BUTTONS AND BEASTS GALORE PLACERITA CANYON NATURE CENTER INVITES FAMILIES TO AN OLD-FASHIONED OPEN HOUSE.Byline: Sharon Cotal Staff Writer NEWHALL - Kids can learn old-fashioned skills such as panning for gold, making buttons and washing clothes without a machine from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center's festival and open house. The center's docents will be dressed in period costumes and will take visitors on tours of the park's historical sites throughout the day, said Donna Fagan, vice president of the Placerita Canyon Nature Center Associates. Guests can visit the Walker House, a pioneer cabin built in the early 1900s, to learn about life in the early homesteading Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple, agrarian self-sufficiency. History North America In the United States, the Homestead Act (1862) allowed anyone to claim up to 160 acres (64.7 hm²) of land. days of the Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley is the valley of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. It stretches through Los Angeles County and Ventura County. Its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,672. , and kids can try out the manual washing ``machine'' used by the Walker family. Kids can also try panning for fool's gold fool's gold: see pyrite. in the creek near the center and hike to the Oak of the Golden Dream, where gold was discovered in Placerita Canyon before the California Gold Rush  The California Gold Rush 1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. , Fagan said. The Santa Clarita Valley Astronomy Club will have a planetary display and discuss the recent alignment of the planets, and the Santa Clarita Valley Herpetology Club will be on hand with various snakes and reptiles reptiles terrestrial or aquatic vertebrates which breathe air through lungs and have a skin covering of horny scales. They are poikilothermic, oviparous or ovoviviparous, and, if they have legs they are short and constructed solely for crawling. that make the valley their home. Kids can use a human-powered button machine to design their own button, and can paint the button when it is completed. Free animal shows and family nature walks will be held throughout the day, and food and drinks will be available at a small cost. The event is a fund-raiser to benefit the association, and proceeds will be used to take care of the center's animals and to maintain the center's buildings, Fagan said. The nature center is at 19152 W. Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall. For information, call (661) 259-7721. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- ran in SAC edition only) A gopher snake entrances youngsters during a visit from Placerita Canyon Nature Center educators. The center is holding an open house Saturday. (2 -- ran in SAC edition only) Frank Hoffman Frank Hoffman (born December 19, 1909) was an American football player. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1978. shows children a tarantula tarantula (tərăn`chələ), name applied chiefly to several species of the large, hairy spiders of the families Theraphosidae and Dipluridae of North and South America. The body of a tarantula may be as much as 3 in. (7. from the Placerita Canyon Nature Center. Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News |
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