Well howdy there, buckaroos and buckaroo-ettes. So very nice to see you this Wednesday in the ethereal Internet! Before we saddle up, hope to see you Saturday night, Sept. 25th, 6:30 p.m., out at Vasquez Rocks. Seeing that we spent a weekend akin to living in Hades, I thought it wouldn’t hurt for us to mosey back in time to visit all the cool, refreshing record rainy seasons. We’ll take off our cowboy hats and let the rain just wash our cares and hairs away. It’s better than cream rinse.

We’ve got a whole passel of make-you-wince traffic accidents from yesteryear. There’s – well. We’re not Channel 7 Eyewitness News here, premiering the next 20 seconds every 10 seconds. So get in the saddle. Let’s go through the time vortex and see what’s what…

(Photo)- I wonder what Dr. Sarah Murray would think about the century-plus revitalization project on Main Street in Newhall? Her office would have been smack dab in the middle of it. Dr. Murray was an amazing lady. Not only did she create our first emergency hospital in 1931, she was a rarity as a woman physician. Dr. Murray patented several medical devices, including the still-in-use rolling hospital “bed-desk and table.” (Courtesy SCV Historical Society.)

Way, Way Back When-

  • Thanks to historian A.B. Perkins, we have a few records of the rainiest seasons in SCV history. In 1884-85, we had 38.18 inches of rain, followed by these totals: 1889-90 – 34.84; 1892-93 – 26.28; 1913-14 – 23.65; 1931-32 – 25.99; 1937-38 – 25.21. Of course, the mother of all seasons was 1968-69 – 51 official inches and 30 inches in February of 1969 alone.
  • One of our driest years was 1898-99 – about five and a half inches fell for the whole year. Touch when you consider we were primarily agricultural and lived by the raindrop. Lots of livestock perished and many trees just dried up.

SEPTEMBER 3, 1919 -

  • The Antelope Valley Fair was going strong, even 80 years back. The big to-do was that in the 1919 fair, they’d have electric lights. Woo.

SEPTEMBER 3, 1929 -

  • A note in the weekly oil column in this paper noted that “ol’ No. 57″ was still pumping out about five barrels a day, after 60 years of production. Pico No. 4 would pump oil continuously for 114 years.
  • Pico Canyon Road used to run all the way to Newhall Avenue and was a narrow dirt wagon road. It was improved on this date, widened, with the neck taken out where it intersected with Newhall Ave.
  • A new Model A sedan at J.W. Doty’s garage cost $625. That’s not per month lease. That’s not the first insurance payment. That’s the whole cost of the car.

 SEPTEMBER 3, 1939 -

  • Hunting season ended with 12,935 registered hunters killing 282 deer. Of that total, 273 were shot in the first five days. That would be deer. Not hunters.
  • The Union Ranch, between Newhall and Saugus, was pretty busy with asparagus harvests. Joe Jo, 84, leased the ranch and the reputed world’s largest grower of asparagus. He had come to America at the age of 14 from China.

 SEPTEMBER 3, 1949 -

  • Trucker Ollie Bliss finished the ride of his life on this date, 50 years back. Bliss’s double rig filled with 20 tons of lumber lost its brakes at the top of the 5-Mile Grade and went on a 100-mph race with death. He won. Bliss kept dragging his truck alongside of cliffs and railings in an attempt to slow it down. Finally, he was able to pull his truck over on the incline of Newhall Pass. CHP officers said Bliss suffered a nervous breakdown after the ride, that he was babbling and had to be pried from his cabin. The CHP called him a hero.

SEPTEMBER 3, 1959 –

  • A 10-year-old boy playing with matches caused 200 men to fight a 26-acre brush fire in Saugus. The U.S. Forest Service sent 10 planes carrying thousands of gallons of flame retardant to help. How many times do you think the kid had to write, “I will not play with matches?”
  • John Berry, former pastor of Newhall’s Presbyterian Church, died on this date. I mention this only because his surviving wife’s name was Minniedell. Who, may I ask, no matter what the century, names their baby, “Minniedell?”

SEPTEMBER 3, 1969 –

  • It wasn’t a statistic of which we were proud. While we made up just .003 percent of California’s population, we had one percent of the state’s traffic deaths within our boundaries – 47 for just the first eight months of 1969. Two more were added when a mother and her infant burned to death in a wreck. A third died when his motorcycle clipped a truck he was trying to pass.

SEPTEMBER 3, 1979 –

  • Journalists at College of the Canyons grappled with the student senate over the 1st Amendment. The state senate, because they footed the bills to put out the Canyon Call, wanted to act as publisher of the paper. That meant the senate would choose the paper’s editor or, COC would have a special election where the students voted on the school paper’s editor. The other touchy point was that a third party would be appointed to edit the paper for “libelous material.” Both measures were eventually struck down.

Boy howdy, that’s the miracle of time traveling. We’re back full circle, amigos, right at the foot of that stalwart monolith, The West Ranch Beacon. See you next week with another exciting Time Ranger adventure, and, until then, 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.