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    Newhall
    Newhall
    Newhall
    Ebook188 pages59 minutes

    Newhall

    By Maggi Perkins

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Newhall s many firsts include the first gold discovery in California and the first commercially successful oil well, which led to the first pipeline and oil refinery in California. Some of the earliest movie location filming was done here. First recorded by Juan Crespi on the Sacred Expedition of 1769, the Little Santa Clara Valley was recognized by the Spanish as an important junction between the mountain ranges separating Northern and Southern California. The early city fathers of Los Angeles saw the settlement of Newhall as an integral part of their strategy for growth from the days of the stagecoach and railroad through to the building of Ridge Route and Interstate 5. This book tells the story of the town that never quite lived up to its potential but still managed a varied history with a colorful cast rivaling those of the movies filmed here.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 22, 2010
    ISBN9781439640050
    Newhall
    Author

    Maggi Perkins

    Author Maggi Perkins is the third generation of her family to live in Newhall. Upon inheriting her grandfather�s historical archive, she took up his work, writing articles about Newhall�s history. Most of the photographs in this book are from the collection of the late Arthur B. Perkins, Newhall�s first historian. Supplementary photographs came from the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

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      Book preview

      Newhall - Maggi Perkins

      (SCVHS.)

      INTRODUCTION

      This book tells the story of Newhall, a town that today is part of the city of Santa Clarita. Why publish a book on part of the city? Because the town came first, and in spite of obstacles and tragedies, it survived and grew, providing the roots from whence the city would grow.

      Newhall’s story begins long before the name when the Chumash and Tataviam Indian tribes made the valley their home. It was a pleasant place then, with ample water and food, allowing for a peaceful lifestyle. Not much is known about the earliest residents, but artifacts still turn up deep in the canyons, reminding us that they were here first.

      Recorded history of the valley begins with the Portola or Sacred Expedition that started in Mexico and made its way north in search of an overland route to Monterey Bay. Fr. Junipero Serra was part of the group of soldiers and padres who braved the unknown, although he chose to stay in San Diego and oversee his new mission and the colony there. Fr. Juan Crespi was his surrogate, and it is from his journal that the first glimpses of the valley are seen through his eyes. In 1769, he declared the valley to be a very pleasant place with friendly Native Americans, and he believed that a mission should be built here in the place he named Santa Clara after St. Clare.

      His superiors agreed at first, but when more careful studies were made, the mountains between what would be called the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys were deemed too difficult for regular travel. The mission was built in San Fernando close to the mountains and the trail over them, but it was the land they wanted. It was granted to them as part of the vast holdings most missions had to support themselves and spread their ways among the Native Americans.

      Still, the land was isolated and hard to reach, so the mission neglected it—until a lawsuit reminded them that land unused was land that could be taken. A granary was soon built near present-day Castaic Junction. Never a large or important establishment, it barely appears in the mission’s records, leading to debate as to its size and nature, and whether it was an asistencia or a smaller, less important estancia. Originally believed to be the larger, most today consign it to the status of a smaller establishment. Either way, it is the valley’s only tangible connection to the mission era in California.

      When the missions were secularized by Mexico, most of the valley was granted to Antonio del Valle, a former soldier and mission official who knew the land well. The lands were named Rancho San Francisco, and he built his home near the old mission estancia. His holdings were divided after his death in 1841, and his son Ygnacio inherited the land where Newhall would be. Ygnacio built his home farther west than his father and called it Camulos.

      The transition from Mexican to American rule was not as easy as the transition from Spanish to Mexican rule had been, in part because of the very different cultures. Titles to land and questions of ownership made life difficult for many of the dons who were used to a more casual, traditional way of life. The hardheaded Yankee businessmen flocking to California outmatched many of them, and many ranchos were sold, in whole or in part, to pay debts incurred under the new tax laws. Rancho San Francisco was one of the casualties, although Don Ygnacio was able to maintain several hundred acres around his home.

      In 1875, a businessman from San Francisco with a keen interest in the railroad and ambition to spare bought most of the Rancho San Francisco at an auction held on the steps of the Los Angeles City Hall. Almost immediately, he negotiated with the young Southern Pacific Railroad, selling it a right-of-way for a token price. Like the city fathers of Los Angeles, he knew the way to future prosperity and growth lay in the railroad and the goods it carried. Los Angeles had already decided to subsidize the boring of a tunnel through the mountains in order to convince the railroad that the best route for the line being built to San Francisco would be through Los Angeles, not San Bernardino. The Southern Pacific Railroad took the money and bored the tunnel—which cost far more than the subsidy. But the route was good, stretching across the Little Santa Clara Valley (to distinguish it from another Santa Clara, near San Francisco) and through the Soledad into California’s central valley. In time, a spur line was built to Ventura and was itself extended to San Francisco.

      In 1876, with a track in place, the town of Newhall was first laid out. It consisted of little more than the train depot, a store, and a handful of other buildings. After two dry years, there was not much growth, and the entire town moved about 3 miles south, closer to a reliable water source. The buildings moved too, and Newhall reached its permanent home.

      Since then, the town has survived the tragic death of its founder and guardian angel, Henry Mayo Newhall, in a riding accident on his Newhall ranch in 1882, repeated economic hard times, the tragic night the St. Francis Dam burst, and many fires and earthquakes. It has not always prospered, but it has always survived.

      It is people that make a town, and the early settlers were a tough, stubborn, creative lot. They scratched a living from the ground, whether it was from gold, oil, water, or crops. They built homes and businesses—and rebuilt them after the fires. In between, they did what they could to make their town a community, building schools, churches, and dance halls, and making the Fourth of July a special day every year, with food, games, and fun. That is

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