This being Shameless Plug Tuesday, I think it is high time all y’all stopped by the Santa Clarita Historical Society’s Heritage Junction at William S. Hart Park this weekend with lots of big doin’s on a cool winter day. Actually, Saturday and Sunday.

Starting at 10 a.m. each day this weekend, there’s a Marketplace open for you to find those perfect items you didn’t get for Christmas. Craft items from artists all over the area, and you’ll be sure to find the perfect something for you or someone you love.

There will also be a food truck … maybe two. Never know about those things. Food trucks in Southern California pop up anyplace a crowd gathers. I think it is a law. Well, maybe not a law but it should be one.

Of course, you’re welcome to come see the old Saugus train depot, the steam locomotive and also, up our Main Street, you’ll find an old Edison house and the Kingsbury House along with our little schoolhouse and chapel from Callahan’s Western Village that was once located up Sierra Highway.

Soon we’re going to have the Pardee House ready to become our museum. The museum items currently on display in the depot’s baggage room will be moved to the museum along with the gift shop. The baggage room is slated to become our archives room where we can spread out our collections and hopefully get a better idea of what we’ve got. Right now the stuff is jammed in two smaller rooms upstairs, with little room to work.

Pardee House at Heritage Junction.

We will also move our equipment to scan and copy photographs and documents so that everyone who goes online to SCVHistory.com can find even more pieces of the history of our valley they might want to know.

Sorry that you won’t be able to go into the Newhall Ranch House. Soon the restoration will begin, and it will be returned to the original bright white exterior with dark green trim. The entire interior will be restored to an era long ago, yet we plan to use it in an active way for groups to meet in a setting that will be most comfortable. Various civic organizations including government committees will be able to come and use the Ranch House. Usage will be priced at rates most everyone can afford. It might also be a nice venue for small weddings and receptions. What do you think of that?

Just the other day, a couple asked us if we could rent the freight room of the train station for a wedding reception. Now, I’ve got to tell you, a summertime wedding would mean that room gets a little warm with only an old swamp cooler to try and cool the place. I was married on a hot July day in 1970 here in town, and the reception was held both inside and out. We made it just fine. Maybe our guests drank a little more champagne, but nobody got hot. So it would be up to those who would rent the place. It holds 75 people, and we could add room out on the platform for more guests.

Of course we have our little chapel where a couple might want to get hitched and then have the reception in the depot. Now if I can find a nice-looking carriage for the bride and groom … I don’t know where we can find that but maybe some of you can tell me.

As you walk along our main street, you’ll see the Mitchell Adobe schoolhouse on your right. There are also picnic tables, and you’ll also see an early method of drilling for oil – a device called a spring pole.

Near the chapel along the street, we’ve got two houses. One is called the Edison House and is, in fact, one of the old Edison Co. bungalows that used to sit off of Magic Mountain Parkway where that huge electrical substation is located. At one time there were 10 of those homes. We’ve got the only one left.

There is also the Kingsbury House. Another great little home that we moved in order to preserve it.

Starting next month, the dirt street between the houses up there will be “paved.” Paving bricks will be laid down so that less dirt and fewer rocks will be tracked into the homes.

You’ll notice that just about all of our buildings need new roofs. Being historically accurate is our goal, but we cannot be crazy enough to keep the original wood shingles on the places in our high-fire-danger area. We can get new roofing material that looks like wood shingles but doesn’t burn. I like that idea.

But all this takes money. Lots of money. It also takes a lot of people to get things done. We call those folks – wait for it – volunteers. We need more. There is a catch. We’d like you to join the Historical Society for a low annual membership rate. We have family plans, student plans, seniors plans, lifetime plans, and we can even create a plan just for you. We would really like a “Large Endowment Fund Plan.”

How large would that fund have to be? Let me just say that the sky is the limit. We do have some rough estimates for all of the restoration we need done. It isn’t cheap. The Pardee House alone has another $50,000 needed to complete it as a museum. One estimate for the Newhall Ranch House came in at nearly $450,000 – just to get it to the point where we can open it full time to the public.

The depot also needs a roof, some plumbing repairs, and an almost entirely new electrical system. That will run around $55,000.

Then we add the daily costs of keeping keep the lights on and the roofs for the other buildings, and pretty soon we’re talking some serious money. An endowment fund of $800,000 would be helpful.

We have a way to get a restored Southern Pacific caboose and a large 1940s-era rail dining car fully restored. We need funds to get them moved and placed near the depot.

So with limited funds, the society needs lots of help. We need to overhaul the way we display historic farm equipment and find a way to build a maintenance building along with another museum structure dedicated to the military veterans of the Santa Clarita Valley.

Ambitious plans? You bet. But it can be done. It will be done. Come on down and lend a hand and give a few bucks to make it happen. We’re saving our history for our kids before it is gone and forgotten. We all can make that happen.

Thanks. Shameless plug complete. For now.

That is all. Carry on.

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Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he serves as executive director of the SCV Historical Society. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived at DManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].