Bill Appleton Bill Appleton remembers Santa Susana as a thriving community of industrious, innovative and sometimes eccentric people.

“I have a lot of fond memories as an elementary school kid hanging around at the airport and seeing Grandma Prisbrey looking for bottles, and then there was Corriganville movie ranch,” he said. “There were just a lot of neat things happening in Santa Susana.”

Those recollections are what spurred Appleton, 61, to put together the recently published “Santa Susana,” a compilation of more than 200 vintage photographs along with his commentary on Santa Susana, its people and its history. The glossy paperback is part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series.

Pictures used in the book came from Appleton’s personal collection and from the Simi Valley Historical Society.

DAYS PAST—Above, a photo from Bill Appleton’s new book, “Santa Susana,” shows townspeople visiting the Riave Business Block in 1932. Louis Riave and his brother Max built the hardware store on the west side of Tapo Street in 1924. Located on what was then called First Street, the block is now the site of Valley Faire Antiques and Aubergine Emporium on Valley Fair Street (see below). The community of Santa Susana got its name from the mountains the Spanish called Sierra de Santa Susanna. In 1887, the Simi Valley Land and Water Company first surveyed the area to sell parcels as ranches.

In the mid-1950s, the township was an important agricultural center for citrus and walnut production.

“For people who are newcomers to Simi Valley, the pictures in the book show a lot of things that aren’t there anymore,” Appleton said. “The Santa Susana Airport was a hub of activity for many years.”

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers The airport was at today’s intersection of Los Angeles Avenue and Tapo Street. It grew from a dirt landing strip in a tomato field in the 1930s to a paved landing site for hundreds of private airplanes in the 1970s.

Appleton devoted a chapter to Corriganville movie ranch, founded by stuntman and entrepreneur Ray “Crash” Corrigan. Many B-movie Westerns and television series were filmed on the site off present-day Kuehner Drive.

In 1949, the ranch became a tourist attraction and was soon rated one of the 10 most interesting places in the country to visit.

Among the unique personalities mentioned in Appleton’s book is Tressa “Grandma” Prisbrey, a folk artist who, in her late 60s, built a collection of buildings made of glass bottles and other items the general public considered trash. Although damaged by the 1994 earthquake, Bottle Village on Cochran Street continues to be a tribute to her eccentric spirit.

As a fourth-generation resident, Appleton lived most of his life here, raising a family while running a professional photography studio. In 2000, he moved to Beverly Hills with his second wife, Linda, an interior designer.

In the early 1990s, while rummaging around in his mother’s Simi Valley garage, Appleton came across 450 old glass plate negatives taken by his greatgrandfather, John Sparhawk Appleton, a Simi Valley pioneer in 1887.

“John Sparhawk Appleton was the first of the family to come west. He took pictures because his family back east wanted to see what was going on,” his great-grandson said. “He was ahead of his time in terms of technology, whatever the technology was at the time.”

Bill Appleton then started a threeyear project to print and categorize those photographs, which became the core of the book “Simi Valley: A Journey Through Time,” which Appleton co-authored with city historian Patricia Havens.

“In the Simi Valley book we never did a chapter on Santa Susana, per se. It’s mentioned throughout but it was never put into context,” Appleton said. “For all those people who lived in Santa Susana, they’re going to find this book a nice homage to the area.”

The public is invited to meet Appleton at a book signing from 6 to 9 p.m. today, Sept. 18, at Aubergine Emporium, 4385 Valley Fair St., Simi Valley. “Santa Susana” may be purchased online at www.arcadiapublishing.com.