page_title: Santa Clarita, California
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Santa Clarita, California / History
caption_attribution_description: Welcome sign to Santa Clarita — in southern California.
context_page_description: Santa Clarita is the third-largest city in Los Angeles County, and the 21st-largest in the state of California. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 176,320, and in 2019 the population was estimated to be 212,979. The city has gained much of this rapid population increase by annexing numerous unincorporated areas. It is located about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and occupies most of the Santa Clarita Valley in northwestern Los Angeles County. It is a notable example of a U.S. edge city or boomburb.
  Santa Clarita was incorporated in December 1987 as the union of four unincorporated communities, Canyon Country, Newhall, Saugus, and Valencia, most of which are situated within the boundaries of the former Rancho San Francisco, a historic land grant. The four communities retain separate identities, and residents commonly refer to one of them when asked where they are from. Santa Clarita is bounded on the west by the Golden State Freeway. The Antelope Valley Freeway runs northeast-southwest through an irregular east border, and Newhall Pass is the city's southernmost point.
context_section_description: Santa Clarita was incorporated in December 1987. Its history of settlement has been traced from several centuries, dating to indigenous peoples. About AD 450, the Tataviam arrived, numbering around 2,000 at their zenith. Other indigenous cultures occupied the area in succession.
  Spanish colonists came to the area in the 18th century, establishing mission settlements.
  In 1842, Francisco Lopez made the first "documented" discovery of gold in California, when it was still part of Mexico. The event is memorialized in an 1842 mining claim issued by Gov. Juan B. Alvarado. The discovery was made in Placerita Canyon. Beginning in the mid-20th century, this area was used as Hollywood's original back lot when the area was developed by movie studios.
  The United States acquired California in 1848, after winning the Mexican-American War. The community of Newhall is named after Henry Newhall, a European-American businessman who made his fortune during the California Gold Rush. He founded the H.M. Newhall & Company, a successful auction house in San Francisco.  Newhall's next business interest was railroads. He invested in rail companies that would connect San Francisco to other cities and became president of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad. In 1870, he and his partners sold the company to Southern Pacific Railroad, and he served on SPR's board of directors.
  After railroads, Newhall turned to real estate and ranching. He purchased a number of the former Spanish and Mexican land grants in the state, amassing a total of 143,000 acres (58,000 ha) between Monterey and Los Angeles counties. The most significant portion was the 46,460 acres (18,800 ha) Rancho San Francisco in northern Los Angeles County, which he purchased for $2/acre. It became known as Newhall Ranch after Newhall's death. Within this territory, Newhall granted a right-of-way to Southern Pacific through what is now Newhall Pass. He also sold the railroad part of the land, upon which the company built a town, named Newhall after him. He named the first station built on the line for his hometown of Saugus, Massachusetts. After his death, Newhall's heirs incorporated the Newhall Land and Farming Company. It oversaw the development of the communities that now make up Santa Clarita.
  On September 5, 1876, Charles Crocker and Leland Stanford joined their railroads in Canyon Country, linking Los Angeles with the rest of the nation for the first time.
  On September 26, 1876, Charles Alexander Mentry brought in the state's first productive oil well at Mentryville, giving rise to the California oil industry. The oil was brought to a refinery at Newhall. This is the oldest existing petroleum refinery in the world; it was operational from 1874 to 1888.
  The Saugus Cafe, on Railroad Avenue in Saugus, was established in 1887. It may be the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Los Angeles County.
  Los Angeles studios began filming in Santa Clarita shortly after the turn of the 20th century. Actors in these early films included William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Harry Carey, and a young John Wayne. Hart and Carey made their homes in the Santa Clarita Valley; today both their former estates are operated as county parks.
  The Santa Clarita Valley was the scene of the second worst disaster in California's history in terms of lives lost, known as the "worst civil engineering failure of the 20th century". Shortly before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed. By the time the floodwaters reached the Pacific Ocean near Ventura five hours later, nearly 600 people had died. Some buildings in Newhall became makeshift morgues.
  In 1966, William V. Fowler, Grand Leader of the "California Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" organized a reactivation rally in Soledad Canyon. Fowler sought to reactivate the KKK in California where it had been legally barred from operating since 1946.
  After multiple failed attempts to form a city and at least two failed attempts to form a separate county, the people of the Santa Clarita Valley finally incorporated the City of Santa Clarita on December 15, 1987.
caption: The Santa Clarita welcome sign in May 2010.
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