Saddlepals and saddlepal-ettes, we’ve got a marvelous ride through SCV history this West Ranch Beacon morning, chock full of atomic bullets being tested at old Bermite and something called, “Female Weakness.” We’ve got the Black Plague, the valley’s only known communist, mountain lions and the very first traffic accident on old Highway 99. This one’s a fun ride. Don’t forget to take off them rawhide gloves to wipe the smiles from your faces….. (Pictured: James J. Rolph was a frequent visitor of the Hart Mansion and a pal of Bill Hart. He was also California’s 27th governor.)

WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —

— On August 24, 1853, the immense Rancho San Francisco, essentially the boundaries of the entire Santa Clarita Valley today, was willed by Antonio del Valle to his son, Ignacio. Sort of. Tony sent a letter to his philandering son that if he were to marry and start a family, he’d leave him a fortune. And he did. Ignacio, one of the state’s most revered figures and mayor of Los Angeles, was a horrible businessman and ended up losing the ranch to kind-hearted loan sharks. They let Ignacio stay on his acres and even gave him spending capitol even though he was essentially bankrupt.

— Same day, 25 years later, the post office was established at Lake Hughes.

— On August 25, 1845, the Rancho del Buque was granted to Francisco Chari. Francis was actually French and jumped ship off Oxnard. He changed his name to Francisco to blend in and worked cattle in this area before being deeded a large tract of land up Bouquet Canyon. Interestingly, Rancho del Buque was French for “Ship Ranch,” in honor of Fran’s sailing days. American cartographers came in after statehood, saw Buque on the old maps and thought it meant Bouquet because of all the wildflowers in the region. 

AUGUST 27, 1920 —

— Of all things, the SCV was on Black Plague alert. Squirrels in surrounding county had been discovered carrying the dreaded disease and in neighboring areas, 80 percent of the rats had been found with traces. Interestingly, a 50-year-long effort to eradicate predators that ate squirrels and rats helped increase the squirrel and varmint population.

AUGUST 26, 1926 —

— On the corner of 6th and San Fernando Road, that little white bunker was built and dedicated as the Newhall sub-station No. 6. It was our local police HQ until the 1970s when the sheriff moved over to the present-day Valencia site. Old No. 6 would become the production shop for The Signal. It is currently the office for The Canyon Theatre Guild.

AUGUST 27, 1930 —

— James J. Rolph gave his initialed bootjack to Bill Hart as a gift. So, if any of you docents have a bootjack with the initials JJR on it, there’s the story. Rolph was a frequent visitor to the SCV and Hart’s castle. He was also the 27th governor of California. J.J. was also the longest-serving mayor of San Francisco.

— F.A. Rainsborough was working in Newhall and Castaic, stretching an underline telephone cable from here to L.A.

— Here’s some trivia for you. The very first traffic accident on the new Weldon Canyon Road/Highway 99 was on this date, 70 years ago. Jim Osborn drove his car into a ditch. He had two passengers. Mrs. Boles broke her arm and Mrs. O’Conner had cuts about the face. 

AUGUST 27, 1933 —

— This date is one of the most important in SCV history and perhaps the most overlooked in its significance. Sixty-seven years ago today, millionaire Atholl McBean, son-in-law to George Newhall (who was son of town founder Henry Mayo Newhall) was named president of Newhall Land & Farming Co. This is important because it was McBean who turned around a nearly dead company into what would be one of the big dog players in the state. McBean has been called the most influential person in SCV history because if he had not saved NL&F, the valley would probably have been developed haphazardly ala the San Fernando Valley. 

AUGUST 27, 1940 — 

— Here’s an ad for you. This ran 60 years ago and the headline was: “AN URGENT MESSAGE TO WOMEN WHO SUFFER FEMALE WEAKNESS.” It was a spot for Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound. “For over 60 years, Pinkham’s has helped hundreds of thousands of weak, run-down, nervous “ailing” women to go smiling thru ‘difficult days.’ Why not give this wonderful ‘women’s friend’ a chance?” We’re thinking some of these secret additives back then were alcohol and cocaine.

