The Time Ranger

The photo this week is one of Nature’s rarest wonders, the natural land bridge. Up until the 1960s Placerita Canyon used to have one. Teenage knuckleheads put out a lot of sweat to take picks and shovels and collapse our humble wonder. (Courtesy SCV Historical Society)

WAY, WAY BACK WHEN -

Fort Tejon, the citadel that for a few short years tried to protect folks for a thousand square miles, was abandoned on Sept. 11, 1864.

 

• First garrisoned almost a decade exactly on Aug. 10, 1854 by the Army (ours), the fort was created to watch over such tribes as the warlike Chemeheui, Mojave and Paiutes, along with other Indians on the Sebastian Reservation. The main tribe within the jurisdiction was the Emigidano, a branch of Chumash.
• The controversial Edward Fitzgerald Beale was appointed by President Millard Fillmore to make sure there was peace between gold prospectors, U.S. citizens and the various tribes in the region. To that extent, he asked for and got a $500,000 stimulus package, along with the creation of a 75,000-acre reservation.
• You can thank a Major and quartermaster J.L. Donaldson who chose the present site in Grapevine Canyon (Canada de las Uvas). The fort essentially moved from Fresno to the foot of the Tehachapis.
• Remember The Citizen? After a dramatic midday walk-out, after 25 years of running The Mighty Signal, the Newhall family started their own bi-weekly newspaper on Sept. 11, 1978 published the first edition of their newspaper, The Citizen. It lasted not quite a year and lost about $1 million. I still have that first edition. Wonder how much it would be worth on eBay?

SEPTEMBER 10, 1919 -

• Presbyterian pastor W.H. Evans had a close call with death, 80 years back. He was driving back from Ravenna (the town that used to sit between Acton and Agua Dulce) when the steering wheel came off his car. Evans plunged over a cliff, the car rolled over and over and the local holy man was pinned upside down for 10 minutes. A passing train crew saved him.
• Perhaps this is where it all began. The newly formed IRS were passing out fliers in the SCV, warning car owners that they could give rides to friends or hitchhikers, but that if they charged anybody money for a ride, they’d have to pay 8 percent of the sum to Uncle Sam.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1929 -  

• Here’s two suspicious items. Our local Dr. Thomas complained that his watermelon patch had been burglarized so many times, he was out of watermelons. Same weekend, the Saugus Home Club announced they would be holding a huge Watermelon Feast at their annual fundraiser.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1939 -

• Big Bill Bonelli bought the old 355-acre Ray Baker Ranch on Sept. 12, 70 years back. Ray had bought out his partner, movie star Cowboy Bob Anderson. The ranch had previously been owned by another screen legend, Hoot Gibson. Hoot lived on the place for a year with his new bride, Sally Eiler. Hoot held onto the place for five years before it fell to bankruptcy. The grounds were ravaged a year earlier in the 1938 big flood and a fire destroyed the rodeo stands in 1935. You might know the place as the Saugus Speedway.

SEPTEMBER 8, 1946 -

• On this date, the first ever high school in the valley, Wm. S. Hart, was dedicated. The campus was originally on the Newhall Elementary school grounds. Bill Hart, the silent superstar after the school and district was named, actually wanted the campus called Fremont High, after one of his historical heroes, John C. Fremont. The Indian mascot was voted in after a contest. Second-place choice was the Hart High Buckaroos.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1959 –

• One of the aggravating repeatings of history is how local Sheriff’s not only get socked in the noggin’, but also, how they end up paying out of their pockets for damaged personal goods. On this date, Sheriff’s deputies Acosta and Hageman both took shots to the chin trying to apprehend a cook from the Castaic Cafe who had started a fistfight right in front of their 6th Street headquarters. Adding insult to injury, the cook also broke the glasses of the desk officer, Sgt. Pipkin.
• James Archie Plummer of San Francisco lost his life on this date, falling asleep at the wheel and ramming into a Mack truck. Plummer hit with such force, his brain literally popped out his ear.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1969 –

• I mentioned last week that we had an inordinate amount of traffic accidents for a community of our size. While we made up just .003 percent of California’s population, we had one percent of the state’s traffic deaths within our boundaries. Saugus Speedway photographer Andy DeMarzo was killed instantly when a race car jumped the wall, flipped and landed on top of him.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1979 –

• It was about 20 years ago to the day that both the Canyon Country and Newhall-Saugus-Valencia chambers of commerce agreed to merge.
• The Wm S. Hart High District coughed up over $100,000 to drain Canyon High’s football field. They sort of built the place in a swamp and during moderate rains, the place would become a lake.

Thanks so much for joining me in a visit to our precious Santa Clarita history, friends and neighbors. It’s a great place in which we live. Looking forward to seeing you next week in The West Ranch Beacon. Until next Thursday when, like this horse, we post, vayan con Dios, amigos!

John Boston is the valley historian. Look for his book, Images of America, The Santa Clarita Valley, published by Arcadia, at bookstores and retail outlets throughout the valley.