I certainly am not one to advocate shirking, what with this being the last weekend before Thanksgiving and all that shopping yet to do. But the nice thing about time traveling is that we can sneak out, go back a few hundred years and return right at the exact instant we were supposed to go.
As my friend and astute observer, John Duarte once wrote: “ Time, like your uncle, is relative.”
This morning, we’ ll be witnessing one of the single most spectacular sporting achievements in world history — by a local pal of mine, Clint McKinney.
I’ve got some brand new information on the actual FIRST gold discovery here in the SCV. We’ll be tipping our hats and saying howdy to John J. Audobon, the Indian princess Ramona, gunfighters and lost gold mines. We’ve got two reverends — one altruistic, the other a felon with the nickname, “The Wildcat Reverend.” And, we’ll witness the ground breaking for the OLPH Catholic Church.
C’mon, amigos. We’ll slow the pulse and be calm in the saddle…
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —
— We keep adjusting our calendars about the first discovery of gold in California and Santa Clarita. For years, the date of the first major gold strike was thought to be in 1842 in Placerita Canyon by Don Francisco Lopez. Other reports place that date even earlier in San Francisquito Canyon in the 1820s. In a conversation with The Signal by Judge John Powell, who served as magistrate here for 50 years in the 19th and early 20th centuries, that first gold discovery was even earlier. According to Powell, from a conversation he reportedly had with Andres Pico (of Pico Canyon fame and brother to California governor Pio Pico), Piute Indians found large gold nuggets in the Placerita Creek all the way back in 1796. The exact location was described as, “ …in the bedrock of the narrows in Placerita Canyon, four miles from (downtown Newhall).” The Indians brought them to the padres at the brand new construction site of the San Fernando Mission. The missionaries built rockers and sluice boxes and mined the gold. According to The Signal of November 19, 1920, “ No one seems to know just how much gold was mined, but it is supposed to be have been a considerable sum.”
— Long before we had a Hilton, a rather notable person camped out by the Castaic marshlands to view the wetlands birds. On November 18th, 1848, John Audobon, founder of the Audobon Society, visited us.
— A continent away, twins were born in Machias, Maine, on November 20,
1831. One would become a storekeeper/businessman, the other a famous pistol fighter and lawman. We would name one of our major boulevards after them. The twins would be Sanford and Cyrus Lyon. Sanford was the businessman and Cyrus was the gunfighter.
— In 1891, a young couple from Switzerland, George and Magdalena Blum, homestead 160 acres in Aliso Canyon near Acton. The Blums would later grow wheat and extend their farm into a great pear and apple orchard, supplying cider to grocers. They also built a fantastic three-story house out of granite they hand-cut from the local mountains. In case you were wondering, it takes about a half a crate of apples to make one gallon of cider. And no. I don’t know if they had any rules in their cider house…
NOVEM BER 18, 1920 —
— History is certainly circular, a theme we often push. The historic Ramona house, or, as it is known today, the Camulos Ranch House, was closed to tourists. Seems thoughtless motorists were trashing the place with litter, vandalism and using the orange groves to relieve themselves. For years, the little rancho (along Highway 126 today — it’ s a state historic landmark) would attract thousands of visitors who flocked by stage and train. Why?
The place was the alleged birthplace of one of American literature’ s most beloved and famous characters — the Indian princess Ramona. Author Helen Hunt Jackson in the late 1800s supposedly based her novel on a Tataviam girl living there.
— Poor Newhall Land and Farming seems to always be in trouble for something. Ninety years back, they had to rebuild the schoolyard fence and replace some sod for Newhall Elementary because their cattle had knocked over said fence and took to grazing where they weren’t supposed to.
— King Collins, local noted sheriff’s deputy, resigned after protecting the SCV for many a year.
NOVEM BER 18, 1930 —
— OK. So not only is history circular, it’ s sometimes backwards. Back in 1931, December was the month you registered your vehicle — not with the Division of Motor Vehicles, but with the Auto Club. Fees for any car under 3,000 pounds were just three bucks a year. But, if you had an ELECTRIC car, that’d cost you $13. Now, 80 years later, they give you tax breaks for buying electric transportation…
NOVEM BER 18, 1940 —
— Today it’s hard to buy a new pick-up truck for $48,723 (well, a real good one). On this date, Newhall Elementary granted a bid to rebuild their burned down auditorium for that same figure.
