(Caption: SCV attorney Rick “866-654-4947 For All Your SCV Legal Needs” Patterson — left, although I’m guessing he really isn’t — was named one of the top 20 Best Dressed people in the valley 30 years ago. I think that’s my suit he’s wearing. The guy on the right? I think it might be actor Wally Cox. I don’t know. Hope it’s not another attorney so I don’t get sued over the Wally Cox one-liner.)
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —
— We were quite mobile back on February 15th, 1878. The entire town of Newhall moved from its original location at Bouquet Junction to around 6th Street. Interestingly, around the same time, another community moved most of their buildings from the community of Andrews to the 6th Street area. Andrews was the old stage stop, hotel, saloon, store and small town located about where Eternal Valley is today. When I say, “moved,” I mean both little towns literally took all the boards, beams, windows, doors, dogs and cats, put them in wagons and rolled them up or down the road as the case may be.
FEBRUARY 18, 1921 —
— Newhall movie star and rodeo yard owner Buck Jones debuted his latest movie, “The Square Shooter,” in San Fernando. It t’weren’t a talkie, but, it was shot here in the good ol’ SCV.
— A little newspaper trivia — the February 18th issue of The Signal was the last full-sized paper printed until October 28, 1926. They went to a tabloid size during that period.
FEBRUARY 18, 1931 —
— We had cowboy crooners, jazz ensembles and old-fashioned dance bands. But, on this date, the first high brow local orchestra was founded. It was called the Newhall Musical Society.
— On this date, the L.A. County Supervisors voted to approve $555,000 to build the Saugus-to-the-Sea Highway. Actually, the road was in Newhall and the start of it was that main drive that connects The Old Road to the Towsley Canyon lodge. That 13-mile STTS lane would eventually connect the SCV with the Pacific Ocean, via Chatsworth and on through Topanga Canyon. On the original plans, it would also fork over to Simi. Here’s a hot one for you. The supervisors also planned to build a prison in Castaic so they could use the jailbirds for road gang work to build Saugus-to-the-Sea. That prison would be Wayside Honor Farm. STTS would never be the huge highway its designers had intended, but they did build a humbler version of the road. You can still see Saugus-to-the-Sea on some of the even modern maps, even though it no longer goes anywhere.
— Our local sheriff’s office was busy, stopping a Chinese laborer-smuggling operation in Saugus.
FEBRUARY 21, 1939 —
— He was the Gerald Ford of his day, except for the small detail he never quite made president. Henry Clay Needham was one of the valley’s founding fathers. He was a national renowned public figure and was the Prohibitionist Party’s candidate for presidency in 1920. Needham, however, had food poisoning the morning of his party’s convention and couldn’t accept the nomination. He was a bit accident-prone, falling off fences and ladders and once, he was head-butted so hard by a Billy goat, he had to take three months to convalesce.
FEBRUARY 18, 1941 —
— The floods of ’41 continued with a vengeance. The sixth storm in a row hit the SCV, dumping 4 inches of rain in one day and closing Highway 99 and Soledad Canyon Road. Happy Valley was a lake. Again. Worse, folks there had over a foot of mud in their homes. Flash floods washed out bridges and sent multi-tonned trees careening down normally dry creeks. Again. Sand Canyon was completely cut off from the world for the second time in a week. The debris from raging Wiley Creek jammed under the bridge and trees were parked on 99, the state’s major artery. Newhall Water couldn’t pump its precious cargo to most homes and businesses. Cars parked on Newhall Avenue had been washed away by the floodwaters.
— Teachers at Newhall Elementary thought there was a major case of hooky afloat. Seems though the town school bus had an accident crossing Highway 99. No one was hurt, but the bus was undriveable and parents had to be called to rescue the stranded kids.
— On this date, DuVall Chevrolet bought The Signal. That’d be the gas station. Not the newspaper.
— Rita Hayworth and Tilly Brutch signed long-term contracts with Paramount Studios. Rita was the non-Newhall actress and Tilly was the Sand Canyon seamstress to the stars.
