Once again the little town west of Newhall is in the news. This time it isn’t an earthquake (of 1893) or a wildfire (about every 10 years); instead it is about “at-risk youth,” or kids who used to be called “juvenile delinquents.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the old town, it can be found by traveling west from downtown Newhall on Lyons Avenue, which becomes Pico Canyon Road once you cross over Interstate 5. You continue west past Stevenson Ranch until you reach a gate that has a State Historic Landmark plaque next to it declaring that Mentryville is just that, a historic landmark.

Not much is left of the little old town. You can see the big barn and tack house, a tin-covered building that housed automobiles, a rather large house – 13 rooms with about 4,000 square feet of floor space – the ice house next to that house, the little one-room school house named Felton School, the foundation to a bakery, the picnic grounds or “Johnson Park,” and a monument to the first commercially productive oil well west of Pennsylvania, CSO No. 4.

The town was long. It stretched from that big, red barn all the way west up the canyon. Just about any place there was a somewhat flat spot in the canyon, one could find a house or little cottage. The “industrial park” of Mentryville was up around the oil wells with a large machine shop and even a firehouse of sorts. There were at least two boarding houses near the wells (called “The Works” by the early townsfolk). Home sites are known to have been located down the canyon including at least one, if not more, near what is now called Johnson Park.

Picnic at the park in Mentryville, 1939. Photo courtesy of Stan Walker.

When I lived in the little town, we didn’t call it Johnson Park until sometime in the mid-1960s. Standard Oil Co. erected a sign at the cookhouse part of the “picnic grounds” that named it. It was in honor of a company vice president who loved the history of the company and especially of Pico Canyon. The gentleman’s name was W.C. Johnson. I was there for the dedication, which was a typical “stag party” and barbecue held about three times a year to raise money for the employee family Christmas party and spring picnic fund.

Those stag parties weren’t what you think. There was a lot of beer consumed and a great meal, too. The big pit barbecue held enough meat that you could feed around 300 hungry men, and you also had all the fixin’s. Corn-on-the-cob, dinner rolls, salad and a scoop of Western beans. There was a little music and a lot of gambling. The poker tables are still there, and at one time there were craps tables, too. When families were there, they could also play horseshoes, badminton or volleyball, have a turn on the little dance floor in front of the tiny stage, and “belly up to the bar” for a cold drink.

Johnson Park was the community park, much like William S. Hart Park is for Newhall today. Families would gather for all sorts of functions back in the days of the old town. Of course, in the cold months, they could also go to the community hall that was located next to the Felton School.

If you want to see some of the now-lost buildings, you can find parts of them at the gate as you enter the town. That little, tin-covered pole barn next to the big barn was once material from The Works up near the wells, and the lumber was from the boarding house near the wells. Those boards were about all that was left of the place that you can see in a picture on SCV History in Pictures (SCVHistory.com). I believe it was called the “Wolcott homestead” in the pictures. I think that was a joke. It was a company-operated boarding house.

Mentryville used to have a few more buildings a than it has today.

That plaque at the gate calls Mentryville a town and historic landmark. The town isn’t just those spots near that plaque. It stretches a long way up the canyon.

Now, the ever-wonderful Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority wants to put a camp for “at-risk youths” at Johnson Park, right in the center of town. This is the “conservation” authority that sprays weed killer for brush abatement and charges $5 for parking, the same “authority” that lets film companies damage the buildings and does nothing to preserve the buildings and open them to the public that owns them. Yes, it is public land as part of the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy.

There was an agreement that at some time, the buildings and remaining parts of the town would be open for restoration and tours. That agreement started in the mid-1990s. You still aren’t able to tour the buildings.

We want to trust the MRCA with these kids working on our state lands? I know they work all over the place and do a fine job, but not in Pico Canyon. Not in Mentryville. The fire and safety concerns are paramount in this case, along with the fact that there is no cell phone or other communication service there. In case of emergency, you have to go to the top of the hills or halfway to Newhall to get a cell phone signal.

Mostly, what part of the term, “historic” is it that the MRCA cannot understand? Their past practices prove they are not able to understand it at all.

But “gang-prevention programs” such as this bring them money. Lots of money. That is the core historical value of the MRCA and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy – money. If they really cared, they would follow the agreements they made in Mentryville and other locations, too. This is about money and not about kids.

Thank you, Supervisor Antonovich, for putting a stop to this, at least until the public can comment. It’s up for discussion at the West Ranch Town Council meeting at the Stevenson Ranch Library on June 3 at 6:30 p.m. See all y’all there.

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].