Trust you saddlepals are having a wonderful Saturday morning.  Don’t mean to interrupt any of your private thoughts or prayers. Just when you’re amenable, we’ve a most exciting trek through the back trails of yesteryear ahead, filled with bootleggers, world-famous horses, bad guys, good gu ys and the sweet comedy of life …  WAY, WAY BACK WHEN   NO HABLA SCLARITA — A Happy Birthday is in order. We used to belong to Mexico and, on March 26, 1821, the Santa Clarita Valley, along with the rest of the future state, California officially became a territory of our neighbors to the south.  ONE DANGEROUS CONSTRUCTION PROJECT — With a blast of Hercules Dynamite, on March 22, 1875, construction began to dig the San Fernando Train Tunnel. One of the longest structures in the world, it was an engineering marvel. When completed, our link to Southern California would be 6,940 feet long. Work on the tunnel was extremely dangerous. The ground was saturated with oil and water and it kept caving in and killing folks. Hauling out the muck was more difficult than boring through granite. A good day of progress was chipping 4 feet forward. Sometimes, a Chinese laborer would be lowered over a hill in a basket to throw a stick of dynamite into a cave. Would not want that as a job …  MARCH 29, 1925  THE HIGH PRICE OF DRINKING — Constables Jack Pilcher and Jim Biddison raided a Tick Canyon home and caught a moonshiner in the act. The lawmen busted up several stills and 7 gallons of fine brandy were confiscated — as evidence, of course. Pio Benetti got walloped with an $800 fine — enough to buy a house and three brand new Model T’s.  SPEED DEMON — Speaking of Fords, old Charles Champman had a 1906 “Hoopie” model on display in his showroom. Rumor was, it still could get out on the highways and do a staggering 35 mph.  NOPE. NOTTA NAZI — It’s still a small shock to go back through the old bound editions of The Mighty Signal. Several businessmen were using something that looked like a swastika for the borders around their ads. It was actually a Navajo symbol. The actor Harry Carey started using them in his advertisements. He had an entire village of Navajo cowboys and craftsmen working for him at his San Francisquito Canyon ranch and Trading Post. Across the valley, in Downtown Newhall, airplane pilots would sometimes angrily buzz the Hart Castle. At the base of the flagpole, where the American flag proudly flew, airmen (and, airwomen like the famous Amelia Earhart) would spot what they thought were Nazi swastikas. They were, of course, First People’s ancient symbols.  MARCH 29, 1935  BOUND BY THE LINKS OF TIME, KARMA OR JUST PLAIN DUMB LUCK — I’ve always found it interesting those links that connect us to the past. Ida Freeman was killed after being struck by a speeding motorist while crossing San Fernando Road. Ida’s father was George Freeman, who had been the last surviving Civil War veteran in the Santa Clarita Valley.  WHAT’S IN A NAME? The L.A. County Board of Supervisors OK’d funds for the widening and repaving of Newhall’s main drag (today, Main Street). The big project would also move all the storefronts back several feet and put in some newfangled eastern idea called sidewalks. Then called Spruce Street or San Fernando Road, the artery was also a state highway back then and the main route to get from the San Fernando Valley to the San Joaquin.  MARCH 29, 1945  JUST WHAT WE NEED. ANOTHER DUDE RANCH. — World-famous movie actor Harry Carey and his wife, Olive Golden, homestead in San Francisquito Canyon in 1918. Over the years, they added to their ranch, increasing the boundaries to over 1,000 acres. With Harry’s health failing, the Careys sold their spread to L.W. Blanchard of New Jersey. Blanchard was serving in the Army at the time and when he came back, he would attempt to start an ill-fated dude ranch.  SEVERE DISINTEREST ABOUT WHO SITS ON THE HART BOARD — Those who serve on the William S. Hart Union High School District board might want to tip a Stetson toward these next five individuals. You can cheer or blame them. They were the first board of trustees for the district. On this date, only 272 voters showed up to elect the first board. Interestingly, when the Hart district itself was formed a few weeks earlier, 1,191 locals voted in that special election. Anywho. The very first board of trustees were: Mary Bonelli, Charles Brown, S.S. Donaldson, Tom Frew and Mildred Gilmore. Of course, it should be pointed out, these were the only five names on the ballot, although a handful of write-ins were offered.  JUST HORSIN’ AROUND — Only true diehard thoroughbred racing fans will know this name. Top Row won the 1936 Santa Anita Handicap and won $214,000 in his career — topped only by two horses then, Mioland and Seabiscuit. Top Row was owned by W.C. Gaffers, who had a big thoroughbred racing stable in Placerita Canyon. That’s where Top Row lived. Several famous horses would hail from Placerita, including Roy Rogers’ Trigger and Will Rogers’ Soapy. Famed trainer Corky Randall, over at the end of Pine Street, trained Trigger Jr. AND the famed Black Stallion.  THE OL’ SCREWBALL — Here’s an interesting business note of 80 years back. On this date, the famed Screwball Cafe in Castaic changed its name to something more St. Patrick’s Day-ish. Owner Ed Adkins changed the name to the Shamrock Cafe. I still prefer, “Screwball …”  THE SCV: HOME OF BLACK LUNG DISEASE — The Board of Supes postponed a plan to create several mega dumps in the canyons of Santa Clarita. They came up with an even better idea: build a series of mega trash incinerators. A newly created division of the county Health Department devoted to air quality issued a report that these giant trash-burning furnaces would not be a very good idea.  