Funny thing? Twenty years ago this week, this was the oddest Santa Clarita Valleyv August. Cold nights. Drizzly mornings. Beats any quadruple-digit egg evaporator.
This morning we’ve interesting vistas ahead. There’s beginnings and endings, ghostly canyons and ancient graffiti. We’ll be saying howdy to crooks, firebugs, movie stars, psychos and angels.
This morning, I’ve splurged. All the rodeo stock is out to pasture and we’re all riding perfectly well-mannered, voice-command, kind as your old Aunt Boo-Boo trail horses. All you need to do is nod your hat toward yonder spinning time vortex and say, in a non-high-pitched Don Knotts manner: “Gid-yup …”
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
SURREY, YOU JEST? — On this date tomorrow in 1891, the Surrey Post Office was founded in Saugus. For a short time, Saugus was called, “Surrey.” In fact, the little town was split down the middle, with half called Saugus and the other half, Surrey. There were only a few buildings downtown. A couple merchants pulled a living practical joke by painting a white line on the wooden sidewalk, adding a sign that Saugus was on this side and Surrey on the other. In an odd and unrelated coincidence, Surrey is also the middle name of William S. Hart.
LOVE TO SEE THAT ON A WELCOME SIGN TO ‘CANYON OF THE DEAD’ — For you Yuppies living in Plum Canyon, it wasn’t always called such. For well over a century, the place was the source of many rumors about ghosts and murders. The Spaniards used to call the place, Cañon de los Muertos — Canyon of the Dead.
AUGUST 8, 1926
GRAFFITI AIN’T A NEW PROBLEM — Some wags might even point out that hieroglyphics is just an eons-old form. A century ago this week, the old Newhall Company Warehouse south of the Newhall train depot on Market Street was torn down. It had been around for half a century and the lumber was still good. In fact, our local and ongoing presidential candidate, Henry Clay Needham, bought the building and moved it, board and nail, to his ranch off present-day Sierra Highway near Eternal Valley and he reconstructed it as a barn. Workers noted that for decades, passers-by had carved their names and initials into the wood and stone.
THE USUAL AUGUST FIRES — A fire starting at the old Perruker Dairy burned about 60 acres, right up to the edge of Bill Hart’s ranch in town. The volunteer brigade was activated and they put out the blaze before any buildings were sacrificed to the summer gods of heat and flame.
TWENTY BUCKS PER BIG CAT — Frank O’Brien was $20 richer. He bagged a big cougar near the Tumble Inn on the Ridge Route and turned it in for the bounty. O’Brien noted there were several dozen big cats in the hills around Castaic.
AUGUST 8, 1936
A SUPER STAR IN A VALLEY OF A THOUSAND — As time rolls along, it’s hard to imagine just how big a star our William S. Hart was. Ol’ Two-Gun Bill, who had been retired from show business for over a decade, brought the house down in Hollywood before a packed paying crowd of 11,000. Hart, along with other stars, was raising money for the Actors Relief Fund. Amid the biggest stars of the day, it was only Hart who received a standing ovation. He was dressed simply, in jeans, Western shirt, boots and giant Mexican sombrero. He read a poem, “Jane Jones” and enjoyed a thunderous standing ovation that lasted several minutes.
THE BIG FARM KA-BLOOIES — As the face of the valley has changed so much, we forget some of the woes of yesteryear. One of the dangers of ranch life was, of all things, spontaneous combustion. Poor Newhall Land & Farming Co. They lost many a structure and crop over the years to alfalfa sitting in the heat and suddenly catching fire. NL&F’s feed mill burned to the ground on this date, causing $20,000 in damage. That’s a lot of hay and timber in Depression-era money …
DUMPING DOGS TO DEAD BODIES — Up until a few years ago, we were infamous for our geography. Our location is a big historical theme. Because we were filled with countless empty canyons and arroyos, and, because we were highway-close to the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles, people used to motor up here to dump everything from mattresses to dead bodies. Another sad and unwanted statistic: People used to come up here to dump off their unwanted pets. On any given week, there would be several poor dogs and cats let out of a car only to watch the retreating taillights in sadness and confusion.
AUGUST 8, 1946
HUNTER BEING HUNTED — Frequently, hunting accidents end with a humorous self-inflicted extra orifice in foot or heinie. Jim Hatcher of Los Angeles didn’t get off so lucky. On the first day of deer season, he was found by his three buddies, a large-caliber bullet hole above his right eye. His body was transported out of the rough hills north of Castaic by horseback. To give you an idea, the first few days of deer season here in the SCV, hunters outnumbered bucks about 100 to 1. Despite dry conditions, 49 deer were taken the first five days of the season — 12 in Castaic and 37 in Newhall. Two weighed in at around 200 pounds.
WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE — The Newhall Water Co. confessed they had been caught with their pants down. Here’s some fascinating numbers. In June 1945, NWC delivered 5,148,892 gallons of water to 587 customers. A year later, same month, NWC delivered 7,250,818 gallons of water to 616 customers. While the customers only increased by 5%, water usage increased by 41%. Newhall Water charmingly confessed that they had “monkeyed around” with various solutions, but basically, the problem was one of diameter. Their water mains, at 6 inches, were just too puny. So, NWC asked everyone in town to conserve while they put in a bigger main. Of course, some of us were on well water or at least had a well as a backup …
AUGUST 8, 1956
BIRTHING 16 BABIES? — I don’t know if Rusty is the best name for a girl, although there is a certain tomboy panache to it. But, on this date, the Saugus lady gave birth to 16 — count them, 16 — children. We should point out that Rusty was a San Francisquito Irish setter. Tough job for her seeing she only comes equipped with 12 spigots.