— Annie Rose Briggs rediscovered the historic Lost Padre Mine northeast of Castaic. The cave had originally been discovered by Indians and had been worked by padres and their neophytes, pulling out $3 million dollars in gold from 1843 and on. The mine was boarded up and hidden by the padres and rumor is they hid the gold in the hills rather than give it to the Mexican government. A Dr. Bragg later “rediscovered” the pit, trading a thoroughbred horse for the location. Dr. Bragg hired a local Newhall gunfighter, Bronco Charley Riley, to manage it. Riley’s crew mined an additional $1 million from it. One day, in a drunken rage, Riley murdered eight Indian miners and buried them in the cave. He threatened to kill Dr. Bragg, too, saying he was tired of doing all the work and the horse-racing doctor getting all the money. Dr. Bragg, fearing for his life, never returned to his own mine. A few days later, Bronco Charley was sleeping off a drunk in a clapboard lean-to shack when someone snuck up on the cabin, stuck a shot gun through a hole in the wall and just about blew Riley’ s head clean off. Most of the gold and silver was gone from the cache, but there was a rich vein of quartz that Mrs. Briggs made a comfortable profit from.
NOVEM BER 18, 1950 —
— Bermite had just started working around the clock in three shifts, preparing ordinance for the Korean War. Then, they had to hit the brakes and lay off a good chunk of their 2,000 work force. Seems they hit an ice jam of getting parts and supplies.
NOVEM BER 18, 1957 —
— On this date, our first real-ish library was dedicated at 9th and Chestnut Streets. Prior to that, we had mobile county libraries visiting us from time to time and some of the storefronts along San Fernando Road would lease out a corner of their store to hold a few volumes. Blanche Brown, second editor of The Mighty Signal, was the town librarian during the 1920s and was in charge of leasing about 500 books, about half of them magazine.
NOVEM BER 18, 1960 —
— A half-century back this week, they had the groundbreaking ceremonies at the present-day corner of Lyons and Orchard Village for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church. We obviously had a Catholic Church since the days of the San Francisco Mission, and OLPH had a small chapel at Chestnut and Lyons. The new OLPH would be built on 10 acres and it’s still going strong today. (And if you’re Catholic and supposed to be in church instead of this trail ride, I can’t say I can cover you, but I promise to be vague if the padre calls asking about your whereabouts.)
— Operation Seal-Off began in the hills surrounding the SCV. We had several fires the year before and the Forest Service had huge mounds ofn various wild grass seeds piled up at the Agua Dulce Airport. Tons of the seeds were airdropped onto our hills to help prevent winter flooding.
— Chemistry teacher Roy Dundon had yet another explosion in his Hart High lab. He left a can of sodium metal out to settle and I’ m betting someone spritzed it with water. That’s a no-no. It exploded and burst into flame and the chemistry class had to be evacuated. I remember that happened when I was a kid in Roy’s chemistry class and no. I wasn’ t the spritzer.
NOVEM BER 18, 1970 —
— It was called “The Strange Case of the Wildcat Reverend.” SCV minister
David Taylor was jailed on 20 felony counts, from grand theft to stock fraud. He was the former pastor of United Methodist Church.
— To prove we can dish it out as well as take it, on this date, former Signal editor Jon Newhall was convicted of marijuana possession. He was given a $250 fine and suspended sentence of two years probation. Newhall had been caught growing the evil weed up in the hills north of Newhall.
— My good buddy, Clint McKinney set a new national record in COC’ s 73-29 romp over Mt. San Jacinto. That score, by the way, was for football, not basketball. Clint carried the ball 41 times for a staggering 419 yards.
He beat out some heady football legends with that record. The previous junior college single game rushing record was 305 yards by some murderer named O.J. Simpson. McKinney even toppled the four-year single game record of 362 yards set in 1912 by some guy named Jim Thorpe. Even more astounding, McKinney had a 65-yard TD run called back on a highly- suspicious holding call, which would have put him near the 500-yard mark.
For one game. A thousand yards is considered beyond phenomenal for a season. Yeeesh. Darn thing is, I think Clint today is in good enough shape to do it all over again at nearly 60.
NOVEM BER 18, 1980 —
— Signal gossip columnist MIMI recalled how President-elect Ronald Reagan had been recently kidded for a miscue when he falsely accused: “ Trees cause pollution.” Some wit hung a sign around an oak which responded: “ CHOP ME DOWN BEFORE I KILL AGAIN!”
— The Reverend Thomas Lesley stopped off at old the Sierra Pelona Motel to rest before finishing the last leg of his monumental hike. Rev. Thomas had walked across America, starting in Vermont and ending in San Fernando, to raise money to fight world hunger.
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Just a shameless plug: my web site: thebostonreport.net is up and running. Blogs, commentary, books, all sorts of cool stuff. That aside, thanks again for the peaceful company, saddlepals. Best we get back and make a dent in that holiday shopping list. What say we all rendezvous next Thursday under the West Ranch Beacon for another trek through the back trails of local history? Adios y vayan con Dios, amigos!