On this day in 1898, Maria “Mary” S. Ruiz was born in San Francisquito Canyon to a pioneering ranch family whose roots in the Santa Clarita Valley reach back to the mid-1800s. She was the daughter of Enrique (Henry) Rayales Ruiz and Rosaria (Perea) Ruiz, early settlers whose family ranch lay along the canyon’s lower reaches, not far from present-day ...

On this day in Santa Clarita history, October 10, 2018, the city officially dedicated its newly acquired San Francisquito Open Space. During the ceremony, Charles F. “Chuck” Cullen Jr. pointed out the remnants of a yellow ribbon that his stepmother, Lady Linda, tied around an old oak tree 45 years earlier when she married his father. That tree still stands ...