Page 6 - sc0302

-

' StateH
fo O Honorscity ,
r Qualityof Life
Santa Clarita . Life 19 I
cities h 18 one of 10
of Health bythe state to California
program services "H Department
ties thethat 'Which recogn· eaithy Cities"
lite for residentsto improve the quality
Santa Clarita. 8 • 1 of
pro Claritawa .
of seat- praisead for strong
ments to th elt usage ·
Partic · . e natural improve
a d the additionin air- environment
n
the addition quality Pro
accessible to the Of a. programs
Santa Clarita handicapped Park
charter iti is one of the
were the first so called the program's
, · firstto participat· causwethey
ipate, city offi-

Railroad, freeway brought life to vaUey

HISTORY I From Page 1
"Progress"beganin 1875, with the
purchase of Rancho San Francisco were set. The first subdivisions
The future of Santa Clarita is - the Santa Clarita Valley - by appeared in . the mid-60s and new- cityhood, becoming the largest city
development - more subdivisions auctioneer Henry Mayo Newball. comers bolstered the valley's popu- ever to incorporate in California.
more malls, more industrial centers Over the decades, what became The
and more highways. lation to about 70,000 : in 1980. Still, Santa Clarita maintains a
Newhall Land and Farming Co. Development fever spread across small-town character, boosterss
development · progressed managed farms and ranches in the the valley, which today boasts about insist. But times have changed sin e
very little for the first 60 years of this region, selling off some parcels. 180,000 residents.
century,"· Scorza said. "Nothing Newhall descendants continued thelasttumofthecentury, wheno e
Meanwhile, the neighboring postman traveled the entire area
really happened in the valley, the to manage the company in the 20th communities of Saugus, Canyon each day, roaming from ranches i.n
population stayed smallish until the century and when it was announced Country and Newhall continued to Castaic to Saugus to Newhalll;
'60s. Then the freeway came that the Golden State Freeway grow, each maintaining its own traveling dirt roads to homes set far
through, and everything changed."
would be built through the rancho, character. In 1987, reacting to apart on open land, Scorza said.
plans for the "new town" ofValencia unchecked growth in the area, resi- "I often wonder about people w o
dents overwhelmingly voted for were here before the '60s'," he sai .
"I wonder what they must feel."