Before the famous Gold Rush of 1849 changed California forever, the state’s very first gold discovery happened right here in the Santa Clarita Valley, and on May 26, 1956, the community came together to celebrate and preserve that history for future generations. Seventy years ago, local residents, descendants of pioneer California families and public officials gathered in Placerita Canyon State ...

On January 15, 1875, Henry Mayo Newhall, an auctioneer-turned-venture capitalist whose name would become inseparable from Santa Clarita, purchased 46,460 acres of the historic Rancho San Francisco for just under $2 per acre. Before Newhall took over, the Rancho San Francisco, originally a Spanish land grant that passed into private ownership following the Mexican Revolution, encompassed much of the western ...

On January 2, 1855, a pivotal land decision helped shape the future of what is now the Santa Clarita Valley, when the American Land Commission formally confirmed ownership of the 48,612-acre Rancho San Francisco to Jacoba Feliz, the widow of Antonio del Valle. The ruling came during a turbulent era for California landholders, as Mexican-era grants were subjected to federal ...

On this day in 1873, Santa Barbara attorneys Charles H. Fernald and Jarrett “J.T.” Richards purchased Rancho San Francisco at a sheriff’s auction for $33,000 — about 75 cents an acre. The sale, recorded October 20, 1873, marked another turning point in the turbulent ownership of the 48,829-acre rancho that once stretched across much of today’s Santa Clarita Valley. Rancho ...

On this day in 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach, carrying letters, freight, and one determined reporter, rolled through the rugged canyons of the Santa Clarita Valley on its inaugural journey from St. Louis to San Francisco. The historic run marked the first organized mail and passenger service to traverse the San Fernando and San Francisquito passes. Early travelers called ...

On this day in 1853, Ygnacio del Valle inherited the 48,829-acre Rancho San Francisco, a vast tract of land that would eventually give rise to much of the Santa Clarita Valley. The rancho had first been granted in 1839 to Ygnacio’s father, Antonio del Valle, a former Mexican army lieutenant and administrator of Mission San Fernando.  After Antonio’s death in ...

On this day in 1841, Antonio del Valle, a Mexican soldier and grantee of over 48,000 acres of land that would eventually form the Santa Clarita Valley, died. Born in 1788 in Compostela, Jalisco, Mexico,  del Valle served as a lieutenant for the Mexican army, fighting for his home country against Spain during the Mexican Revolution of the 1820s and ...

On this day in 1824, significant events that ended the Chumash Revolt took place in the Santa Clarita Valley. It all started in February of that year, when a Chumash boy was severely beaten by a Mexican soldier as he tried to visit a relative imprisoned at San Ynez. The soldier, Valentin Cota, was the son of Manuel Cota, who ...