It’s a new year, friends, and a good Thursday to be up in the saddle. Head ’em up, make ’em start out sideways just to complicate their lives. And no taking souvenirs back into the future — it shifts the infinitely complicated time-warp continuum.
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —
— The Tataviam Indians, who lived as peaceful nudist here while our forefathers were writing the Constitution, used to fish for freshwater clams on the Santa Clara River, which ran bank to bank back then. Like some other Southland tribes, they might have used hallucinogenic herbs to drug trout and other fish in the small lakes and pools here. The Amerindians would drop the herbs in the water and drugged fish would float to the top.
— On January 2nd, 1850, William Manly and John Rogers arrived at the old del Valle rancho. The pair had hiked all the way from Death Valley, surviving on roots, dead animal carcasses and branch water. They were in search of help for their stranded wagon train of settlers. Actually, Manly and Rogers thought they were near the city of San Francisco. Quite lost, they asked some local cowboys where San Francisco was. The Caballeros pointed toward Don Ignacio del Valle’s home — which was called: Rancho San Francisco. Caballeros from the Santa Clarita ranch would follow Manly and Rogers back to Death Valley and rescue the starving encampment. Many of the survivors from that wagon train would eventually settle in the SCV.
DECEMBER 31st, 1929 —
— On this date, Chan Yeck was arrested in Newhall for drug possession. The rich, elegantly-dressed Chinese businessman was quite high and according to police reports, they “ … found a stock of narcotics that would send half the town to cocaine heaven.” Yeck was suspected of being a Chinese tong warlord. Interestingly, we had a Tong presence in the SCV for many a decade and back in the 1880s, they pretty much ran the local meat-packing business here.
— State road crews started working on moving Pico Canyon (Lyons Avenue, today). The original road was a quarter-mile south of where it is today.
— Names and dates change, but the basic themes don’t in history. On this date, Ruby Rivera came back to visit Saugus after 40 years of cowboying and law enforcement in Wyoming. (Ruby had captured the infamous train robber, Bill Carlisle.) When Ruby was a boy growing up here, Saugus was called Surrey and there was nothing much around except a brand new train station. Upon returning to Newhall with its overpopulation of 500 souls, Mr. Rivera said he hardly recognized the place.
— A newspaper editorial called for the reforestation of the Santa Clarita Valley. “Here, the forests have been destroyed, and must be replaced for the use of the people of a hundred years hence.”
— Because of so many thefts, the new Ford cars at the Doty garage had a new anti-theft feature — they started putting the ignition wires inside the steering column.
DECEMBER 31st, 1939 —
— How’s this for a great, swashbuckling name? One of our sheriff’s deputies assigned out here was named Hawkshaw Story.
Speaking of law enforcement, CHP motorcycle officer Walt Fidler was badly injured when he was cruising down Walnut Avenue. A.J. Liston’s dog ran out in front of the big bike to challenge Fidler’s bike. Walt ran over the pooch, killing it, and went head over handlebar, landing quite hard.
R.C. Gibson predicted a landslide summer in the chicken business. He had 35,000 healthy chicks at his Eggland Farm where the Happy Valley neighborhood in Newhall is today.
DECEMBER 31st, 1949—
— Brrr. Got down to 14 degrees in some of the canyons a half-century back.
With the new year, we got our new telephone books. The 1949 edition was a bit larger than 1948’s — 300 more listings. That was when the phone book included the Santa Clarita AND Antelope Valleys — 1,900 residential listings total.
— Earl Madray had a perfectly awful New Year’s Eve. Marauding bears had attacked his beehives in Castaic, cleaning out a dozen of them in three nights of raids. The fourth evening, New Year’s Eve, Madray heard the foraging bears. He jumped out of bed, grabbing a gun and trying to pull his pants at the same time. By the time he got to the hives, the bears were long gone but the bees were angry and swarming. Several dozen got into Madray’s semi-pulled-up britches and stung him where the moon don’t shine. Lousy darn way to start 1949.
— It’s stories like this that give hunters a bad name. It was duck season (NOT deer season) and hunters at Elizabeth Lake were plinking away at migrating mallards. Several dozen spotted an out-of-season buck taking a drink by water’s edge and started firing like an Iraqi machine gun nest. They killed the poor buck and didn’t stop there. Spotting a cow grazing by the lake, they killed that creature, too.
DECEMBER 31st, 1959 —
— Civilization was just a year away, phone-wise. Pacific Telephone announced they’d be building an ultramodern telephone exchange on Newhall Avenue, enabling residents within a year to actually direct-dial their own calls instead of going through the old-fashioned operator-assisted wire switch board.
DECEMBER 31st, 1969 —
— Who should teach sex — the state or the parents? That was the crux of the debate as various legislations were being penned to either prohibit sex education in high school (ours, for example) or provide it. It got provided.
Eddie Myers and pals buried a large whole hog in Val Verde in preparations for a New Year’s Day feast.
DECEMBER 31st, 1979 —
— The snow kept on falling in the local mountains. Residents of Castaic, Acton and Agua Dulce were either sliding around the icy roads, or safe at home, making snowmen. It was the biggest snowfall in the previous 12 years.
— Carol Flores, 20, of East Los Angeles, fell 100 feet to her death while climbing out of a rollercoaster car on the Magic Mountain ride, Colossus. The safety bar was still intact and it was later found that Ms. Flores great weight (250 pounds) and height (not quite 5-feet) caused the accident. Ms. Flores had reportedly told her cousin before she got on the ride that she felt a great trepidation and foreboding, and that she was afraid she’d fall out.
— New Year’s Eve night, 30 years ago, an unidentified woman wearing nothing but a sombrero walked into the 7-11 at Bouquet and Urbandale and danced through the aisles. Oh those ’60s…
This last trail ride of the old year sure was fun. Thanks for meeting me under the glow of the West Ranch Beacon. I’ll be back next Thursday with another exciting Time Ranger adventure and until then saddlepals, Vayan con Dios, amigos!
John Boston is the valley historian. Go out and buy his book, Images of America, The Santa Clarita Valley, published by Arcadia. It’s at bookstores and retail outlets throughout the valley and makes a dandy present. Also be on the look-out. He’ll be coming out soon with a brand new fresh web and blog site, thebostonreport.net very soon.