First, some eyeballing. Is there anyone out there in the SCV who HAS NOT decided to visit the City of Santa Clarita’s annual Cowboy Fest at the end of this month? Anyone? Anyone? It is beyond epic, with a plethora, yes, a plethora of Wild West adventures, music and activities for the whole family. Well. Not the part of the family in prison.

Visit www.CowboyFestival.org or give a jingle to (661) 286-4021 to purchase tickets or get more info.

Speaking of more info:

On our trailride through SCV history today, we’ve got great rodeo stories and fires started by jilted lovers and hobos. There’s one of the most unlucky deputy sheriffs around plus, gasp, The Day When Edison LOWERED Their Rates. There’s the Mother of All Oil Pools right under our feet, bootleggers and Socrates.

Sure is grand to see all you saddlepals. Shall we ride into the mystic? 

(Photo Caption: On this date in 1941, “Big” Bill Bonelli lent his stadium (the Saugus Speedway) for the cowpokes to use for the huge annual Newhall-Saugus Rodeo in April. Local ranchers kidded Bill that he did it for the extra manure and accused him of selling it to the nurseries. The multimillionaire rancher would later become head of the State Board of Equalization where he uncovered a massive liquor and real estate swindle involving the powerful Los Angeles Times. Bonelli wrote a book about the caper called “Billion Dollar Blackjack.” He made powerful enemies and was chased by crooked politicians for 17 years. During that time, he lived a life of luxury, flying from ranch to ranch, including one in Mexico that covered — this is not a typo — about 1 million acres. Eventually, he was exonerated by the federal government and rarer, issued a letter of apology for the inconvenience of being on their hit list.) 
 
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —

— Giant condors flew over the condoless valley floor and, in the days before CC&Rs, saber tooth tigers padded toward pretty much anywhere they wanted. Even better, dire wolves faced no April 15th income tax deadline. Simpler, but more dangerous times… 

APRIL 14, 1921 —

— We had yet another one of those mysterious dance hall fires. This time, the Honby Dance Hall was burned to the ground (Honby is the old community where Home Depot is today). Most of the damages were covered by the $1,000 insurance policy, except for the piano, which the owners had just made their final payments. There are stories about a beautiful young Newhall girl who loved to dance and party. Her boyfriend was a stick in the mud and didn’t like to publicly carouse nor did he like all the attention his girl would receive from the other guys. Rumor was, the boyfriend kept burning down the few nightspots in the SCV to keep her from going out.

— Our own cowboy, Buck Jones, just released his latest film: “Sunset Sprague.” Twenty years later, he would race Tom Mix in a chariot race around town. Buck would later die in the Coconut Grove fire in Boston, Mass., with two of my uncles.

— On this date, the Saugus Ranger Station moved into downtown Newhall. Cost of the move was a staggering $390. The reason for the move was that Saugus was primarily in the boonies and there wasn’t any affordable housing within miles of the rangers’ work.

— Wonder if somehow we could bring the electricity rates from 1921 back with us to the future. On this date, Southern California Edison dropped their residential rates from 6-to-20 percent. 

APRIL 14, 1931 —

— Claude Lewis took a hike up Elsmere Canyon and never came back. He fell 100 feet to his death from a cliff.

— Frank E. Walker, patriarch of the famed Placerita Walkers (his ranch used to be upper Placerita Canyon, where the park is today), died of stomach flu. He left a wife, Hortense V. Reynier Walker, and, 12 children.

— It is one of our oddest and romantic-sounding names — Saugus to the Sea — and it still appears on many modern maps. On this date, local businessmen met with county government and the San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce to build a connecting road that would link the SCV and the SFV, connecting them to the ocean. You can still drive on Saugus to the Sea. It’s the road that leads up to the lodge at Ed Davis/Towsley Canyon state park. Unfortunately, it pretty much deadends there, unless you have a mighty agile horse.

— Al Allen held a grand opening for his sandwich shop at Five Corners. That would be at the corner of 10th and Spruce Street. For you newcomers, that’d be at the corner of Lyons and Main Street. (Lyons used to be 10th, SFR used to be Spruce and a couple years back, the city changed it to Main). We’ve had a passel of name changes over the years.

— Poor deputy Sheriff Frank Klein. He had gotten into an accident while on the job. Coming back from the hospital, his wife got into another accident and Frank had to return to the hospital for repatching his broken ribs. Then, first day back on the job, he pulls over a trucker for reckless driving (if you break down that phrase, it would seem “reckless driving” would be good driving because there isn’t a wreck). The trucker becomes abusive and shoves Klein in the chest, separating his ribs for the third darn time. Frank. They never paid you enough.

