect the 16-mile stretch to Acton and the state highway.
JULY 25, 1946
RAIN IN JULY — Today, some of us blame global warming, but, back then, it was called “summer.” Eighty years back, lightning storms and rain lashed the valley, bringing short relief to triple digits and unbearable humidity.
BOARD STIFF — Hard to believe, but surrounded by so much wealth and wood, we had a building supply shortage here in the SCV. New construction was at a standstill for lack of boards.
JULY 25, 1956
BIG RIG DEATH & DISASTER — Stay or leap — the decisions ended in death for two truck drivers. In two separate accidents, two teamsters lost control of their big rigs barreling down the Five Mile Grade. One tried to bail out of his truck when his brakes failed. Another tried to ride it out to the bottom. Both were killed.
JUST LIKE 2026, EXCEPT NO RAIN — More “odd” July weather. Thunderstorms, rain, icky, sticky triple-digit weather …
NEWHALL AVENUE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT — When an auto runs out of gas and the driver walks a few miles to fill it up and continue on, it isn’t news. But when it’s an airplane, that’s a different story. Pilot Jack Rines bought himself a brand new airplane in the Owens Valley and didn’t bother to check the fuel until he was over Newhall. It was empty. Jack landed on Newhall Avenue, walked to a ranch building, borrowed some gas, refueled and took off without too many noticing.
GEEZ, MRS. J! IT TAKES TWO ARMS TO FRY AN EGG? — I love the old-time feel of the valley and the paper. Witness the text of this simple 1/8th-page ad: “Sorry-Sorry! We Really Are … but due to Mrs. Johnson’s fractured arm, the Johnson Cafe will remain closed for another month.”
BONZO GOES TO NEWHALL — Well. You can’t call this typecasting, but, at the American Theater, they were playing “The Toughest Man Alive,” starring Dana Clark. Underbill was “Bonzo Goes to College,” NOT starring a certain future president of the United States. That’d be Ronald Reagan. Not Bonzo. “Bonzo/College” was the remake of “Bedtime for Bonzo.” Reagan was in the first one and not the sequel. Funny film note. Reagan was considered for the lead in “Casablanca.” How historically important is that?
JULY 25, 1966
MORE TRAGIC ACCIDENTS — Two men died in separate and strange industrial accidents. One worker plummeted 150 feet to his death when a runaway railroad car careened over an embankment in Soledad. Another was electrocuted when he touched a high-tension wire.
NOT EXACTLY A GREAT HAWAIIAN VACATION — On this date, the Chausse family of Sand Canyon were adrift without a rudder 750 miles off the coast of Honolulu. The Coast Guard rescued them without much incident.
HIGHWAYS OF DEATH — The SCV was being called a bucket of blood. In just five months of 1966, there had been 35 traffic fatalities in the valley. We were a lot smaller then. We actually had more traffic deaths in the same period than such cities as Miami, Seattle and Boston.
JULY 25, 1976
YEAH. BUT THEN, YOU COULDN’T WASTE TAXPAYER MONEY HIRING HUNDREDS OF CIVIL SERVANTS TO TRANSLATE — The Signal lashed out at the county for spending millions in taxpayers’ dollars for blanketing Los Angeles with multilingual ballots. At the time, only a few people used the multilingual pamphlets. The Signal and Sen. John Tunney suggested it might be wiser — and cheaper — to send out the multilingual ballots to those who requested them.
COULD USE COOL & RAINY LONG ABOUT NOW — Hard to believe, but 50 years ago, it was cool and rainy here. Hmmm. Another July a decade apart where we had measurable precipitation …
AAARGH!! TIE ‘EM TO THE MASTHEAD AND ADMINISTER 50 LASHES WITH A WET NOODLE!!! — This was one of those little footnotes about the beginning of the end. On this date, the William S. Hart Union High School District met to discuss how to implement new state mandates on how to spank unruly kids in high school and junior high. Under the law, administrators could only give “swats” to kids who had given them parental permission letters to do so. (In chatting with a few old-time district teachers, they noted that, of course, the hoodlum parents weren’t around or interested in signing a permission slip to swat their problem kids and only the parents of the angel students gave the school permission to issue swats.)
AMERICA IS A GREAT COUNTRY. SANTA CLARITA IS A GREAT COMMUNITY — Calling them “Rio Grande Surfers,” Signal managing editor Ruth Newhall noted how 15 illegal aliens from Mexico had been abandoned by their “coyote” in Castaic. The poor 15 had gone four days without a meal and were just about passed out when sheriff’s deputies blessedly took them to Wayside — for a scrumptious meal of steak and eggs.
THE INFAMOUS KIDNAPPER HEIR — Fred Newhall Woods III, great-great-grandson of valley patriarch Henry Mayo Newhall and scion from a tony San Francisco family, was the target of a huge FBI and state police dragnet. Woods would later be captured, and convicted, for the odd Chowchilla case in which a school bus loaded with young children was commandeered. Woods was paroled in 2022 at age 70 after initially being handed a life sentence in prison for his part in the kidnapping, in which 26 children were entombed in a quarry for 16 hours, inside the bus. None were seriously injured, physically. Woods would eventually be arrested in British Columbia, a week after the crime. Ironically, the heinous kidnapping occurred 100 years on the anniversary of the founding of the town of Newhall in 1876.
JULY 25, 1986
SUED FOR SWIMMING? — Pyramid Lake was ordered closed on this date. Reason? No insurance.
DIDN’T KNOW TREES COULD DO THAT — Four giant eucalyptus trees on McBean Parkway near the hospital got the ax. Why? They were growing in “the wrong direction.”
AND NO ONE TO SPEAK FOR THE TREES — Right after the St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928 in which nearly 500 people were killed in the state’s worst man-made disaster, a memorial was planted for the victims. About 500 eucalyptus trees were planted along the Saugus-Ventura Road (as State Route 126 was called then). Most of the remaining giants were chain-sawed by Caltrans to make way for the widening of the highway. Federal standards required that 44 feet separate trees along a major road. Interestingly, the state project coordinator, Carl Moseley, a self-professed tree lover, was more upset than citizens along the famed scenic corridor. He noted that when they held public information and input meetings in Valencia to discuss the removal of the trees, hardly anyone showed up to speak for them.
A BORROWED MUUMUU — Remember the 300-pound bank robbing woman in a muumuu who kept mysteriously disappearing after HER heists? Turned out to be a 220-pound Saugus man in his mom’s dress. The FBI arrested the Saugus High grad Mark Hann about an hour after he/she looted a bank in Barstow. Señor/Señorita confessed after being nabbed after a 15-minute car chase. Hmm. Wonder if Mark’s a subscriber in the here-&-now? I think we’ve got a women’s Back-To-School fashion special section coming up down the line …
THE LAST ON MOO-MOO — For you few and beloved SCV Spelling Nazis, the crack Signal Grammar Desk shared that while, “moo-moo” is accepted and ditto with “muu-muu,” the correct spelling is actually, “mu’umu’u.” It’s from the original Hawaiian for the big, baggy and colorful dress for the island ladies and yes, that will be on the final. I pule maikaʻi! (Have a good week!)
• • •
Thanks for the company and for cowboying/cowgirling up in the broiler setting of a Santa Clarita summer. See you back here at The Mighty Signal hitching post the last weekend of July 2026, with another exciting Time Ranger adventure. Until then? ¡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.
