Top of the winter morning to you, dear saddlepals. Glad you could muster the fortitude to climb out of a warm bunk- well, bunks; we’re not primitives. We’ve got an especially interesting time ride through local history. There’s lots of snow we’ll be plowing through (and don’t you think we’re long about due in 2012?). We’ve got a special kind soul to salute- Ruth Jones and on the other end of the spectrum is a wild bunch calling themselves the Baby Bandit Gang.

We’ve got air raids, a local bestselling author and a POW posse that got lost in Castaic.

Pick a horse that suits you. Keep your shoulders back and adopt an attitude half-way between laziness and you’re not above shooting someone. Say the magic words, “Abbra-kadabra giddy-up” and into the past go we…

(Photo Caption —It would become one of the most significant books of the 19th century in that it helped launch a huge real estate boom in California. Author Helen Hunt Jackson stopped off at the Camulos Ranch on January 23rd, 1882, off present-day Highway 126. There, she interviewed Blanca Yndart, a young, not quite 5-feet-tall and plain-looking Tataviam Indian girl. From those sessions, Jackson would write one of the most powerful books of the 19th century and create a beautiful heroine. The book title? “Ramona.”)

WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —

——— Rudolph Nickel, store owner and newspaper publisher, founded the Acton Post Office on January 24, 1888. Back then, the Acton/Agua Dulce area had more folks living there than in the rest of the Santa Clarita Valley.

——— Abraham Lincoln refused to make Edward Fitzgerald Beale Surveyor General of the United States, noting: “He tends to become master of all he surveys.” On this date minus a day, in 1858, before he was a general, Beale drove a herd of brightly-tacked camels through Los Angeles, en route through Newhall and the San Joaquin beyond. Beale had petitioned the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, to try an experiment using camels to patrol the vast stretches of California. Soon, the Civil War would start and Davis (who would later resign to lead the Confederate armies) and Beale would have other things on their minds. Besides. There were few cowpokes out here who had the patience or training to work with camels. Eventually, the Army would sell most of the dromedaries to zoos or private owners.

——— The little one-school Castaic School District was, at one time, one of the richest per-student district in Los Angeles County. What with subsidies coming in from cattle herds and oil wells, the superintendent wasn’t chosen so much for his educational abilities, but ranch management skills.

JANUARY 26, 1922 —

——— Ed Frimback and Fred Cooper were racing in two “auto-mobile machines” on the main drag of Newhall. Constable George Hitchcock caught up with them, found them both to be drunk and threw them in the pokey. They were released on a staggering $1,000 bound — about the cost of six downtown lots downtown back then. A new Chevy cost just $675.

——— The Newhall Women’s Club re-opened. It was initially established in 1901, disbanded for a while, and reformed on this date. The NWC went strong until around 1990, when they disbanded again. No one was going to the meetings. Mrs. Louis Gormley was elected president, and, interestingly, she showed up for an anniversary celebration with the club 50 years later. Jessie Wyatt was president in 1972.

JANUARY 26, 1932 —

——— On this date, wife, Signal owner, publisher and editor A.B. Thatcher lost the love of his life. His wife, Anna, passed away at their Newhall Avenue home. She was born in Tama County, Iowa in 1859, married “Dad” Thatcher in 1881 then moved West.

——— Former Signal owner and editor Blanche Brown had been retired from the newspaper business for nearly 10 years, but she was still the town librarian. The Newhall branch of the county library was in its third year and under librarian Brown, she had doubled monthly book rentals to 1,500.

——— The MacMarr Market had a special on Max-I-Mum Coffee — 3 1-lb. cans for a buck. In modern Starbucks money, that’d probably cost you about $12,000.

JANUARY 26, 1942 —

——— The rule of the valley was no lights after dark. But, we had trouble enforcing it. Seems there was a shortage of local air raid wardens for a while during the early days of World War II. A huge campaign for volunteers still didn’t do much to fill the quota. The predominantly African-American community of Val Verde, however, was the most patriotic, almost immediately filling their quota of 31 air raid wardens.

