The tollhouse for passage through Beale's Cut was not famous for its cookies. After keepers A. A. Hudson and Oliver Robbins started it in partnership with General Beale, the Dunn family ran it. (Beale kept two-thirds of every toll, ranging from 3¢ per sheep to $2 for large wagons.) In 1875, a sheepherder found Mrs. Dunn alone at the gate. He refused to pay the woman and stampeded his small flock through. Mrs. Dunn armored up, trailed him to the San Fernando Valley, and waited for nightfall. She woke him with a shotgun to the nose and demanded “$16.25—$2.75 for the toll and the balance for the gatekeeper’s injured feelings.” He paid. (Courtesy Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.)
Arcadia