GOING MUY LOCO IN AUGUST — With a form that would have made Ted Williams proud, Elizabeth Mendoza ended a family squabble with one swing from a 2-by-4 with a large nail sticking out of the business end. Seems her brother had gone loco and had attacked the entire family, tearing off his mother’s blouse, knocking out the dad, assaulting another brother with a knife and punching yet another brother. In between, he was shattering dishes and slashing up furniture and screen doors. Liz stepped in, swinging for the bleachers, and hit Albert upside the head. When he awoke, he was in cuffs in a bed at Newhall Hospital.
GOING MUY DEER LOCO IN AUGUST — Deer season started again, this time with 7,000 hunters wandering our local hills the first weekend. They shot 252 bucks in three days.
WAITING FOR DINNER TO COME TO HIM — Tommy Mitchell made it a sound habit to avoid opening-day deer hunting. For one thing, there were too many amateurs with too many high-powered rifles. Mitchell’s system might have been unfair. A lifelong resident of Placerita Canyon, he would just saunter over to a familiar deer trail, sit in a tree and wait for the deer to come to him.
NOT THE BRIGHTEST THING TO DO — And it certainly was the last for Keitaro Koike. The 65-year-old farmer had pulled over on Highway 99 to check a brake problem, which he did by crawling under his 2-ton truck. The truck started to roll. Koike tried to stop it by putting his foot under a tire, which crushed his foot. In rolling from the pain, he was then crushed by the rest of the truck.
AUGUST 8, 1966
HERE’S THE STEEPLE, HERE’S THE PEOPLE — For years, the Rev. Sam Dixon and his flock of 30 had been working on their new church. It had always been good Sam’s dream to have a proper church with a proper steeple. But the Rev. Dixon became sick and had to drop the project. Folks from all over the valley and mostly from outside Val Verde passed the hat to raise cash and materials to make Sam’s dream come true.
A RARE TWISTER — A small tornado set down in North Oaks, ripping off tree branches and tearing down billboards. No one was injured from the rare visitation of the swirling winds …
AUGUST 8, 1976
A NEW BIG DAM, AND NO, YOU CAN’T USE THE WATER — In 1932, when the Bouquet Dam was officially deemed opened, it stored — and still does — water from the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s huge water project in the Owens Valley. It also effectively closed the natural flow of Bouquet Creek. The United Water Conservation District created a formula 94 years earlier that is still used today. In a normal rainfall year, the dam-keepers release about 1,900 acre-feet of water into the creek. But, depending on wet or dry years, the DWP’s Aqueduct Division will release more or less, to mirror natural conditions. In a normal summer month, water will flow through the creek at a rate of about 5 cubic feet per second. Seventy years before, because of the price of water, the DWP decided to conserve water and only release enough to barely make mud. Bouquet residents complained, citing well levels and fire dangers. The out-of-town DWP held its ground and wouldn’t release any more water. It’s the thing today. Ranchers downstream STILL complain that people below the dam ain’t getting any water.
ANTI SCV? — Baxter Ward didn’t win any points with most of the SCV. Our county supervisor and former KABC newscaster said he didn’t see any need for the formation of our proposed Canyon County, which would have broken away from his L.A. jurisdiction. The ill-fated local Canyon County would fail twice at the polls. The new county would have had five supervisorial districts, with each representing 13,400. That’s a little bit better customer-service ratio than several million per supervisor.
INVASION OF THE YUPPIES — A sad day indeed this was 50 years back. You ranching old-timers will remember Haggerty’s on San Fernando Road. The eyesore junkyard was a favored stopping spot to pick up anything from double-elbow irrigation pipe joints to barbed wire. A new breed of resident —the Yuppie — lodged complaints that Haggerty’s was a visual blight. Some of us thought it was merely a movable performance art — or — a Nordstrom’s for blue collar guys. I still miss walking around Haggerty’s, grinning and seeing stuff on the shelves that was from the 19th century …
AUGUST 8, 1986
PETE THE PUTZ — Supervisor Pete Schabarum has always been a controversial figure in the SCV. While not our representative, a PR firm fronting his interests helped defeat Canyon County and Pete worked behind the scenes to try and kill the city of Santa Clarita. On this date, he angrily chided the valley, charging school representatives with blackmail and claiming we had “half-a-brain.” Local schools and developers were at odds. With the unchecked population growth, no schools were being built and both sides pointed at one another.
SAN FRAN FIRE BUG — An arsonist was blamed for blackening more than 1,000 acres and burning a home in San Francisquito. The blaze nearly burned one of my favorite horsey spots — Don-E-Brook Farms. Flames raced up both sides of the narrow canyon in which the equestrian center rests. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lick of damage. Ernie Naquin used to own the place.
AND NO, HE DIDN’T REEL IT IN UP INCH-DEEP BOUQUET CREEK — On this date, Hal Lustig caught a 51.5-pound California halibut off the coast of Santa Barbara. It was a world record. Nearly a month later, he and his friends were still eating halibut steaks — and that’s no fish story …
• • •
Thanks for the good company, saddlepals. Keep some air in your dance card next weekend for another exciting Time Ranger adventure into our rich, local history. Until then? ¡Vayan con Dios, amigos y no camines descalzo sobre el pavimento caliente!
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.
