Museums Duel for Cowboy’s Memories : Newhall Board Distrusts Natural History’s ‘Inventory’ of Hart Papers

If William S. Hart were alive, the cowboy actor might draw his six-guns and blast those varmints at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

At least, that’s how some Newhall residents see it.

They say the museum is spiriting away Hart’s personal papers--enough to fill 86 boxes--from the William S. Hart Museum, formerly Hart’s 26-room villa in the Santa Clarita Valley. The actor bequeathed the Newhall home and its 220 acres to the county, to be used as a museum and park.

“Most of the people feel they’re sneaking up there and taking the stuff and running,” Maureen Focht, president of the board of Friends of Hart Park and Museum, charged last week.

Protective Care

Not at all, responded Mark Rodriguez, chief deputy director of the natural history museum. After languishing for decades without a curator, the artifacts in the William S. Hart Museum were assigned in September to the protective care of the Museum of Natural History. A curator has been appointed, and, Rodriguez said, materials have been removed only for evaluation and for an inventory that is nearing completion.

The Hart papers--manuscripts, letters and financial records--are being temporarily housed in the natural history museum’s Seaver Historical and Research Library, Rodriguez said. They will be returned, except for documents that are duplicates or those that have only research or historical value, such as canceled checks. Those will remain in the Seaver Library for scholars, he said.

Yet the two camps of Hart aficionados remain uneasy with each other, despite having met several times to talk things over. Another meeting is scheduled Tuesday between the county museum staff and the directors of the Friends group. If Rodriguez does not satisfactorily explain things, Focht warned, “we’re starting our battle.”

Cleaned Up His Act

This is only the latest of several showdowns over the estate left by Hart, who worked on Broadway until he was 49, then came West and made 70 silent cowboy movies in which he typically began as the villain and ended as the hero who got the girl.

The actor died in 1946, and his estate was tied up in court for more than a decade by a challenge from his only child, William S. Hart Jr.

When the county finally took possession of the property, some Newhall old-timers recall, the Museum of Natural History removed the jewelry collection that had belonged to Hart’s wife. It has not returned it.

Rodriguez said last week that the missing jewels have been stored for safekeeping during the years that security has been inadequate at the Hart Museum, but will soon be returned.

In the early years of county ownership of the Hart Park and Museum, bureaucratic warfare erupted between the Museum of Natural History and the county Department of Parks and Recreation over control of the Hart facility.

In 1962, the Board of Supervisors gave the parks department sole responsibility. The museum withdrew its curator. Neglect almost ruined some artwork and Western memorabilia; other items disappeared.

Nonetheless, the county added 45 acres to the grounds. And more than 35,000 visitors visited the site last year, said Norm Phillips, a parks department supervisor who has been in charge of the site for two years.

Repairs Planned

Starting in April or May, Rodriguez said, a Charles Russell painting and other valuable items in the Hart collection will be repaired. Most will stay in the Hart museum, Rodriguez said. Some will become part of exhibits that the two museums exchange, a plan that Focht endorsed last week.

Nevertheless, the dispute between the Friends and the county museum staff lingers, thriving on mistrust and poor communication.

“The community has felt left out,” Rodriguez acknowledged.

If the natural history museum involved people more, Focht said, “maybe people would understand more, and there wouldn’t be any kind of problem.”

But both sides agree that the county has final authority over the Hart collection.

“We don’t own it,” Focht said. “All we can do is bitch.”