C’mon. Up and at ‘em, wag it and shag it, you Thursday a.m. bunk huggers. Sun’s almost up and we’ve got some tall riding ahead. Actually, because of the time traveling aspect, we’ve got some tall riding behind. Relativity can just be a stinker when it crosses paths with syntax. Dress light. We’re riding into what will seem to be hell- the hottest July on record. This morning, we’ll visit Cesar Chavez when he picketed Newhall Land. We’ll be hunting for an arsonist who tried to kill 50 Boy Scouts. There’s  Bermite blowing up again. There’s a dark week-long parade of troops through here. There’s… well. There’s plenty. Saddle up and see for yourselves… 

WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —

— The year 1876 was an exceptionally busy time, with the founding of Newhall, opening of railroads, the nation’s centennial and the moving of the historic Pioneer Oil Refinery. The original digs were by Eternal Valley, at the old Lyon Station. They moved it to it’s present-day location at Pine Street on August 1, 1876, where it became the first successful commercial oil refinery in California.

— For a short time, Saugus had its name changed to Surrey. A brand new post office was established at the Saugus Train Station (Saugus was the boyhood home of town founder, Henry Mayo Newhall), but the P.O. called it Surrey. Interestingly, Surrey was the middle name of silent film super star, William S. Hart. But, there is no known linking of the two names. It’s just a coincidence. 

JULY 29, 1920 —

— A brush fire closed the highway into Newhall and threatened the Sunshine Inn near the road tunnel. Fifty volunteers raced over to put it out.

— The teaching staff of Newhall Elementary consisted of three. Bill Ringnalda was hired as principal and Miss Lora Daugherty was one of two teachers. Before the days of in-class parental help and teachers’ aides, Lora taught third, fourth and fifth grades. By herself.

— Unless we get hit by a meteor, I don’t think we shall see these days again. Back on this date in 1920, there were 12 homesteading claims for 160 acres each in the Santa Clarita. Today, many of us live in condos and don’t even own elbow room or land. 

JULY 20, 1930 —

— California Governor C.C. Young was at the grand opening of the Weldon Canyon/Highway 99. A rope was sliced at the 160-foot cut out of the mountain. Young’s car, with the license plate of “1,” was the first car to drive through Highway 99, which is called the Old Road today.

— Three Hollywood teens, driving a used Ford they purchased for $8, ran out of gas in Saugus. The lads weren’t exactly rocket scientists. One, Jerome Yandal, lit a match so he could see better down the pipe to the gas tank. Yup. The car blew up real good, singeing the trio.

— George Mulry, civilian employed at Sheriff’s sub-station 6 on San Fernando Road and 6th Street, went for a hike through the Newhall Train Tunnel. Half way through, he heard a freight coming. There are several cut-outs within the long tunnel for just such emergencies. Problem was, Mulry was equidistant from the safety holes. Said a friend: “He flattened himself against the wall so flat that his ribs cracked, closed his eyes, said his little, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep,’ only he said it with different words, and awaited the end.” Fortunately, Mulry survived the ordeal, shaken, ears dead and completely covered with soot. Seems I remember doing something like that when I was a kid… 

JULY 28, 1938 —

— On this date, the old Newhall HIGHWAY tunnel — not to be confused with the Newhall RAILROAD tunnel — was blown up and filled in. From 1910, folks used to go to and fro to the San Fernando Valley via this big tunnel under what is today Sierra Highway, south of Newhall. This original tunnel was wooden, one of the longest in the United States. In 1924, the tunnel was reinforced with steel and concrete and rededicated. It was 16-feet wide and 21-feet high — just about big enough to get Bob Lee’s Ford Expedition through. Before they dug the tunnel, there was a steep road that went over the hill, next to Beale’s Cut. The road had a 29 percent grade and it quickly became obvious that a hill that steep wasn’t going to work. One problem was gravity carburetors. The old cars had to back up the hill so they could get gas to the engines. 

JULY 29, 1940 —

— Signal editor Fred Trueblood summed this one up nicely: “Prominent big shots of Los Angeles this week attended the unveiling of a beautiful concrete memorial to the late William Mulholland, builder of the Los Angeles aqueduct and the San Francisquito dam. A large concrete memorial to Mr. Mulholland also remains in the canyon, but no L.A. big shots ever attend it.” Trueblood was referring to Mulholland’s dam which burst in 1928, killing 500 people and causing millions in damage.

