Santa Clarita, CA

Another photo of Ridge Route today...(Photo: K.Anderberg, Jan. 2008)

When Ridge Route opened, it was heralded as a shorter route from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, but navigating Ridge Route's sharp turns and blind corners proved too much for many a traveler. The L.A. Times archives hold many stories of people who died from crashing off the cliffs of Ridge Route. In 1924, John Straight, a wealthy businessman from Oregon was killed when his car "ran off a 150 foot embankment on the Ridge Route, two miles north of Castaic." (L.A. Times, May 22, 1924, p. A1). In 1931, a 17 year old girl and her mother were injured when they plunged 400 feet off of Ridge Route at 8 PM. In the morning, the girl climbed the embankment up to the road to get help. (L.A. Times, Aug. 30, 1931, p. A1). In 1932, a woman and two men died "when their automobile plunged 400 feet off the Ridge Route just north of Castaic." (L.A. Times, Aug. 24, 1932, p. A5). Excessive speed was blamed for their deaths. On Sept. 3, 1932, the L.A. Times wrote, "Marking the fifth automobile fatality in the same vicinity in a 10 day period, a man and his wife were killed yesterday morning when the automobile in which they were riding ran off the Ridge Route north of Castaic, and fell about 75 feet down an embankment." Again, excessive speed was blamed for the accident. Most of the accidents happened when people were traveling too fast to negotiate the sharp curves, and either fell over the cliffs or hit the rocks on the side away from the cliffs, then bounced over the cliffs out of control. Other factors for the high death tolls on Ridge Route included the pitch darkness at night on the road, and also driving rain which would prevent visibility. In Nov. 1933, a United Airlines pilot flying from L.A. to San Francisco reported seeing a flaming crash at the bottom of a canyon below Ridge Route, summoning help. Apparently a truck and trailer filled with acetylene gas was traveling 75 miles an hour on Ridge Route and then on a sharp curve, he hit a truck and trailer loaded with electric ice machines, and in the end, 3 men were dead, 3 were injured and 5 trucks and trailers were wrecked and burned in the Castaic canyons below. (L.A. Times, Nov. 9, 1933, p. A1). In Nov. 1934, 2 people died on Ridge Route when they crashed into a truck carrying scrap iron at night. "They were traveling at a moderate speed," he said, "but Ellison apparently did not see the truck ahead in the semidarkness." (L.A. Times, Nov. 14, 1934, p. A5). In Nov. 1935, a truck carrying 15 people, 11 of them children, raced out of control on Ridge Route and flew over an embankment then turned over on descent. (Nov. 9, 1935, p. A3). In Nov. 1938, a man was killed and traffic was tied up for two hours on Ridge Route when 2 cars and 3 trucks collided when one of the truck's brakes failed, once again "two miles north of Castaic." (L.A. Times, Nov. 11, 1938, p. 13).

In Oct. 1933, E.E. East, chief engineer for the Automobile Club of Southern CA was asked "why did engineers build the Ridge Route Highway along its winding course when it could have been placed through Piru Canyon?" East answered, ""the creek was at that time being considered as a source of water supply for the lowlands and that engineers were considering the placing of a dam that would have flooded the present road site," thus the road was built through the Tehachapi Pass instead. (L.A. Times, Oct. 30, 1933, p. A1). In 1933, once the water project was abandoned, construction on I-5 began from Gorman to Castaic, to replace the dangerous Ridge Route, as the major thoroughfare. Yet Ridge Route remains, stoic and strange, and continues to fascinate me with its twists and turns and amazing, sweeping views.

Even today, the cliffs loom and fences and railings do not exist on the whole. One must pay attention when driving Ridge Route, even today, yet most people take I-5, and thus very few people travel Ridge Route, making it safer than the early 1900's when it was heavily traveled. Many areas on Ridge Route have crumbling asphault on the road now and the road does not even have paved road much past Templin Highway heading north.

In Oct. 1948, the L.A. Times speaks about improvements to "Ridge Route" saying "They're changing old "Slaughter Stretch," as some have dubbed U.S. 99 near Castaic, into the finest mountain highway in the nation." From what I can tell, the "Old Ridge Route," was the one there now, and U.S. 99 was where I-5 is now, I THINK, I am not sure yet as I read the history of this area. It seems the articles are talking about "Old Ridge Route," and "New Ridge Route," and the New Ridge Route they speak of as a 3-4 lane highway so there is no way that is the Ridge Route that remains above Castaic now in 2009.

More Castaic history... There is a wonderful story of a hermit names Frances Forjes, who lived in Castaic Canyon in the late 1800's and then died in the hills in 1904. I will post more of his story shortly.

