Some sections of the original Los Angeles Aqueduct, completed 1913, are still in use. During six years, 100,000 laborers built the 233-mile-long series of canals, pipelines and tunnels that make up the gravity-flow aqueduct from Owens Valley. — — Map (db m129858) HM
The St. Francis Dam, part of the
Los Angeles Aqueduct system,
stood 1½ miles north of this site.
On March 12, 1928, the 185-foot high
concrete dam collapsed just
before midnight, sending 12⅓ billion
gallons of water roaring down . . . — — Map (db m146564) HM
On this site in August of 1924 construction started on the St. Francis Dam, a unit of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. When it was completed in May of 1926, this concrete dam stood 185 feet above the stream bed, impounding a 610 surface-acre lake.
. . . — — Map (db m143721) HM
The 185-foot concrete St. Francis Dam, part of the Los Angeles aqueduct system, stood 1½ miles north of this site. On March 12, 1928, the 185-foot high concrete dam collapsed just before midnight, sending 12½ billion gallons of water roaring down . . . — — Map (db m143722) HM
On this centennial we honor over three thousand Chinese who helped build the Southern Pacific Railroad and the San Fernando Tunnel. Their labor gave California the first north-south railway, changing the state’s history. — — Map (db m133729) HM
The courageous work done on the San Fernando Tunnel culminated
in the Southern Pacific Railroad's extension to Southern California
in 1876. Thousands of immigrants from China were recruited to
work on this connection between San Francisco and . . . — — Map (db m234711) HM
On September 5, 1876, Charles Crocker, President of the Southern Pacific Company, drove a gold spike here to complete his company's San Joaquin Valley Line, the first rail connection of Los Angeles with San Francisco and Transcontinental lines. — — Map (db m122365) HM
On this exact site (or hereabouts) 100 years ago, Clamper Charles Crocker drove a spike of pure California gold, completing the Southern Pacific Railroad link between San Francisco & Los Angeles, Queen of Counties. — — Map (db m133821) HM
This herd traces its roots to 1962, when Walt Disney donated a herd of American Bison to
William S. Hart Regional Park. To discourage inbreeding, the County of Los Angeles has exchanged some of its animals with other facilities over the years; . . . — — Map (db m129211) HM
The American Revolution was a war for independence between the thirteen American colonies and their parent country, Great Britain. When it was over, the colonies became the United States of America. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence . . . — — Map (db m125419) HM WM
This house was one of a group of cottages built by the Southern
California Edison Company to house employees in 1919 when the Edison substation in Newhall opened. The house was moved west of Saugus in 1925 when the new substation was completed, . . . — — Map (db m119564) HM
Near where you are now standing, silent film comic Charlie Chaplin,
with Paulette Goddard at his side, appeared in the final scene of the epic comedy Modern Times. The film was released on February 5,
1936, nearly ten years into the talkie . . . — — Map (db m156484) HM
In 1769 Spanish padres sent out by Father Junipero Serra recommended this property as a mission site. It became instead a farm and ranch for the San Fernando Mission.
A stage coach stop called Lyons Station, was established here in 1854 & . . . — — Map (db m20114) HM
The arch was originally constructed in 1926 to attract
visitors to John Evans Olmstead's Live Oak Manor Cacti
Gardens, a point of interest frequented by tourists and
sightseers along the "old" San Fernando Road, today's
Sierra Highway. The . . . — — Map (db m156748) HM
This site was the location of a combination store, post office, telegraph office, tavern, and stage depot accommodating travelers during the Kern River gold rush in the early 1850s. A regular stop for Butterfield and other early California stage . . . — — Map (db m154273) HM
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835 - 1910.
Beloved author, humorist,
and western pioneer.
This original marble
statue is the creation
of the renowned Italian
sculptor, Spartaco Palla,
of Pietrasanta. — — Map (db m215920) HM
Rancho San Francisco was established by Franciscan padres late in the 18th century, where they
built a sub-mission, or asistencia, at Castaic Junction in 1804. The 48,612 acres were granted to the Del
Valle family 35 years later. William . . . — — Map (db m237475) HM
In 1839, the Mexican Government granted to
Antonio del Valle some 48,000 acres of
The Santa Clarita Valley known as the Del Valle Rancho.
