Ensure you stretch and the canteen’s full. That’d be with water, not latté. We’ve an epic path journey forward.
This morning, we’ll be using into yesteryear, paying our final regards to movie icon James Dean. The final meals in his tummy hailed from Santa Clarita. There are
poison gasoline clouds and film stars.
We’ve bought big rattlesnakes, the start of EIRs, killer canines and a parade of untamed animals by means of downtown Newhall the likes of which haven’t been seen since Noah constructed his boat.
Doggone it, saddlepals, certain is sweet to be with you once more…
WAY BACK WHEN & THEN SOME
THE SIMMERING SOUTHERN — Again on Oct. 1, 1888, one of many most interesting accommodations on your complete West Coast of North OR South America burned to the bottom. The previous Southern Lodge was constructed for vacationers and businessmen and was hailed by epicureans as a bona fide 5-star resort. Its epicenter sat smack dab the place Market Avenue and Most important is at this time. It lasted simply 10 years and was by no means rebuilt.
GOLD PIONEER. SORTA — He was credited with making the primary main gold discovery in California historical past in 1842. However, there had been different main gold strikes within the Santa Clarita Valley previous to Don Francisco Lopez’s discovery of some golf flecks on an onion close to an oak tree. A few of these finds return to the late 1700s within the Castaic space. Nonetheless. Lopez was one of many first to file an official declare with the governor of California, again when this valley was dominated by Mexico. For his reward, Sir Lopez (the title of “don” was a sign of being a part of the landed gentry) acquired a couple of dollars and a land grant — Rancho Los Alamos.
OUR FIRST GYM — We used to have an enormous mule yard and commissary in Saugus for staff on the California Aqueduct. When the commissary closed within the early Twenties, it grew to become the Ayers Athletic Membership for some time.
GIMME TWO FROZEN PIZZAS, SOME KITTY LITTER, AND A POUND OF GOLD — Through the early twentieth century, Campton’s Basic Retailer actually was a normal retailer. Moreover promoting nearly all the things from decide axes to canned peaches, Campton’s used to absorb about $200 a month in native gold mud.
DEAD RIVER’S STILL DEAD — Homesteader John Haskell of Haskell Canyon fame used to make a pleasant facet dwelling placer mining at a long-forgotten alleged physique of water in Saugus. It was aptly named: Useless River. Haskell used to dig 20-30 toes within the sandy river backside till he hit bedrock, and, hopefully, some gold.
OCTOBER 1, 1922
PICKLES FOR BRAINS — Picnickers Hyman Lichstral, Max Lichstral, Luis Koslove and Edward Levi had been arrested. The quartet began a campfire that bought uncontrolled in Castaic. They fled. A brush hearth began. Witnesses snitched. The 4 had been arrested and fined.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, THEY WEREN’T HANGED — Melvin Groce and his brother had been arrested for liberating a string of ponies from the Walsh ranch. Melvin was a juvenile and bought despatched to camp. His older brother was given a stiffer penalty: 1-15 years within the pen. That certain looks like fairly a little bit of leeway.
A HOMERIC VACATION IN 1922 — Fielding Wooden of Saugus got here again from a trip that will have humbled Ulysses. Fielding’s trip coated 2,700 miles from right here to Oregon and again. This was no small feat. In 1922, many of the roads had been grime and gravel. And add this to your journey finances. Fielding went by means of a whole set of tires. The previous skinny rubber tires again then would solely final about 3,000 miles. We’ve bought of us at this time who journey that far in a month. Gasoline was a couple of dime a gallon then — when you can discover it.
BETTER THAN ‘SKUNK SKETCHES’ — We used to run a column in The Mighty Sign referred to as “Porcupine Quills.” The writer, Thornton Doelle, the SCV’s first cowboy poet, wrote it beneath the pen title of, “Moonlight,” and provided the disclaimer to his prose title, “A Sequel to Soledad Snapshots, Extracted painlessly from stay porcupines.”
UNLUCKY NUMBER FOR BOBCATS — H.W. Mills, an worker of the Acton Lodge, shot a moderately giant bobcat simply because it was exiting the lodging’s rooster yard. Seems the critter had made off along with his thirteenth stolen rooster.
LUCKY TO BE ALIVE — Engineer Mike Malloy was locomoting his narrow-gauge engine from the Pacific Coast Borax Co. mine in Tick Canyon to the primary railroad at Lang Station. The heavy load jumped the tracks and the engine flipped end-over-end, with Malloy nonetheless in it.
OCTOBER 1, 1932
A LITTLE SQUIRRELLY? — A younger hunter from Los Angeles was tenting out in Placerita. In his first week, the outdoorsman trapped 50 squirrels. Later, he offered them in downtown L.A. to Chinese language retailers. Surprise what they did with them?