— The war in Europe was felt here in Newhall. Ted Kornelissen received a letter from relatives in German-occupied Holland. It had been censored by the Nazis.

AUGUST 27, 1950 —

— We made all the downtown papers when an elderly but adamant gentleman walked into the Sheriff’s station and demanded to register as a communist. State laws then required such tracking. With effort, local deputies found the forms, blew off the dust and the man signed up as, I believe, our only known commie. The law stipulated that while extreme socialists had to get the human equivalent of dog tags, their privacy was protected by law and we never knew who that person was.

— Signal editor Fred Trueblood didn’t think it was so funny. Adamantly anti-communist, Fred wrote, in a front page column: “The Signal has no doubt that a few Communist Party men are planted in this strategic area, through which pass the life liens of Los Angeles. But you will never find their names on any registration list, nor will you ever spot them as Reds by any act or deed. They are called, “sleepers.” They will emerge from their holes when Russians and the United States enter the shooting war stage. We’ll get ’em then.” I don’t think we’ve shot too many communists here in the past half-century. Today I’m told, such a practice is politically incorrect and against most CC&Rs.

— Today it’s a church but 50 years back, Saxonia Park in Placerita Canyon was the town’s premier picnic grounds. On this date, they held the annual German Heritage Crossbow Shooting Championships. Our own Charlie Vogel won.

— Road crews were repairing a leak in some oil pipes under downtown Newhall. They erected a temporary bridge for vehicles to drive over the San Fernando Road project. A huge truck carrying melons proved too heavy for the impromptu structure. The bridge broke. The truck tipped over and tons of melons rolled through town. 

AUGUST 27, 1960 — 

— Isabel Wright went to sit out on her Bouquet Canyon porch to enjoy the warm evening. A mountain lion had the same idea. Mrs. Wright quietly backstepped into the house to get a shotgun but when she returned, the puma had hightailed it. 

AUGUST 27, 1970 — 

— The Signal outraged the community — again — when it published a rather large front page photo of a youth reading a porn magazine. In the spirit of honest journalism and self-promotion, The Signal asked: “Are girlie magazines harmful?” Well. The photo of the photo sure strained some eyes, seeing if you could see what everybody already knew was there.

— More signs of a go-go culture — the Board of Supervisors gave the go-ahead to open up the first birth control clinic here in the SCV.

— The Wm. S. Hart High School board delayed voting on recommendations to do away with the dress codes on their campuses. Hart District had stringent requirements up to this date, requiring exacting measurements on lengths of sideburns and where dresses should dip on the female form. Eventually, with various court decisions in other districts overturning dress codes, Hart would change with the culture. 

AUGUST 27, 1980 — 

— The little district with the giant name was a God-send to the media. For several years, The Northwestern Los Angeles County Resource Conservation District made headlines with such shenanigans as fistfights, expensive and unnecessary travel junkets, redesigning plush offices, buying themselves cars and bicycles, and, best, getting into fistfights with one another. On this date, two board members duked it out after disagreeing on some parliamentary procedure. The NWLACRCD was blessed with a convicted felon currently on probation and a certified mental patient on their board.

— Here’s some more fuel, albeit nuclear, to add to the Golden Valley High and Portabella debate. Seems that 20 years ago, Bermite admitted they test-fired atomic bullets on their grounds. These bullets were 30-millimeter anti-tank rounds. Well. I guess at that size and composition, any-ANYTHING rounds. But if you bump into Time Ranger pals Clint McKinney and Pat Arman who sometimes clean up the Bermite site today and they happen to be glowing in the dark, tell them the shells were  made of depleted uranium, which carries little radiation. Go Toxic Dogs!

—A 17-year-old Leon Worden was on the front page of this paper 20 years back. Leon returned from a year of studying in Germany. Today, he helps run SCVTV, writes editorials and is an accomplished typist.  

Well, robots, saddlepals and sentient beings, that’s about it for our time travels for this Thursday at The West Ranch Beacon. See you in seven and until then, vayan con Dios, amigos!