The area was the ancestral homeland of the
Tataviam people for over five hundred years, and other tribes before then, such as the
Tongva,
Kitanemuk, and
Serrano people. After Spanish settlement, the valley became grazing lands of the
Mission San Fernando Rey de España around 1790. In the 1880s, the rancho become the Newhall Ranch empire of
Henry Newhall, from which his family started the
Newhall Land and Farming Company after his death. In 1928, the
St. Francis Dam collapsed, suddenly flooding and washing away settlements and people along the Santa Clara River section of present-day Santa Clarita not including Canyon Country. Canyon Country was originally called Solemint. It later absorbed the community to the west called Honby. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Newhall Land company's
suburban developments transformed the surrounding areas into a largely residential city. In 1987, Canyon Country was one of four communities, along with
Valencia,
Newhall, and
Saugus, that merged to create the city of
Santa Clarita, California. ==Geography==