In Jan. 1938, Wayside Farms Rancho, containing 2051 acres, "located on Ridge Route near Castaic" was leased for a "prison farm" for 700 misdemeanor prisoners. (L.A. Times, Jan. 5, 1938, p. A1). This prison camp was named Wayside Honor Rancho, but due to its inmates' drinking habits, it was nicknamed "Wayside Drunk Farm." (L.A. Times, Oct. 25, 1998). Today, this rancho is part of the Peter Pitchess Detention Center, which now contains two high-security and two minimum-security jails run by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept.

Burnt Peak in the Sawmill Mountains north of Castaic on Ridge Route, was named "as the result of a major forest fire 30 years ago (1919) which denuded the area." (Nov. 4, 1949, p. 2).

In Sept. 1905, Mrs. W. W. Jenkins shot and killed, by herself, a 23 pound "wildcat" that had been harassing her hens in Castaic. (L.A. Times, Oct. 15, 1905, p. III3).

This photo taken in 1962 shows SNOW in Saugus! Rare indeed, it has only snowed something like three times in the last 100 years there. But I was alive when it did snow and I made this snowperson on my front lawn, at 22406 Guadilamar Drive, in Saugus, CA. in '62. Notice in the background, the lack of development on the hills where now it is fully developed. (Photo: Archives of K.Anderberg)

This photo of me when I was a toddler, shows the valley floor of Saugus in the background. This view is looking west, from the hills above Guadilamar Drive. Note the lack of development at this time in the early 1960's! The elementary school was down below where you see the buildings and I remember seeing a circus down there when I was only about 3 years old, in approximately 1964. I also remember the "bookmobile" driving up onto Guadilamar Drive regularly during the early 1960's so the kids in that neighborhood could check out books. You can see how wild the geology in this region is by looking at that hill coming out of the ground to the left in this picture. I believe what is going on there is that was a steep hillside, and the valley floor filled with sand, etc. and that is how it comes up, flat, to the side of the mountain like that. This area is ridiculously active geologically with powerful earthquakes that tumble freeway overpasses, such as in both 1971 and 1994 so far, that I have seen. I remember my dad taking me to the top of that hill on the left and us looking over it to see a raging wildfire coming near our home. I remember my mom being very worried about the fire so close but my dad found it interesting more than threatening. I do remember them watering down the roof with the hose during the firestorms. (Photo: Archives of K.Anderberg)

This is a photo of our backyard at 22406 Guadilamar Drive. We had a little pool and all the neighbor kids would come over to swim, but you can see how the hillside comes right to the back of the house and there is nothing on that hillside. I drove up to see this house in the 1990's and it still is saddled with the hill right behind it and no development on that hill yet. The houses on the cul-de-sac of Guadilamar Dr. have gone down in quality though. When we lived there in the 1960's, this was the height of modern living, now it looks more like the street is full of run down houses that have seen better days. We planted the ice plant on the hill to help with erosion control and you can clearly see where our landscaping begins and the natural habitat resumes. Most of our houses in CA had ice plant on its hills for both erosion and fire suppression, as well as ice plant being good for water conservation. We had rattlesnakes and other wildlife, such as box turtles, entering our backyard from the hills so close. (Photo: Archives of K.Anderberg)

This is a photo of the first telephone pole above Guadilamar Drive. My father was one of the people who put it up and I remember it was a huge neighborhood celebration the day it went up! (Photo: Archives of K.Anderberg)

This is a photo of the inside of 22406 Guadilamar Drive in 1962. (Photo: Archives of K.Anderberg)

The Santa Clarita Valley is located north and northeast of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California. (The San Fernando Valley is northwest of downtown Los Angeles). Santa Clarita is east of Ventura and Oxnard. The Santa Clarita Valley was all orange groves and farm fields when we first moved there in 1960. The only road to the San Fernando Valley was the "Old Road" and it went by one of the oldest oil refineries in existence. The old days of Santa Clarita included lots of box turtles walking down newly laid concrete sidewalks, and lots of tumbleweed, the old waterfall was still in operation, it was just a different time...more and more tract homes changed the entire face of the area. Nowadays, the areas by the river beds have the cheaper apartment buildings, and tract homes are in the safer areas, yet flooding still is a threat in the winter. In January of 2008, several areas of Santa Clarita were having issues due to flooding and I remember some folks saying the local hills were "melting" as that is how it looked, there were mounds of dirt washing onto local roadways all over. And the local washes that are so dry and empty that they look harmless in summer, were RAGING with water nearly to their banks last winter too! Yet, ironically, fire is the biggest threat to the area. There are also worries about dams in earthquake country such as the Castaic Dam, Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, etc.

