The Saugus Cafe, on Railroad Avenue in Saugus, was established in 1887 and appears to be, by far, the oldest still-operating restaurant in Los Angeles County.
Filming in Santa Clarita began shortly after the turn of the 20th century with a veritable Who’s Who of actors including 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 are operated as county parks.
The Santa Clarita Valley was the scene of the second worst disaster in California history — The History Channel called it the “worst civil engineering failure of the 20th century” — when, on the night of March 12, 1928, William Mulholland’s St. Francis Dam collapsed. By the time the floodwaters reached the Pacific Ocean near Ventura, an estimated 450 people were dead. Within modern Santa Clarita city limits, the site of the future Westfield Valencia Town Center mall was buried beneath muck and mud. Numerous buildings within Santa Clarita became makeshift morgues.