FEBRUARY 18, 1920 -
• It must go in 90-year cycles. The Santa Clarita was hit by a big influenza outbreak on this date. According to county health records, approximately 4 percent of the SCV’s population was stricken. That worked out to two people – Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Hodgell.
• This week 90 years back, the local chapter of the American Legion was formed.
• Heres something to put on your resume. We were a member of the Squirrel Control Association, a spin-off of the state Horticultural Department. In 1919, we spread 6.5 tons of poison grain around 184,000 acres of the extended Santa Clarita Valley, going all the way up to Fort Tejon. Some 1,200 men were employed to spread the poison.
FEBRUARY 18, 1930 -
• On the ballot for the California election was something called the Mexican Exclusion Act. Its authors felt Mexican nationals were taking the jobs of Americans, especially in the agricultural fields. I heard a story about lawmen in neighboring Santa Paula rounding up anyone who looked Mexican, putting them in trucks and dumping them across the border. Many a long-time citizen had a long hike back because of this jingoism.
FEBRUARY 14, 1939 -
• Newhall Elementary School burned to the ground for the third time in history.
FEBRUARY 18, 1940 -
• A deranged youth — and isn’t that perfect for a bad garage band name? — was killed near the Baker Ranch. He had escaped from a mental institution after complaining that rats were eating his brain. He had walked from L.A. to Saugus and was hit by a truck. He was found dead on the road with both hands in his pockets.
• In a humorous column on the front page of The Formerly Mighty Signal, editor Fred Trueblood wrote a little science fiction. Seems some locals were always just about to fix the old horse corral in town and Trueblood postulated the lads would finish around 1990 — with the arena surrounded by 10-story buildings. Not far from the truth, except they never did finish the corral…
• Interestingly, were right around the corner from the grand opening of the Jan Heidt train depot on Railroad Avenue. Just about 50 years ago exactly, Sam Burrows tacked a notice on the old Newhall Train Depot, noting that Southern Pacific would be putting the station up for sale. It had been used as a potato packing shed since 1933.
FEBRUARY 18, 1950 -
• Supervisors in Ventura County met with locals to discuss the possibility of annexing the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys into Ventura County. Locals were enraged at the corruption on the L.A. Board of Supervisors and the plans to turn both valleys into giant hog ranches where ALL of L.A.’s and the San Fernando Valleys garbage would be dumped. Local citizens were also outraged that the city of Los Angeles already dumped thousands of their felons here. The move, obviously, never happened. Wonder how development would have turned out if Ventura, instead of Los Angeles County, was calling the shots?
• The trial for the estate of William S. Hart got ugly. Johnny Imperial, one-time foreman of the Horseshoe Ranch, testified that he had seen Hart and his sister, Mary, unclothed and in a compromising position. Two lawyers for Bill Hart Jr. quit the case, privately citing their disapproval of the sleazy direction the trial had taken.
• Winifred Westover, William S. Hart’s wife and mother to their son, Bill Jr., testified at that trial a half-century back. She and her son were contesting Harts will in which he left his huge ranch and holdings to Los Angeles County. Westover testified that Hart had been courting her since she was a teen and they met on a train to New Orleans to make the silent film, no pun intended here, Johnny Petticoats. Westover was the romantic lead opposite Hart in that picture. She was 18 at the time. Hart, nearly 50. Westover said Hart had proposed to her several times, but she had refused him. Westover’s testimony was designed to show that Hart had been unduly influenced by his sister, Mary.
FEBRUARY 18, 1960 -
• Teen vandals painted swastikas on the outside of the American Theater on Spruce.
• A tube of lipstick may have saved the life of Mojave waitress, Eunice LaRue. She was kidnapped by Jack Grant. When they stopped for gas up by the old Ron Dee Cafe near the Vincent Station in Canyon Country, Eunice was allowed to use the ladies room. She scrawled, HELP! CALL POLICE! on the bathroom mirror and left Grants license number, too. Grant was soon arrested and LaRue lived to serve another burger.
FEBRUARY 18, 1970 -
• One of the biggest shocks in Wm. S. Hart District history occurred on this date. In a surprise move, the five-member board asked for the resignation of their popular superintendent, Collins T. Haan. The board had called a surprise executive meeting, where they had kept Haan waiting outside for over an hour. Then, board president Curtis Huntsinger asked for Haans resignation. No public reason was given (all five members refused to speak with the press), but later it was learned that Haan had refused to fire Canyon High principal, Don Jerry. Haan refused to resign. Only E.J. Agajanian supported Haan, who was subjected to a four-hour verbal tirade by the board members. In a later meeting, over 400 people attended. Huntsinger moved to remove all media and people from the meeting, then deleted the item from the Haan item from the agenda. Huntsinger further order members of the media that they could not record the meeting. State educational agencies and the local teachers union tried to mediate. It later came out that Huntsinger was upset with Jerry because kids at Canyon were sneaking off campus and smoking on campus. Huntsinger also objected to the students protesting the Vietnam War. Huntsinger said the Board was upset with Haan for implementing a system of no grades without informing them, along with several other policies.
• The Hart Board story goes on. Huntsinger and Ed Duarte were later targets of a recall movement. The same week the committee was formed,they fired C.T. Haan. It keeps going. Haan sued the board for $250,000 AND he wanted his job back.
• They were passing out the gold shovels on this date. Mucky-mucks were on hand for groundbreaking at the Valencia Civic Center and a new 3-mile stretch of Highway 14.
FEBRUARY 9, 1971 -
• We had that big 6.6 earthquake here. Some call it the Sylmar Quake. We called it the Newhall Quake. It hit at 5:59 a.m. and the most famous memory of it was a car falling head first into a sink hole by Hart Park.
FEBRUARY 18, 1980 -
• On this date, a jury found Vampire Van killer Ronald Doyle Wilburn guilty of the murder, dismemberment and partial eating of hitchhiker Mary Ann Linco. He escaped the death penalty on a technicality.
• That little government with the big long name – The West Los Angeles County Resource Conservation District – made the headlines again. The WLACRCD was famous for its oddball collection of board directors (a mental patient, a thief, and one fellow who brought beer to the meetings and sipped it out of a paper bag) and shenanigans (hiring interior decorators to spruce up their offices; buying cars and bicycles for personal use). The latest prank was when one board member started to resign, then didn’t, then got into a fight with another member who tried to wrestle his keys from him. Ahhhh, the people we elect to office…
Thanks for tagging along, saddlepals. Its a most interesting community in which we live, isn’t it? See you in seven under the guiding light of The West Ranch Beacon. I know I keep saying this, but pretty soon, a big historic web project is coming your way. Vayan con Dios, amigos.