HAPLESS HUNTER — I’ve heard greater than my justifiable share of dumb hunter anecdotes. This one takes the cake. Estal Anderson was buck searching in Newhall. He by some means managed to overlook the deer and shoot himself — within the arm. How — on Earth — do you do this?
ST. FRANCIS DAM DISASTER, PART II? — Locals had been greater than a mite nervous. Development had been happening for the brand new Bouquet Dam, on the high of the canyon. It could maintain about 10 billion gallons of water — making it about 30% smaller than the St. Francis Dam the subsequent canyon over. (You already know — the one which burst 4 years earlier, killing 500 folks?). The earth-filled dam was 185 toes excessive, 2 toes shorter than St. Francis. Moreover the plain concern of one other dam catastrophe, different neighbors had been peeved. The federal authorities voided all of the mining claims within the affected space. On the plus facet, we bought a pleasant, new paved street up Bouquet Canyon…
RABID DOG — On this date, the police canine owned by Otto Held attacked his 2-year-old grandson, savagely biting and shaking him. A neighbor rescued the toddler, placing himself between the infant and harsh canine. As he handed the infant to Grandma Held, the canine leapt once more, biting the infant within the face. The canine then attacked the neighbor. Actually dragging the canine because it gnawed on his leg, the neighbor crawled, rolled and limped to the barn to get an ax. On his method, Grandpa Otto confirmed up with a gun and killed his pet. The beast had rabies.
TIMES WERE TOUGH DURING THE DEPRESSION — Joe Englebrecht got here residence from a go to to city with $13.20 value of groceries. That’s a ton of meals in 1932 cash. He laid the products on his kitchen desk and went off on an errand. When he got here again, the groceries had been changed with a notice: “I’m taking these to feed my youngsters. I’ll pay you again some day.” Mentioned Englebrecht, “I concern this man will likely be like a few of my neighbors — they’ve huge hearts, however poor reminiscences.”
OCTOBER 1, 1942
PATRIARCH PASSES — On this date, Canyon Nation settler Frank Wright handed away. He had homesteaded up there on the flip of the century. I all the time thought his bride had the smartest title — Nina Belle Petty. She was a columnist for The Sign.
VOLCANIC HONEY — Brush fires are a given decade after decade within the Santa Clarita. By what’s at this time Circle J, off then-San Fernando Street, native firefighters had an uncommon impediment in making an attempt to place out a blaze — bees. There was a number of big oaks off the street there. A brush hearth leaped onto an historical hollowed-out oak that was additionally the house to a number of thousand bees. The firefighters couldn’t get shut sufficient to the flaming tree due to the offended swarms. Making it worse, a number of hundred kilos of honey turned volcanic. The tree burned for practically per week.
OCTOBER 1, 1952
JIMINY CHRISTMAS, SUMMER JUST WOULDN’T LET GO!! — We had a warmth wave stick round this week a half-century again, with the mercury above 107 in some spots. The warmth wave adopted a rainstorm, too.
COP HUMOR — Poor Alpha Hartman. The native sheriff’s sergeant had been recovering after being gored by a mad bull. When he went again to work, his co-workers on the Sheriff’s Division began making mooing sounds behind his again. Additionally they created a pretend Sign entrance web page with the war-declared headline:
Sgt. Alpha Hartman Luggage Report Bull Moose
Animal Weighs in At Over 1,600 Kilos
Magnificent Brute Dropped by a Single Shot!
NOT QUITE YOUR LOCAL FAUNA — A couple of old-timers may recall among the oddest sounds ever heard within the Little Santa Clara River Valley because the Pleistocene Epoch. Clyde Beatty used to make use of present-day Stevenson Ranch for his winter camp for his famed circus. Earlier than there have been so many buildings littering the panorama, the sound would carry and folk as distant as Saugus may hear the moans, roars, trumpeting and addendum noises of lions, tigers, elephants, leopards, and many others., and many others. Clyde used to accommodate his circus in El Monte, however the odor was too repugnant for the oldsters there. It was a tremendous sight for locals when the circus got here to city as a result of they unloaded 20 railroad automobiles at Market Avenue by the deserted Newhall Practice Depot and walked most of the critters down at this time’s Newhall Avenue to Pico (at this time, Lyons Avenue) all the way in which to the previous Newhall Dairy Ranch on Freeway 99 (at this time, Interstate 5). It was fairly a sight to see — a parade of elephants, camels, llamas and zebras strolling down the street. The predators, after all, needed to make the trek of their wagon cages.
SEPTEMBER 30, 1955
AN OSCAR WINNER’S LAST MEAL — In actual life, he was one tousled cat-daddy. His conduct vaulted over being a “Insurgent With out A Trigger.” He was elevated to American sainthood after this date, extra well-known in loss of life than in life. James Dean, 24, American icon, died on this date. He had his final meal on the previous Tip’s restaurant earlier than his deadly crash in his racing Porsche within the neighboring San Joaquin Valley. His final meal? Apple pie and milk, in accordance a Sign interview of witnesses and the waitress who served him. (We are likely to get one sniffy letter to the editor about how James didn’t cease at Tip’s. He did. Be taught it. Reside it. Memorize it.)