— A couple of weeks after a woman lost her husband and six children when a grape truck hit her head-on at 90 mph, another fruit traffic accident occurred on old Highway 99. A peach truck ran out of control, crossed the center lines and hit a family car filled with eight. One died, seven were critically injured.

— Citizens were treated to a dark parade as America readied for war. Approximately 10,000 troops, tanks, cannons, jeeps, supply cars, trucks and even 1,700 horses took a week to pass through Newhall and Saugus on a series of trains going from Los Angeles to Washington state.

— Idiots and hunting frequently go hand in hand. While most outdoorsmen leave no mark, there are those few, well, that some ranchers would just love to string up. Skelton Brooks in Sand Canyon discovered some deer hunters — illegally hunting preseason — had crossed his property. They shot holes in all his galvanized drinking tanks for his cattle.

— Backwoodsman Tiller Brutch came into town for supplies and was surprised at the latest fashion — shorts and sunsuits. Brutch recalled living in Kansas earlier and witnessing several young girls being arrested and they had on more clothes than the 1940 Newhall beauties. Well. We’ve always been a trend setter.

JULY 29, 1950 —

— An arsonist was blamed for setting three fires, including one in Lake Elizabeth that nearly killed 50 Boy Scouts camping there. The lunatic had hung several balloons filled with gasoline along a brush line, then set the “fuse” with a highway flare.

— The Korean War visited the Soledad Township (what the SCV was called from around 1938-1960). Local draft board No. 85 was formed. Men 18-25 were ordered to sign up for physicals. My dad, Walt Cieplik, who fought in World War II, was in the Army Reserves. He didn’t re-enlist and missed being called to fight in the Korean War by five days. I was three months old.

— Perhaps the most dangerous place in the valley to work, Bermite was hit by another explosion. A flare shack blew up, sending flames — not smoke, but flames — 200 feet into the air. The paint from fire trucks a half-football field away was blistered off. Damage was $75,000.

— Placerita oilman Tim King was sued for $2 million by former partner, Tom Sidwell. Sidwell said King defrauded him while he was in jail for securities fraud. When King found out he was being sued for $2 million, he smiled and said to his riggers: “Look fellows. All of a sudden, I’m a millionaire!” 

JULY 290, 1960 —

— Locals predicted dire consequences as an aftermath to the 30,000-acre brush fire up Sand Canyon the week before. Folks were worried that the denuded hillsides would be the perfect setting for mudslides and flooding for the upcoming winter. They’d be right.

— County road crews worked all week to knock down the historic entrance to town at San Fernando Road and Newhall Avenue in front of Hart Park. The present-day archipelago was built 40 years ago and in the process, they knocked over the old dedicated bird bath built to honor the lovable oldtimer Dick Lindsay, who spent his final years feeding the local birds. (This has been one of my losing battles over the years, trying to get Hart Park to rebuild that wonderful little bird bath that was dedicated to the loner Lindsay who fed birds over the years. I just always have a huge problem when the public — in this case, a poor woman who used her own money to build the bird bath in Lindsay’s honor — erects a monument and someone in government takes it upon themselves to tear it down.) 

JULY 29, 1970 —

— You hear of these stories back east, but certainly not around here. The state had to dish out $160,000 to repair to bridges north of Castaic. Seems that CalTrans was using too much salt to melt winter’s snow on Highway 99. The salt ended up corroding concrete and steel in the bridges and they had to be winterized in July.

— Cesar Chavez showed up at a fruit pickers’ strike against Newhall Land & Farming Co. The labor leader lent his support to some 200 farm workers who were picketing for higher wages and benefits from the local übercompany. Chavez and local labor leader Benjamin Aparicio, came to terms with NL&F officials. Get this. The dispute was over the fact that NL&F wouldn’t tell the pickers how much they would make before they started picking. Do you think a young Tom Lee was behind that one…?

— State highway engineers and geologists ignored reports of an ancient landslide while building roads near Princess Homes. Several brand new houses were lost when the road crews started shifting land. Reports of the ancient underground splits were ignored by state officials.

JULY 29, 1980 —

— Believe it or not, we used to have some beautiful lawns and a fountain at our county civic center. Budget cutbacks, a heat wave, a drought and some miscommunications amongst the maintenance crew however allowed the lawn to dry up and plants to die. The fountain, bureaucrats figured, cost too much to run.

N Vicious darn July in 1980 with the AVERAGE temperature being 102 degrees and four days in a row at 110 or better. I remember putting 100-pound blocks of ice in the Olympic-size pool just to make it bearable. Sorry. I know. Life was tough.

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See you in seven. Vayan con Dios, amigos!