When I lived in Santa Clarita as a child, it did not seem like a flood plain, but as I have aged, I can clearly see that the Santa Clarita Valley is indeed *a valley* and valleys are channels that water take to the ocean. And that is what Santa Clarita does at times, it channels huge floods of water down the valley floor to the ocean. The Santa Clarita Valley experienced a historic dam collapse that ruined Mulholland's career. The water burst forth when the dam broke and went through Santa Clarita to the ocean by Ventura. There is still evidence of the San Francisquito Dam breakage in the hills of Santa Clarita.

Santa Clarita contains many cities including Saugus, Newhall, Castaic, Valencia, Bouquet Canyon, Placerita Canyon, and more. The area has a rich wild west history and also has a lot of Hollywood history. Many movies have been filmed in the hills of Santa Clarita, you can see it on most any of the old Western movies and TV shows from the 1950's. It was also used in old Western movies from back in the silent era to date. Part of the reason the film industry chooses to film so often in this area is its moderate Mediteranean climate and its close proximity to Hollywood...The Santa Clarita Valley was part of the California gold rush, it was an area with a large American Indian population, it had train robberies, and was on the map due to a train station in Saugus, where Charlie Chaplin is pictured, as a matter of fact. The Santa Clarita Valley was being remade as a bedroom community for Los Angeles when we moved there in 1960, but it was still incredibly rural, and isolated, in many ways. As kids, we learned about Westerns and Indians, and oil wells, and rattlesnakes...I remember my dad used to take me looking for trap door spiders in Saugus, and a rattlesnake was coming towards me on the swings in the backyard of our Guadilamar Dr. home when I was about 3 years old and my dad hacked its head off in front of me with a hoe while yelling at me to get up on the swing with both feet. It was weird but I never forgot it and was aware of snakes ever since. We also had a lot of tarantulas in Saugus in the 1960's.

As a child in the early 1960's, one of my favorite places to go was the William S. Hart Park. The grounds are full of interesting old Spanish architecture, with lots of antiques from early Native American trading, an overlook with buffalo, a museum of the old West, and a beautiful estate and grounds. They have many interesting plants and animals on site. The tea house outside on the patio behind the main house is lovely...In the 1970's, my sister and I used to cut school and hang out up at the Hart mansion area. As an adult, in the mid-1990's, I took my own son there, and he also speaks with sentimentality about the place now. There is a little zoo area out front by the parking lot and the geese there used to grab my pants when I was a toddler and it scared me to death! I always found the William S. Hart park to be a place that really engaged my imagination about how it must have been in the Valley in "the old days." As kids, we grew up with a lot of Western memorabilia as this whole area had a Western feel, including horses. The people who lived next door to us on Guadilamar Drive had horses. Their surname name was the Papinaws...My dad used to hold me on his shoulders to look over our fence at Guadilamar Drive to see the horses next door. The area had a lot of stage coach history as well, including Beale's Cut, which was a place where the stagecoaches came through a slit in the rocks into the Valley.

Placerita Canyon was and is a fun place for families and kids, we used to pan for gold there as kids and I also remember finding American Indian arrowheads there too...We also had picnics there a lot under oak trees as kids. We had picnics and went to the playground at Newhall Park a lot too.

I went to Peachland Avenue School, in Newhall, when I was about 7 years old, while staying with family friends when my mom was ill. The school was a nice school, with lots of after school and summer programs, I remember. It was a different era, it seems, than when my son went to school...but I remember walking from Heritage Lane to the school, and it was a nice walk, down peaceful back roads. It sure was not like the scenes you see inside Los Angeles city, a few miles south. The small town feel still exists in parts of Santa Clarita and Newhall, even, today.

The January 25, 1994 issue of the Santa Clarita Valley Signal newspaper shows not only the collapsed freeway overpasses in the area, but also details how Newhall was feeling the aftershocks quite heavily...(Photo: K.Anderberg)

This is a picture I took from the Ralph's parking lot in Castaic during the 1997 (?) wildfires...The ridge lines would glow orange at night as these fires raged. The Interstate Freeway (I-5) was shut down at Lake Hughes Road, right at Castaic. We finally got home in a traffic jam in I-5 this day...I remember we had things packed in case we had to evacuate and ashes were everywhere like rain. I have memories of raging wildfires in Santa Clarita since I was very young. I remember a fire coming very close to our house on Guadilamar Dr. in Saugus when I was about 3 years old. My dad took me up on the ridge to look below at the flames licking up all that chapparel in its path...The Castaic recreation area includes sports such as fishing, boating, water skiing, swimming, etc. (Photo: K.Anderberg, late 1990's)

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web www.kirstenanderberg.com

Kirsten Anderberg. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint/publish, please contact Kirsten at kirstena@resist.ca.

You can receive Kirsten's articles, as they are written, via an email list called "Eat the Press." Go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/eatthepress to join the list.

Thank you to Resist.ca for hosting this website!

Return to Home Page