CLEARING THE TRAIL DOWNTOWN NEWHALL SPRUCES UP TO USHER IN COWBOY EVENT.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

NEWHALL - It wasn't long after dawn when the crew members hit the trail, hoping to be done with their labor by high noon.

They planted flowers, picked up cigarette butts and collected trash along downtown Newhall's San Fernando Road in preparation for the annual Cowboy Festival that kicks off Wednesday.

Although most of the activities take place at Melody Ranch, the Old Town Newhall Association wants this quaint part of town to look its best for visitors passing through.

``This is the gateway to the Cowboy Festival. A lot of people come through here, and we want to make sure it's presentable,'' said Frank Norton, an Old Town Newhall member.

As he pushed a broom across the sidewalk, 61-year-old Norton recited lines of cowboy poetry, traditionally humorous and humble. The tall tales speak of country dogs meeting city dogs and men eating gunpowder for breakfast to grow strong. Norton got into cowboy poetry during the early days of the Cowboy Festival, when its focus was on stories about life on the lonely trails. The nostalgic pieces stuck with him, and now he travels throughout the year from Idaho to Texas performing his own cowboy poetry at similar festivals.

Along this stretch of the road where Norton and the others worked lies the Walk of Western Stars, where Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Melissa Gilbert and about 60 other TV legends are remembered in bronze tiles embedded in the sidewalk.

Each year during the Cowboy Festival, four new celebrity names are added to the mix. Orange barricades sat on the sidewalk Saturday, marking where the newcomers will be placed. Nearby, two teenagers were on their hands and knees polishing older plaques till they shined like new again.

Down the way, Victor Feany dug through the dirt of a tree well, readying the ground for flowers. The lifetime resident of Newhall wiped the sweat from his brow and pointed to buildings on the street, explaining the history behind each.

This one was an old sheriff's station. That one was built as a dressing room for a movie star of the 1920s.

Feany, owner of Newhall Hardware, wants to preserve the history of the town and wonders why California is always in such a hurry to bulldoze old buildings and construct new ones. It wipes out tales of days gone by.

Even his store, which turns 60 next year, is filled with items from the past, such as old-fashioned skillets, oil lanterns and a cast-iron stove.

``I hate to see a piece of history go away,'' he said. ``It doesn't come back. It's gone forever.''

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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(1 -- 2 -- color) Volunteers on Saturday cleaned the streets of downtown Newhall to prepare for next week's Cowboy Poetry Festival. Above, Matthew Feany of Lake Elizabeth and Sue Bird of Newhall plant flowers on San Fernando Road. At left, Kari Simes of Granada Hills, left, cleans the plaques of Western celebrities.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News