——— Topping the list of the crooks’ wish list were tires. With rationing of rubber during WWII, tire thievery became prevalent. Al Taylor had four new white walls stolen from his basement. In due time, I’m betting someone even stole Al’s basement, because you sure don’t see many of them around here now.

——— Melford Hearn was the Michael Jordan of his day. Mel played for the 8th grade team at Saugus Elementary in the Foothill Junior League. The squad ran up seven wins in a row, including a 33-7 trouncing over Newhall Elementary, a 30-13 win over Southwestern Military Academy and beating mighty La Canada twice. Hearn scored 24 points in that last victory.

JANUARY 26, 1952 —

——— It’s a good day in journalism when you can get the word, “PUNKS” in a headline. On this date, The THEN Mighty Signal noted on the front page: “CHP Bullets Halt Six Fleeing Punks.” Seems some kids — pre-teens from Bakersfield — stole a few cars during a crime spree and were finally halted when Highway Patrol officers fired a few shots into the hood of their car. Southern California headlines dubbed them: “The Baby Bandit Gang.” The six ranged in age from 8-13.

——— Newhall cowboy Dan Poore was anything but. He won $3,000 at the Denver Rodeo riding the broncos.

JANUARY 26, 1962 —

——— We so often remember scoundrels and ego-maniacs in history. It’s rare we honor the simple good soul. On this date, Mrs. Ruth Jones retired after teaching kindergarten for 37 years at Newhall Elementary. She started teaching here in 1925, back before Newhall Elementary was in its present location (Newhall Elm had moved around quite a bit and in 1925, it was near where Jimmy Dean’s is today on Lyons). She barely kept her job because in those days, by law, you had to have 10 kids in kindergarten. Mrs. Jones taught for over a decade in a small, condemned building which hung together with bailing wire and scrap lumber. She personally raised $300 to buy a piano for her class and it was one of the few things saved when the new campus burned to the ground in 1939. When she retired in 1962, Newhall School held an all-day party. That must have been so hauntingly empty the next day, to not be going to your job of so long.

——— The week before, Newhall was hit by a pretty big snowstorm. One of the effects were hundreds of downed trees, including some ancient oaks estimated to be 200-400 years old. As one oldtimer noted: “There will be a lot of firewood in this winter of 1962…”

JANUARY 26, 1972 —

——— On this date, the congressional boundaries for the SCV changed. Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. was redistricted out of representing us. John Rousselot, of San Marino, was now our new congressman. That’s almost like Buck McKeon getting gerrymandered to represent Berkeley. Rousselot, by the way, was a former member of the John Birch Society.

——— A troupe of horseback riders starting in Missouri to protest a lack of inquiry to American POWs in Vietnam were supposed to arrive in Castaic. Dubbed the “Pony Express Ride for POWs,” riders would carry a sack of letters from local citizens and ride them in 10-mile stretches across America to the next group of riders. The letters were supposed to be eventually turned over to Congress. Strangest thing, the POW riders turned up MIA. They never showed up in Castaic.

JANUARY 26, 1982 —

——— It’s downright eerie. It does seem like at the end or beginning of a decade, we get snow. We had substantial snowfall not just up in the hills, but on the Santa Clarita Valley floor in 1922, 1962, 1949, 1950, 1970 and — a decent dusting 1982. It didn’t close down schools or topple trees, but a small layer stuck to the ground (Oh. We also had a pretty good snowstorm in 1974 which shut down the valley. Wonder if snow is heading our way in 2012? We sure seem due…

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We’ve notched another trail ride, saddlepals. We are bona fide historical time trail veterans. Look forward to seeing all of you back here at The West Ranch Beacon with another exciting Time Ranger adventure, and, until then, vayan con Dios, amigos!