Ever see an elephant water ski? You’re going to. Top of the first Thursday in February morning to you, saddlepals. We have a most interesting trail ride ahead through Santa Clarita history. Right through those time portals are snowstorms and movie stars, chemical warfare and tales of our little Newhall International Airport. We’ve got snowbound posses, a thief of pennies and, of course, that water-skiing elephant, which we will watch from a distance because last time I checked, none of these ponies we ride through the vortex water-skis…

(Photo Caption: Perhaps the most influential person in the SCV for the 20th century, Atholl McBean on this date addressed a group of community leaders on the airport question. There had been a movement afloat to make the little Newhall International Airport (dubbed thus because it made a mailrun into Mexico once a week) the big Los Angeles International airport. McBean was against the move, noting it would hurt the future development of the valley. The land around the airport (which is around where Granary Square is today) was assessed at $167 an acre, with a yearly property tax of $11 an acre — pretty steep at post-Depression prices. Still. The CAA had made an offer of $550 per acre for the airport acreage. Eventually, the little airport would stick around, but it would still only be used as a secondary, emergency landing strip and LAX would end up where it is now — on Century Blvd. near Inglewood.)

WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —

––––– Back on February 7, 1919, the very first edition of The Then Mighty Signal was published by World War I vet, Ed Brown. Setting the standard with that first issue, the very first typographical error in The Signal was leaving the “j” off the word, “jackass.” To the paper’s credit, in the numerous times they’ve since used that word, I believe it’s been spelt correctly.

FEBRUARY 5, 1921 —

––––– One of the most famous men on the planet and one of the three top movie stars in the world (with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford), silent film icon William S. Hart bought the Horseshoe Ranch from Babcock Smith on this date. He would move into the rustic cabin while construction of his mansion would begin.

FEBRUARY 2, 1922 —

––––– Autos were still stranded along the Ridge Route from the snowstorm of the previous week. One trio of men were stranded in Lebec for five days. They had to abandoned their car, hiked through the snow to a ranger station and gratefully camped out on the floor in front of the fire place. Then, they snowshoed from the ranger station to Lebec. When they finally got into their Model T to drive to Newhall, it took nine hours for them to make it.

FEBRUARY 2, 1932 —

––––– A massive search involving hundreds of men on foot and horseback combed the hills of Santa Clarita for a downed cargo/passenger plane. Dead were the pilot and seven passengers. One of the riders was local Sheriff’s deputy, Frank Dewar. The posse guessed the pilot had tried to turn back from an intense snowstorm and hit a mountain. A second plane, a big military bomber with two men aboard, crashed in the same locale. They were on a rescue mission, searching for that first fallen aircraft.

––––– Some local misers were sitting on their empty lots in Newhall, hoping the prices would go up. This caused a shortage of homes to both sell and rent. Back then, a decent new home could be leased out at around $10 a month.

FEBRUARY 2, 1942 —

––––– In the early stages of World War II, after a shortage of air wardens, publicity in The Former Mighty Signal helped recruit the sky watchers. At a meeting of the new recruits, 81 air wardens were signed up. They went through weekly meetings on how to handle a wide variety of situations where people refused to shade their windows at night. (Because of the attack on Pearl Harbor, there was a fear that Japan would attack the west coast, including Saugus, one of the top 10 military targets in the world. The blackouts were designed to not give nighttime bombers a target.) One imaginary scenario was how to deal with a young mother with a baby who was afraid of the dark. Another scene had air wardens going against a tough customer who just plain refused to turn out his lights or shade his windows. One warden suggested shimmying up the pole and cutting his electricity. There was also the concern of gas or chemical attack and the local Newhall wardens were taught proper gas mask procedure and care of the injured.

––––– Talk about a hard-times robbery, on this date, someone broke into the Hawley Drug Store and busted open the weight scale and made off with an estimated two handfuls of pennies.

––––– On this date, the “Maltese Falcon” debuted at the American Theater.

FEBRUARY 2, 1952 —

––––– The final nail was hammered into the nearly block-long addition to Newhall Elementary. The project was fraught with problems, from the contractor going broke to the bonding company pulling back its guarantees to a whole passel of other problems. Still. It got finished and is still in use today.

––––– Mary Jauregui took the phrase, “cold cash” quite literally. Mary was chairman of the local March of Dimes project. When all the precincts turned in their money to her, it was on a weekend and Mary felt a little nervous about having so much money ($615) around the ranch. So, she hid it in a deep freezer. When Monday came around, she had to chip away the edges (it was one of those old-fashioned freezers) and bring in a large block cash, coin and ice into the Bank of America. Branch Manager John Bronaugh had to set up a special table to let the money thaw before he could count it.

––––– Jesse Small never made it back home. The county road crew worker was out by Weldon Canyon when a nearby giant crane swung around, coming within a yard of some high-tension wires. A huge arc sparked, went down the ladder and struck Jesse, frying him dead.

––––– CHP Captain Charles Eagan was the center of a lot of rural abuse. On this date, several dozen residents were ticketed for parking at an angle on Market Street. Of course, everyone in town had been parking at an angle on Market Street since there had been cars. (We still park that way today on part of that street.) Eagan stiffly noted that law and custom are too different things. Judge A.B. Perkins tore up every one of the parking violations and Eagan later quietly had his officers hold off on the parking violations.

FEBRUARY 2, 1962 —

––––– Destroyerman Ken Woods of the Navy (ours) not only proved he earned his handle but also that he was a triple threat. Woods, 22, drifted off to sleep while piloting his Rambler motorcar. A-snooze, he failed to notice the gentle curve, went off the road, blowed right through a wooden fence, knocked over a telephone pole, then smashed through the same fence at the end of the curve. He wasn’t fined, but had to pay for repairs.

FEBRUARY 2, 1972 —

––––– At exactly 10:03 a.m. on January 26, 1972, a switch at the Edmonston pumping station south of Bakersfield was thrown and water began pumping. The first drops of water roared through the massive pipeline, headed to fill the new Castaic Reservoir. Despite 2,500 gallons being pumped every second, it would take nearly three years to fill the massive man-made lake.

FEBRUARY 2, 1982 —

––––– On this date, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block announced that Wayside would be expanded. Wayside had originally been a ‘country club’ minimum security jail with the prisoners maintaining the 2800-acre spread as a working ranch. Over the years, the minimum security slowly changed to maximum. In 1982, Wayside housed about a third of the county’s 10,000 prisoners. The expansion called for increasing the prison from 2,296 beds by 1,800 more at a cost of nearly $100 million. Eventually, Wayside would have its name changed to Peter Pitchess, in honor of the old sheriff.

––––– On this date, one of the oddest sights ever to appear on water was shot at Castaic Lake. A crew filming a Panasonic commercial had a waterskiing elephant being towed by a speed boat.

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Well. That about wraps up another trail ride through the historic trails of Santa Clarita. Appreciate the companionship and if you’re amenable, what say we do this again next Thursday back here at The West Ranch Beacon? Until then dear saddlepals, vayan con Dios, amigos!