Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop
| Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | 23287 N. Sierra Highway, Newhall, California |
| Coordinates | 34°21′46″N 118°30′27″W / 34.36270°N 118.50740°WCoordinates: 34°21′46″N 118°30′27″W / 34.36270°N 118.50740°W |
| Reference no. | 688 |
 Location in Los Angeles County
|
|
The Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop, (originally Hart's Station, then Wiley's Station), was a tavern and stagecoach stop near the southwest corner of Newhall Avenue and Sierra Highway, by Eternal Valley Cemetery. The site is located in the present day Newhall section of Santa Clarita, in Los Angeles County, California.
The original Hart's Station house was just north over the San Fernando Pass on the Fort Tejon Road, north of the San Fernando Mission. The wagon road connected Los Angeles and the Gold Rush locations in the Sierras, and was part of the inland route to Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a regular stop for several early California stagecoach lines, and accommodated travelers during the 1853 Kern River gold rush.
Wiley's Station was purchased by Sanford and Cyrus Lyon in 1855, and it was renamed Lyons' Station. The Lyon brothers owned the adobe and ranch land around it, where they farmed, raised sheep, and ran the watering place stop. Despite being named Lyons' Station by the Lyon brothers as owners, it was still referred to by its original name of Hart's Station in Daily Alta California news accounts of the first trip over the route in 1858. The sixth was Willow Springs Station, in the Temecula Valley.
In his book, "Sixty Years in Southern California," Harris Newmark writes about his visit to the station in 1856:
We left Los Angeles early one afternoon, and made our first stop at Lyons's Station, where we put up for the night. One of the brothers [Sanford], after whom the place was named, prepared supper. Having to draw some thick blackstrap from a keg, he used a pitcher to catch the treacle; and as the liquid ran very slowly, our sociable host sat down to talk a bit, and soon forgot all about what he had started to do. The molasses, however, although it ran pretty slowly, ran steadily, and finally, like the mush in the fairy-tale of the enchanted bowl, overflowed the top of the receptacle and spread itself over the dirt floor. When Lyons had finished his chat, he saw, to his intense chagrin, a new job upon his hands, and one likely to busy him for some time.
...
Wikipedia