FEBRUARY 18, 1951 —
— His mother Martha came across the plains in a covered wagon in 1853. His father, Tom, sailed around Tierra del Fuego in 1849. Tom and Martha would marry and homestead land in the Sand Canyon area that would become a great ranch one day. Tom and Martha would have a son, Frank. He was born on Nov. 14, 1869 and was one of the first pupils at the third oldest school district in Los Angeles County (#1 is L.A.; #2 is Acton) and would grow to be a prominent rancher in the SCV. Frank Mitchell died on Feb. 13, 1951. His descendants still live in this valley today.
— Someone stole 25 large gunny sacks containing dry bread from the weekend cabin of David Kamins, Los Angeles mail carrier. With a straight face, investigating deputies noted they didn’t have a crumb of evidence. They didn’t ask why anyone was storing 25 large bags of dried stale bread, either.
FEBRUARY 18, 1961 —
— Timing’s everything. Fire Prevention Week started the same day an arsonist burned down Fred Pardee’s wooden Placerita Canyon cabin.
FEBRUARY 18, 1971 —
— Lots of old timers and semi-old timers have their anecdotes about what it was like being jolted out of bed by the big Feb. 9th earthquake. One viewpoint which was rarely thought about was what it was like being locked in jail when the tumbler hit. Newhallian George Johnson was in the poky for marijuana possession and by his own volition, was rather nervous about his incarceration. He didn’t fall asleep until 4 a.m. and was awakened less than 2 hours later. He described metal beds shrieking against concrete floors, followed by screaming of everything from “EARTHQUAKE!!” to “THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING!!” There was much paranoia about the prisoners being crushed in the locked cells and rumors about the valley being flooded and everyone drowning. About four hours after the quake, a guard came to the cell and told the inmates not to drink the water from their sink taps.
FEBRUARY 18, 1981 —
— Thirty years ago, Special Editions editor Walt Cieplik and The Former Mighty Signal staff produced a 100-page magazine entitled: 1981 and Beyond, A Chronicle of Growth in the Santa Clarita Valley. In it was an article on the best dressed men and women in the valley and included in the top 20 was attorney Rick Patterson — in a plaid jacket, bell bottoms, helmet hair and a tie about 48 inches wide. (Don’t sue me, Rick. You’re my attorney and it would be counter-productive plus I couldn’t afford paying both sides of the litigation.)
— The financially-strapped Hart High got an unusual infusion of cash. NBC and the producers of the flop TV series, “Walking Tall” gave the school $7,000 for the privilege of hanging a sign on the auditorium — McNeal County Courthouse.
— Honey was a sweet business. Margleen Warmuth, owner of the famed Honey House on Sierra Highway, noted that there were nine commercial beekeepers in the SCV and about 1,000 hobbyists. The Warmuths themselves tended about 2,500 colonies over Southern California, which produced between 3,000-6,000 pounds of honey per year. (Although bees have a heck of a work ethic, they can be picky. They won’t work in the cold or wet weather, and that sure can affect production during the February to August harvest.) That’s big work for their little black and yellow friends, considering each worker bee produces about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its short 5-week lifespan. To produce that 1/12th teaspoon, the bee is very busy, working non-stop during his life. It takes about 55,000 miles of flight time for one hive to produce just one pound of honey. A little bit more on local honey. There are some caves hidden in the mountains above Towsley Canyon. Up until the 1910s, they used to house millions of bees who over the years built up a stockhouse of hundreds of tons of honey. For years, men risked their lives harvesting it. A couple actually died from falling in.
— — —
As usual, you folks are good medicine and I dearly appreciate the company. Before I say adios, one small reminder. The SCV Historical Society is hosting a bus tour of the great St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928 site. It includes lunch and lecture and it’s on Sunday, March 3rd. You’ll need to reserve by calling 254-1275 or sending a check ($35 per person) to SCV Historical Society; PO Box 221925, Newhall, CA 91322. That business aside, see you next Thursday under the warming glow of The West Ranch Beacon with a brand new Time Ranger adventure and vayan con Dios, amigos!
(Don’t forget to check out thebostonreport.net for a giant dose of John Boston’s prose.)
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