Happy Thursday to you, saddlepals. Don’t mind sitting down here, holding onto all these thousands of horses, but a guy can only do so much and I’m afraid these ponies are getting wise to all that horse whisperer stuff. C’mon. Climb down from those condos and town houses, coming running from the ranch houses. It’s time to do some time traveling. (Photo: Movie mogul Louie B. Mayer used to keep his prized race horses out in Placerita Canyon.)

This week, we’ll be visiting a gold rush or two and paying our respects to the water gods. There’s a few tidbits on the St. Francis Dam we’ve never covered plus dog vigilantes, fatal horse falls and a tale about our plane-crashing congressman.

Pick out a pony. Climb aboard and let’s mosey into timelessness…   

WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —

— On his birthday (he was born in 1802), Francisco Lopez discovered gold in Placerita Canyon in 1842. While it wasn’t the first big gold discovery in California (records indicate miners were taking AU out of San Francisquito Canyon in the early 1820s, it was a big one and helped set up the big gold rush of 1849 further up north.

— March 13, 1882, millionaire Henry Mayo Newhall and founder of the town of the same name took a tumble from his horse and later died. Some folks are under the misinformation that Hank founded The Newhall Land and Farming Co. He didn’t. His widow and five sons formed it a year-ish after he died.

MARCH 11,1920 —

— Before there was a reservoir, and before there was a paved road through Bouquet Canyon, the creek could prove to be a problem during the rainy season. Eighty years back, a wet winter caused the stream to overflow and no cars or wagons could get through for supplies to the residents there.

MARCH 11,1928 —

— Today marks the anniversary of the second-worst manmade disaster in American history — the bursting of the St. Francis Dam up San Francisquito Canyon. Mosey on over to Michele Buttelman’s feature in the Lifestyle section of this paper when we get back from time traveling for all the gory details…

— A little tidbit I don’t think has been mentioned before about the dam disaster involved a man who may have loved comfort more than adventure. Louis Rivera, one of the seven Rivera children who lived with their parents on the banks of the Santa Clara River, was awakened by a distant roar. He didn’t know it at the time, but it was the sound of a 75-foot tidal wave speeding down San Francisquito Canyon, tearing up trees by the roots and bringing a devil’s soup of houses, livestock and megaton boulders. The entire family rushed into their parents’ room. Peter Rivera, the father, told his family that it was just a wind storm. As the noise grew louder, Louis grabbed two of his sisters, Isabelle and Frances, and led them from the house. They were followed by their mother and the baby. Their father’s body was found a few days later, in Santa Paula. The mother and infant were never found.

MARCH 11,1930 —

— Cowboy Bob Anderson and Bob Baker stayed on long enough to start their 4th annual local rodeo at the Baker Arena. The pair sold the ranch on this date to cowboy “B” movie star, Hoot Gibson on April 15th, 1930. The old spread used to cover 8,800 acres and, in the 1920s and ’30s, hosted one of the country’s biggest rodeos, attracting tens of thousands of visitors. Today, that ranch is called the Saugus Speedway.

— Road crews working on the Weldon Canyon cut (today, The Old Road connecting the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys) were causing havoc. Seems the huge gravel trucks driving through Pico Canyon (today, Lyons Avenue) were ruining the oiled dirt road, cracking the surface and causing gaping pot holes.

— R.L. Carson was snooping around town, counting folks. Carson was the census taker for Newhall and Chatsworth.

— On this date, Pacific Telephone installed some new equipment at the local office, enabling locals for the first time to call South America and Canada from their homes. Don’t complain about today’s rates. It cost $48 for the first three minutes to talk to Buenos Aires.  

MARCH 11,1940 —

— Leon Lacewell, 14, died after a high-speed pursuit on old Highway 99, near Lyons. The boy in the stolen coupe was doing over 100 mph when he couldn’t make a curve, went airborne and flipped several times in the air before hitting a tree. Amazingly, CHP didn’t know Lacewell had a partner. Robert Kurtze, an escaped teen inmate from Calabassas, was thrown so far from the wreckage no one knew he had been in the car. He  lay unconscious for over a day in some brush, got up and started walking. Stumbling down the highway, he was spotted by sheriff’s deputies and rescued.

MARCH 11,1950 —

— Mrs. W.C. Gaffers switched her business on this date. She changed her Placerita Canyon thoroughbred farm from a racing stable to a breeding farm. One of her boarders, by the way, was movie mogul Louie B. Mayer.

MARCH 11,1960 —

— Folks up in Mint Canyon formed a lower case vigilante committee. Seems someone was shooting and poisoning dogs up there.

MARCH 11,1970 —

— Our local Congressman, Barry Goldwater Jr., was temporarily grounded by the FAA. BGJ’s small craft ran out of gas and had to crash into a drive way in Van Nuys. Wonder what Barry Sr., said. His dad was a bomber pilot during World War II. In fact, Barry Goldwater Sr.’s co-pilot was another local — Gene Autry.

— You had to be careful going on vacation around here. Mrs. Ida Edwards of Val Verde went to Oklahoma for two weeks to visit relatives. When she returned, the county had bulldozed her house — everything inside, all her earthly possessions. Two years earlier, the county sent certified letters to Mrs. Edwards, warning that her house was substandard and that if repairs weren’t made, they’d destroy it. She made about $1,000 in improvements. Then, went on vacation.

— On this date, our first local chapter of the ACLU was formed. Michael Ball was the first chairman. Best as I am informed, the ACLU didn’t last very long. It needed 15 local members, but couldn’t raise a quorum. 

MARCH 11,1980 —

— The fire department was testing their new water cannon out at Castaic Lake. You didn’t want to be doing the dog paddle next to the intake jets. The cannon sucked out 3,000 gallons of water per second and could spray it nearly 100 yards. A-course, we don’t get many fires out on Castaic Lake…

— All that was needed was another two trucks, one filled with ice and the other with sugar. Bob Gruver’s double-rig semi was rear-ended by another big rig on this date. Gruver’s cargo of several tons of lemons spilled onto the rain-soaked I-5 at Lyons. 

Well dear saddlepals. Here we are. Back where we started. You folks take good care of yourselves and if you’re so moved, we’ll try this time traveling again next Thursday under the glowing light of the West Ranch Beacon. See you in seven and until then, vayan con Dios, amigos!