On March 9, 1842, Francisco Lopez y Arbello, the brother-in-law of Antonio del Valle, visited the . . . — — Map (db m20112) HM
In Placeritas Canyon, March 1842, Francisco Lopez y Arballo, while gathering wild onions from around an old oak, discovered gold particles clinging to the roots of the bulbs. It is estimated that $80,000 in gold was discovered as a result of this . . . — — Map (db m154258) HM
In Placeritas Canyon, March 1842, Francisco Lopez y Arballo, while gathering wild onions from around an old oak, discovered gold particles clinging to the roots of the bulbs. It is estimated that $80,000 in gold was discovered as a result of this . . . — — Map (db m154260) HM
Francisco Lopez made California’s first authenticated gold discovery on March 9, 1842. While gathering wild onions near an oak tree in Placerita Canyon he found gold particles clinging to the roots of the bulbs. The San Fernando placers and nearby . . . — — Map (db m154261) HM
The Southern California oil industry began in the Newhall area in the late nineteenth century. Remnants of the industry on display include an oil pump, oil production packer, rotary rock drill bit, and tool rack which were all manufactured in . . . — — Map (db m180432) HM
In 1875 the Star Oil Company, one of the predecessors of the Standard Oil Company of California, drilled its first Pico Canyon well, which yielded about one hundred barrels per day. The discovery resulted in the erection of the first commercial oil . . . — — Map (db m145418) HM
California's first oil refinery operated on a commercial scale, erected 1876. Restored by the Standard Oil Company of California in 1930 as a memorial to D. G. Scofield and his pioneer associates of the California Star Oil Works company, a . . . — — Map (db m165742) HM
One of several art bears that grace sites around Santa Clarita, "The Santa
Clarita History Bear" is part of the California Bear Project, a series of
life-sized representations of the "Monarch" grizzly, the bear that appears
on the California . . . — — Map (db m245537) HM
The bell in the tower of this station was fabricated by the C.S. Bell Company of Hillsboro, Ohio. It weighs approximately 400 pounds and measures 30 inches in diameter at the base. The bell originally hung in the belfry of Saugus Elementary School, . . . — — Map (db m143725) HM
This historic cabin, originally built about 1920 by pioneer homesteader Frank E. Walker,
has been restored and finished as part of Placerita Canyon Natural Area's Heritage Trail.
A descriptive trail guide to the Heritage Trail is available in . . . — — Map (db m180293) HM
Walker Ranch is located at the eastern end of Placerita Canyon Natural Area and was purchased by the California Parks Department in the late 1950's. It was the home of Frank Walker and his family beginning in the mid 1920's. The Walker's . . . — — Map (db m180445) HM
What you are smelling is a pool of bubbling white oil. This very rare geologic feature of translucent petroleum has been filtered by nature. This special resource originates from deep within the earth in the Placerita Schist basement complex . . . — — Map (db m243727) HM
Presented the Medal of Honor on September 16, 1863 for gallantry in the Seven Day Battle and Peninsula Campaign.
“Willie” was a five foot tall, eleven year-old drummer boy in Company D, Third Vermont Volunteers Infantry of the Union Army, . . . — — Map (db m150914) HM WM
William S. Hart Park and Museum is the former ranch and home of the world famous Western silent film actor and director, William S. Hart. Today, guests visiting the park may enjoy a vast picnic area, a live collection of farm animals, a herd of . . . — — Map (db m120773) HM
The Saugus Café, one of the most colorful and historical eating establishments in all
of Southern California and the longest operating restaurant in Los Angeles County, was
opened in 1888 by James Herbert Tolfree. The name of this historical . . . — — Map (db m208067) HM
The Felton schoolhouse was built in 1885 to
accommodate more than 100 families living in
Pico Canyon, educating children up to the eighth
grade. The school was named for the president
of Pacific Coast Oil, Charles N. Felton, who . . . — — Map (db m208706) HM
On this site stands CSO-4 (Pico #4), California's first commerically productive well. It was spudded in early 1876, under the direction of Demetrius G. Scofield, later to become first president of Standard Oil Company of California, and was . . . — — Map (db m157684) HM
Mentryville, named after Charles Alexander Mentry, who drilled California's first successful commercial oil well in 1876, was one of the first oil towns in the state. Mentry's restored home, barn and Felton School remain on the site where the . . . — — Map (db m165661) HM
Mentryville's barn and chicken coop were built in
the 1890s to house the mules, horses and
chickens that were critical to the oil field's
operation. The larger animals pulled
equipment and transported oil wagons to
Newhall. They also hauled . . . — — Map (db m208701) HM
This structure was built in the late 1980s for the filming of
“Return to Green Acres,” a made-for-television movie that aired on
CBS in 1990. A faux living room lies behind the façade to provide
a glimpse of the “inside” and block views of . . . — — Map (db m208703) HM
Completed in the 1880s, this was the home of oil driller
Charles Alexander Mentry (1846-1900). In 1876 Mentry
drilled Pico Number 4, the first commercially successful
oil well in the western United States. Mentry became
superintendent of . . . — — Map (db m208704) HM
"Early today four young
California Highway Patrolmen
gave their lives to protect their
fellow citizens. They did so
without hesitation. They did
so because heroism and
devotion to duty were things
they simply accepted as part of
their . . . — — Map (db m212876) HM
In Placeritas Canyon, March 1842, Francisco Lopez y Arballo, while gathering wild onions from around an old oak, discovered gold particles clinging to the roots of the bulbs. It is estimated that $80,000 in gold was discovered as a result of this . . . — — Map (db m154259) HM
Approximately one-half mile south of this point was the adobe headquarters of Rancho San Francisco, originally built about 1804 as a granary of Mission San Fernando. The rancho was granted to Antonio de Valle in 1839. Here, in January 1850, William . . . — — Map (db m30667) HM
Harry Carey Sr. was an early silent-screen actor who starred in more than 200 films. In 1916 he took over the homestead rights of a previous settler and established his ranch of almost 2,000 acres. Carey, the first of many film actors to settle in . . . — — Map (db m146570) HM
The super highway of its day when opened in 1915, The Ridge Route, California’s first mountain highway, has been credited by some (for better or worse) as saving the state from being divided into two separate states. Constructed, graded, and paved . . . — — Map (db m121867) HM
