Top of the August 2024 morn to you, trail riders and dear friends of local history. We’ve a most interesting trek ahead, what with some eye-wateringly dumb crooks and an apparent strongarm kidnapping on the main streets of Newhall in — say it with me — BROAD DARN DAYLIGHT. Other historical stuff, too.
I can’t even mention why Newhall Pool was closed. You and the horses will have to see for yourselves ..
. WAY, WAY BACK WHEN THINGS SURELY HAVE CHANGED SINCE THEN — Perhaps THE most significant date in SCV history is Aug. 8, 1769.
Prior to that square on the calendar, Indians lived here for thousands of years — without hardly any change whatsoever. On this date, 255 years ago, Spaniard Gaspar de Portola and his party of explorers and missionaries came through what would later be Newhall Pass and camped out at Castaic Junction. Since that time, the valley has undergone a dizzying change of culture, landscape, economics and development.
Can any of us possibly imagine what the valley will look like on this date, 255 years hence, in the year, 2279 A.D.? THANKS, PADRE JOHNNY — Ever wonder why we’re the Santa Clarita Valley in the first place? On Aug.
10, 1769, a Father Juan Crespi was sitting by a year-round running stream and writing in his diary. He noted that the date coincided with the Catholic feast day of Saint Clare and named the river such. For years, the place was called the Little Santa Clara River Valley, so as not to be confused with ANOTHER Santa Clara Riv.