MARCH 29, 1955  SAN FERNANDO VALLEY SPEED TRAP — One of the age-old debates is whether law enforcement has a system of quotas for writing traffic tickets. The next valley over, L.A. Police Department Deputy Chief Roger Murdock made it pretty clear in a memo to his motorcycle staff of 60: Write 7,200 traffic tickets or find work elsewhere. That worked out to four tickets per man per day. Murdock’s goal was to cut down on traffic accidents, injuries and fatalities. He publicly called a few of his patrolmen “slackers” and pointed out some had only written one traffic citation in the past three months. “We’re trying to get the drones to go to work.” To be fair, Murdock didn’t want “annoyance” tickets to go up, just dangerous violations, like speeding or running lights.   YET ANOTHER RAPIST — The third attempted rape in the first three months of the year occurred when a tall man in jeans and pink shirt broke into the trailer of a Newhall woman. During the struggle, the woman’s wrist was severely cut, which panicked the attacker, and he fled.  NEED FOR SPEED — Some of you old-timers will recall, without nostalgia, another facet of Santa Clarita life rare in 1955 — the sonic boom. Frequently, military planes would streak low over the valley, breaking the speed of sound and rattling nerves and even breaking windows. We had such a big one on this date, folks thought a plane crashed or the refinery blew up. Again.  ADIOS, OUTDOOR INCINERATORS — The new Air Pollution Control District flexed its muscles, convincing the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to outlaw all outdoor trash incinerators in unincorporated areas of the county. It was estimated that the county spewed out 100 tons of ash and another 10 tons of pollutants into the atmosphere each year. Heck. I still have one out back. Haven’t used it in a while.  AND WE WERE PRO-INCINERATOR — Interestingly, The Mighty Signal was against the ban. In an editorial, it questioned how the incinerators of the Santa Clarita could affect the smog problems in downtown Los Angeles. “The smog doctors are up a well-known creek without sail or paddle. They don’t know what causes smog and they don’t know what will cure it,” wrote Signal editor Fred Trueblood.   MARCH 29, 1965  FROM NAZIS TO GEORGE PATTON TO SANTA CLARITA — The world’s leading sire of Arabian horses lived right here in Santa Clarita. Witez II lived several hundred lifetimes squeezed into one. The stallion was born in Poland and part of the world famous Janow-Podlaski lineage.   When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Witez II was taken by the Nazis to a special horse farm in Russia. On the way, he escaped and was hidden by a Polish farmer. But it was rather difficult to hide such a noble-looking creature and a second Nazi patrol recaptured the steed. He was shuffled around to various farms in Europe for breeding and while in Czechoslovakia was rescued by Gen. George S. Patton.  Witez made it to the Quartermaster’s Depot in Pomona after World War II, then was shipped to Ft. Reno, Oklahoma. He was bought at auction by Earl Hurlbutt for $8,100 and ended up living on his Calarabia Ranch in Bouquet Canyon.  Witez, by the way, means “Prince” in Polish.  MARCH 29, 1975  OLD COURTHOUSE LORE — One of the valley’s most historic sites was up for sale. The Old Courthouse Building was put up on the block. The building is still there today at the corner of Railroad and Market Streets. In 1878, Walter S. Newhall, fourth son of town founder Henry Mayo Newhall, started his mercantile store there and owned it until 1896.  STEVENSON RANCH: HOME TO THE SCV RAIDERS? — The current Old Road home to Walmart was on the drawing board for many grand ideas. It was in the running to become home to the Oakland Raiders, a thoroughbred race track, site of the World’s Fair and, 50 years ago, a possible site for a greyhound racing track. Investors looked, but didn’t buy.  FREEDOM JUST AIN’T FOR SOME PEOPLE — I guess the rehab didn’t take. A man was arrested in Sand Canyon in the 1963 Chevy he swiped. Turns out the perp had just been released from Folsom not more than 48 hours earlier. The guy had served a year for burglary. Short break in the great outdoors …  MARCH 29, 1985  THE WHEELS OF GOVERNMENT GRIND SLOWLY — It’s amazing how slowly the wheels of government turn. It was 40 years ago when the state and county came to a tentative — tentative — agreement to build the cross-valley connector. Actually, there were plans to build this road back in the 1950s. Ouch. Speaking of roads, on this date, editorialist extraordinaire, Scott Newhall, penned a front-page opinion piece damning San Fernando Road. Scotty felt the name was thrust upon us anyway by the county in the 1950s and we have nothing to do with San Fernando. “It is a name that oozes servility and suggest that we, the people, are held in thrall by that gang of neighboring sodbusters who live in bourgeois apathy on the other side of the pass to the south of us.” We changed it a few years back to Main Street, running through Downtown Newhall.  • • •   Well wasn’t that fun and then some? Sure appreciate the company. What say? See you in seven back here at The Mighty Signal hitching post, and, until then — vayan con Dios, amigos!   Local historian and the world’s most prolific satirist/humorist John Boston hosts an eclectic online shop, bookstore and multimedia & commentary website at johnlovesamerica.com.   The post The Time Ranger | Lots of Famous SCV Horses, Including George Patton’s   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less