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house charging up to $2.00 for wagons clauering
through his "Cut", a small fortune in those days.
Team Lers paid gladly, as it was the only way out
of Los Angeles northward.
Meanwhile, the Rancho San Francisco had gone
through several owners when it was finally pur-
chased by Henry Mayo Newhall 011 Jan. 15, 1875.
Mr. Newhall came from Saugus, Mass. Lo seek his
fortune in . the California gold fields. Failing in
this, he fe ll back on his trade of auctioneer and
started a railroad line. Southern Pacific bought
Asistencia de San Francisco him out and Newhall began buying property. One
of his investments was the Rancho San Fransico,
Mission San Fernando was constructed in 1797 which just happened Lo be on the Southern
and the Indians were taught useful trades such as Pacific right-of-way. Con ·truction was already un-
making tiles and herding caule. By 1804, a sub derway to link the state from north to
mission, called San Francisco, was built at Castaic
Junction which passed into the hands of the Del
Valle family.
On January 22, 1839 the vall y from Piru
Creek to present Camp Plenty Rd., 48,611 acres,
was granted to Don ntonio Del Valle. Two years
later the don died and his holdings were divided
between his widow and eldest son, Ignacio. In
1842 gold was di covered in Placerita Canyon,
starting the first rush in California, six years be-
fore the Sutler's Mill find.
War broke out and, on January IO, 1847 John
C. Fremont and his Buckskin Baualion camped at
Ca 'Laic Junction , marched down Newhall Ave.,
bivouacked again where the Newhall Refinery
stands today, and clawed their way over the pass
that still bears his name.
The first "gringo" resident of the valley was
Henry Clay Wiley, who, along with Jose del Valle,
set up a stage stop at present clay Eternal Valley
cemetery in 1852. It was sold to the Lyon
brothers, Sanford and Cyrus, two years later and
eventually supported 20 familie ·.
Gold was discovered on the Kern River and Ft.
Tejon was establi ·hed in Grapevine Pass about the
same time in 1854. Caravans of camels rambled
down from Tejon Lo Los Angeles until the out-
break of the Civil War, following a route blazed
by Phineas Banning through San Francisquito Ca-
nyon, along San Fernando Rd. and ov r Fremont
Pass. Banning ran his coaches and wagons up to Beale's Cut
the Kern until '58 when the Buuerfield Overland
Stage incorporated the e ·tion into their run from south by twin ribbons of steel. On the 5th day of
St. Louis to San Francisco. Th Confederates cut September, 1876 Charles Crocker, with 5 well-
the line, known as the Great Southern or Ox Bow placed blow , cln)V a golden spike uniting the
Route, in 1862. tracks at Lang Station in Soledad Canyon.
General Edward Fitzgerald Beale was a hero of A month later, October 28, l 876, a depot con-
the Mexican-American War, Surveyor Gen ral of structed of redwood, brought from the north by
California, and master of the sprawling 300,000- rail, opened its doors. IL was named by Crocker
acre T~jon Ranch running from Gorman to the and Stanford for the man who owned the land
San Joaquin Valley. In 1863 the general received Newhall Station. Curiously enough, it was not lo-
a grant from th Board of Supervisors in the cated \-\-'here the town stands today, but was at
amount of $5,000 "for road improvements", present day Saugus. The first resident was the
called out the army Lo hand-dig a 90 foot deep station agent, John T. Gifford, who made his
cleft through Fremont Pass, and then set up a toll home in a box ·ar local cl on a siding.
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