PARK ENABLES VISITORS TO STEP BACK IN TIME.

Byline: VICTORIA GIRAUD

The Santa Clarita Valley has been home to oil drilling, Tataviam Indians, Spanish settlers, movie stars and movies on location, the St. Francis Dam disaster and the first gold discovery.

To find out more and see a bit of this exciting and varied history, visit Heritage Junction, the pride of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

Heritage Junction Historical Park has eight old buildings - the Saugus train station and seven homes and other buildings, plus a Mogul Steam locomotive and two gas mechanical locomotives. The homes, which can be viewed from the outside, and the Mogul are in the process of restoration, but the train station, which houses a museum, is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

The Saugus Train Station opened in 1887 and served passengers until 1971 and freight until 1979. During those years, the station was not only used in movies - Charlie Chaplin's ``The Pilgrim'' in 1919 and Frank Sinatra's ``Suddenly'' in 1954 - but was host to Presidents Benjamin Harris and Theodore Roosevelt.

The Historical Society's efforts saved the building from being demolished in 1980. And it was cut in half and moved to Heritage Junction, where it has been restored and is home to a museum of local history.

A wide variety of exhibits include the table where Wild Bill Hickok met his untimely end playing cards and the ``dead man's hand'' of 8's and aces that he held; pieces of the ill-fated St. Francis Dam; movie paraphernalia that includes the hats of Jimmy Durante, Rudy Vallee and Nat King Cole; turn-of-the-century household items, mining and oil-drilling equipment; artifacts from the Tataviams; a large diorama of mining techniques; and Spanish swords and saddles.

One of the oldest homes on the site is the Mitchell Adobe, originally constructed by Col. Thomas Finley Mitchell, a Mexican-American war veteran, in 1865. The adobe has gone through several incarnations as an early schoolhouse, a guest home, an apiary and a tack room. Originally 45-by-60 feet, it was constructed from local clay from a hand-dug well.

The small, eight-pew Ramona Chapel, which resembles a doll house, was designed by Carrie Jacobs Bond, composer of the classic, ``I Love You Truly,'' and is based on the one made famous in Helen Hunt Jackson's novel ``Ramona.'' Reportedly constructed from old churches and missions in 1927, the chapel was once located in Culver City as the centerpiece of Robert Callahan's Mission Village and was featured in films. When progress and the Santa Monica Freeway came along, Callahan moved his village to Mint Canyon and his widow later donated the chapel to the Historical Society.

The Newhall Ranch House, part of the Newhall Ranch, was built in 1865 as a simple Victorian ranch house and modified in 1903. A few years back, the home was used in the film, ``Texas Chain Saw Massacre II.''

Once occupied by Lyman Stewart, founder of the Union Oil Co., the Kingsburry House, an example of the colonial-revival style, originally was built in 1878 and located at Eighth Street and San Fernando Road. The home got its name from the Kingsburrys, who bought it in 1943. ``Uncle Charlie'' Kingsburry, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, operated a meat market in Newhall.

In 1890 what is now known as the Pardee House was a Good Templars Hall, built by Henry Clay Needham, a favorite-son candidate for president in 1920, a proponent of Prohibition and founder of the Newhall Water Co. Ed Pardee, a pioneer oil man, local constable and livery stable owner bought and moved the house in 1893. The home had a mixed history from then on: it was used in Tom Mix films, as the Newhall telephone exchange, as the Santa Clarita Valley Boys Club and as the office for the Chamber of Commerce. The home is eventually planned for use as a visitors center and museum.

The Edison House gets its name from Southern California Edison, and was one of a group of five Swiss-Germanic cottages built by Edison for its employees when the Newhall substation was built in 1919. Assistant Edison patrolman Raymond Starbard, its first occupant, was the man who sounded the alarm for the 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster. The Newhall Land and Farming Co. later bought the cottages and donated this one to the Historical Society. The others were burned as part of a training exercise by the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Another point of interest in the park is the spring-pulled drilling rig, an original oil drill used from the 1850s through the 1870s. The man operating the drill would have to hop around on its hose to get it to work.

The Mogul Locomotive, Engine No. 1629, built in Schenectady, N.Y., in 1900, once ran from Yuma, Ariz., to Portland., Ore., and passed through Santa Clarita. Gene Autry used it for films at his Melody Ranch in Newhall before it was donated to the Historical Society in 1981.

To round out the park, there are two gardens - a vegetable garden similar to one that would have been planted during the early days of the Santa Clarita Valley, and a 350-plant rose garden with varieties dating from the 1850s to the 1950s.

Although the museum has only limited hours, visitors are welcome to walk around the park daily from sunrise to sunset. Heritage Junction is at 24101 San Fernando Road.