— U. Togawa paid a $35 fine for lower case bootlegging. He got into a car wreck in Weldon Canyon (The Old Road today, old Highway 99). Prohibition was still the law of the land. Togawa  offered cases of sake to passing motorists who gave him a hand. Unfortunately, he gave one to an off-duty officer who arrested him for having the illegal liquid rice dynamite. 

APRIL 14, 1941 —

— Hobos (what we used to call, ‘the homeless’) delayed the grand opening of The American Theater. The bums broke into the building on 11th and Spruce and used, of all things, the molding and trim wood to start an indoors fire. A front window had to be repaired, along with the whole place having to be cleaned for smoke on the walls.

— On this date, the state assembly nearly unanimously voted to extend their term limits from 2-to-4 years and gave themselves a whopping $100 a week pay raise to about $3600 a month. That was some serious change then.

— There was a bronc rider who lived up Sand Canyon and made the national circuit. His name was Belter Tuler and he was bowlegged. Tuler was his own PR agent, circulating fliers billing himself as “The Cowboy Who Is Curved To Fit The Horse.” Belter said he got the idea from a wristwatch ad. 

APRIL 14, 1951 —

— M.R. Yant used to own a good portion of Confusion Hill, that maze of oil wells in Placerita Canyon. He strongly believed that there is a “Big Daddy,” underneath the Santa Clarita Valley, over 15,000 feet deep. We have always been rich in oil, but the debate raged for over a century whether there were many good-sized oil pools beneath the surface, or one, grand Mother of all Oil Pools. There are even stories about a lake of oil under Hart Park. At the time, America was worried about losing Iranian oil to Russia. Oh. Interesting note on Yant. He was a three-time convicted con man who bilked the elderly out of their life savings in oil scams only to become legitimately rich in the local oil biz.

APRIL 14, 1961 —

— This was one of our strangest elections ever. A small portion of Bouquet and Soledad Canyons were eligible for a $330,000 sewer bond measure. Only 28 residents were eligible to vote in the election. It passed.

— History is certainly circular. Socrates complained about the state of youth 2,500 years ago. Glen Schmidt railed likewise 50 years back. He owned a pharmacy and general store and one business day, some local youths padlocked Schmidt and several customers INSIDE the one-door store. No one could get in. No one could get out. Newspaper editor Fred Trueblood summed up his thoughts on the young: “Kids can be just plain ornery. Other times they are little angels, but most of the time they are downright, plain ornery. It more or less goes with the traditional dirty faces, baggy britches and all other parts and pieces that make up the average small fry.” Guess Fred must have forgotten about being a kid… 

APRIL 14, 1971 —

— Bill Smart, a San Fernando Valley lawyer and self-styled rock promoter, had planned to bring a huge rock concert to Agua Dulce. It would have brought in over 300,000 music lovers. Locals weren’t too happy at the theme — “Rock for Pot.” Small said he had been threatened by “10 or 20 members of the Agua Dulce Chamber of Commerce,” all wielding shot guns. He didn’t file any complaint though, and the concert was never held.

— It was the last warning Glenn Adam Wall ever heard. Wall was driving his Jeep with four friends in the hills above Indian Dunes. One of them warned him the trail was too treacherous and only meant for motorcycles. Wall ignored the common sense and pressed forward. The Jeep rolled over a cliff to the rocks 450 feet below. Wall was the only fatality. 

APRIL 14, 1981 —

— Tracy Lincoln, a 14-year-old Hart student, was found guilty of trying to murder his parents. First, Lincoln had placed a pan of bleach and Drano under their bed to poison them. Then, with a rifle, he shot his mom when she came home from work. Lincoln had been discussing, with friends, his various plans to rid himself of his parents. He was sentenced to the Youth Authority until the age of 23.

— Gregory Jenkins, a 17-year-old Canyon senior, horrified friends by placing a revolver to his temple. The gun was loaded. Jenkins pulled the trigger and died.

— Supervisor Mike Antonovich declared April 15th, “Growth Day.” It was a “tribute to the contributions of the free enterprise system in America…” It was also tax deadline day where one gossip columnist (Ruth Newhall) noted it being: “…the very day they are taxing (us) nearly to extinction.” Ruth. Not only would you be amazed at how much more ridiculous it has gotten, but at how many citizens seem to love the idea.

— On this date, our coffee-loving amigo and Hart/COC grad, Mitch McMullen, signed his letter of intent to play with the Arizona State Sun Devils. He’d later go pro. Was that the Clippers you played for, Mitch.

— On this date, my dear, dear pal and most hubba-hubba doctor of music, Erica Muhl, was crowned 1981’s Miss Santa Clarita Valley. Hasn’t been a prettier one since is my opinion. Yay for you, Queenie! 

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It has been plain glorious sharing the trail with you this Thursday morning. Sure hope we can do it again next week right here at The West Ranch Beacon. See you in seven days with a brand new Time Ranger adventure, and, until then — vayan con Dios, amigos!