OCTOBER 1, 1962
TOO SNAKY — Elmer Herzberg shot himself a 50-inch black diamond rattlesnake on this date in his Newhall yard. The Herzbergs had been suffering from the toxic reptiles all summer time. Mrs. H was practically bitten by one other rattler earlier whereas she was gardening and their cat was fanged by one more. On the brilliant facet for the Herzbergs, the final viper was a 50-incher, not a 50-footer. The latter are fairly uncommon in these elements.
I GUESS AUDREY MUST HAVE BEEN DISTRACTED — Mrs. Audrey King bought into her Pontiac on sixteenth Avenue, cranked it up, and threw it into reverse. Mrs. Ok famous she felt an enormous bump and heard an uncommon grinding noise. When she bought out, she seen somebody had eliminated her two entrance tires and wheels and had positioned her automotive up on blocks. I hate when that occurs.
FROM THE GLOBAL COOLING DEPARTMENT — Whereas we had been boiling in triple digits on this date within the Nineteen Fifties, the valley was basking in low-70s temperatures for the excessive this week in 1962.
OCTOBER 1, 1972
AND IT ’TWEREN’T MICKEY — There are lots of rats in present biz. One bought an award. On this date, the rodent “Ben,” star of the film, “Willard,” gained a PATSY. That stands for Performing Annual Prime Star of the 12 months and it’s important to have feathers or stroll on 4 toes to qualify. The ceremony was held at Magic Mountain.
A MOUNTAIN RANGE OF PAPER — For Newhall Land and different valley builders, this date was akin to the start of Devil. On Sept. 26, 1972, attributable to a California State Supreme Courtroom ruling, all new constructing permits needed to be accompanied by an environmental influence report. The newly opened Valencia workplace of the county constructing engineer division needed to shut down for the day. Purpose? Whole confusion. Nobody fairly knew what an EIR was. A couple of dozen builders who had been ready for his or her constructing permits (one for a room addition on their home) needed to depart after they locked the doorways.
LA SCLARITA — On Oct. 2, 1972, by an off-the-cuff native vote, we determined to “formally” name ourselves the Santa Clarita Valley. We’ve got passed by many names over time, beginning with long-forgotten clicking noises of what the native Tataviam known as their stomping grounds. When the Spaniards arrived, the title of the Mission San Francisco caught. When ex-soldier and normal supervisor of the Mission San Fernando was given primarily your complete valley, he referred to as his new digs the Rancho San Francisco and in 1876, we had been merely referred to as Newhall. Different names got here: Newhall-Saugus; the Soledad Township; Newhall-Saugus-Valencia. This paper’s personal writer, Scott Newhall, tried to stay all of the residents with Valencia Valley (it was Scotty who got here up with the deal with for the brand new Newhall Land housing tasks). There have been even dozens of different handles to discuss with our hometown. The time period, “Santa Clarita” was chosen. It got here from a deal with a number of previous timers used starting within the Thirties (and presumably earlier): — the Little Santa Clara River Valley — Santa Clarita, en Español.
OCTOBER 1, 1982
KA-BLOOEY AND THEN SOME — Large, ground-shaking explosions had been all a part of dwelling within the Santa Clarita Valley when Bermite was round. The large ordnance-making manufacturing unit on Soledad misplaced a constructing on this date. A spark from an oven ignited some high-tech explosives, sending 55-gallon barrels spiraling excessive into the air and beginning a brush hearth. A thick black cloud of ammonia-perchlorate (used to make rocked gas) floated over a part of Santa Clarita. Nobody was injured and everybody just about held their breath till the cloud handed.
AND WEBER’S STILL AN IDIOT — John Weber, deputy director of L.A. County Parks and Recreation, stated it finest, “I made the error and I assume the duty for it.” Weber OK’d the bulldozing of a swimming pool on the previous Asher Ranch on Vasquez Rocks Park. Weber gave permission for the destruction of the pool, although it was on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. Appears that beneath, there was a treasure trove of historical Anasazi treasures relationship again to 4000 B.C. On the brilliant facet, the county work crews took the entire archeological fortunes and transferred them to the dump — protected for future archeologists 1000’s of years from now.
• • •
Nicely this was an epic trek, wasn’t it? Thanks for the corporate and the nice medication of your friendship, expensive saddlepals. I’ll meet up with you in seven days again at The Mighty Sign’s hitching put up. Till then — vayan con Dios, amigos!
Go purchase Boston’s latest e book, “The 25 Most Inappropriate Canine Breeds,” at johnbostonbooks.com. Sombrero in hand, we notice a 5-star ranking on Amazon could be grandly appreciated!
