[ PART 1 ] [ PART 2 ]

History of the Santa Clarita Valley with Jerry Reynolds and Tom Frew.

Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society, 1986

Includes interviews with Ruth and Scott Newhall, Carol and Frenchy Lagasse, Melba Fisher and others.

Errata: This video is a time capsule of SCV history as it was known and as it appeared in 1986, when this video was made. While the concepts remain valid, new evidence has arisen in the last two decades to alter our understanding of certain details in the historical record. Researchers would be advised to check any facts against modern references. For example: Mission records show that the estancia de San Francisco Xavier was never elevated to asistencia status; Fremont Pass was not Beale’s Cut (it’s about a quarter-mile east); John Powell wasn’t the first justice of the Soledad (he may have been the second); the Newhall Jail shown here was completed in 1906; Placerita white oil was not displayed anywhere in 1876 because it wasn’t discovered until the 1890s. Jerry is not holding the real golden spike in the beginning of Part 2. Also, many things have physically changed since the mid-1980s. For example, the Mitchell adobe schoolhouse was moved from Canyon Country to Heritage Junction Historic Park in Newhall; the Western movie streets of Melody Ranch have been rebuilt; the population has roughly doubled; and the people of Santa Clarita formed a city. As time goes on, the history we’re writing today will need correcting, too.