Not that it's a contest, but Santa Clarita did it first.

It was Hollywood before Hollywood. It had its own gold rush years before riches were found at Sutter's Mill. And men were pulling oil from the ground there two decades before Texas dug its first well.

Yet the rugged Santa Clarita Valley and the four communities it comprises -- Newhall, Valencia, Canyon County and Saugus -- are still something of a mystery to many who don't live there. Or worse, the area remains misunderstood thanks to "The Santa Clarita Diet" and other pop culture portrayals.

The truth is far more interesting, if evasive. For decades, the Newhall Pass formed a natural barrier separating the valley from the Los Angeles Basin, allowing Santa Clarita to cultivate its own unique culture, one that's woven into the fabric of Southern California.

"This was truly the Old Wild West out here," said Alan Pollack, a doctor of internal medicine who moved to the valley in 1991 and quickly became steeped in its history. "There were gunfights, there were stagecoaches, all that sort of stuff."

Santa Clarita was where many of the early westerns were shot, with real cowboys driving herds of cattle down the town's dusty main street. Since then, the valley has become home to more than a dozen movie ranches, from the 22-acre Melody Ranch to the 400-acre Rancho Maria and Sable Ranch, as well as dozens of soundstages, earning the city the title "Hollywood North."

"You can get any kind of look in Santa Clarita," says Carol Rock, marketing director for the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. "Just drive around. You're looking at the Amazon. You're looking at the forest in different kinds of trees. And then you've got palm trees." Pay attention and you'll notice that the hills and canyons have provided the backdrop for everything from "The Lone Ranger" and "Gunsmoke" to "Oppenheimer," "Star Trek" and "The Office."

The city is also home to the sprawling Magic Mountain theme park, whose 19 roller coasters are the most in a single amusement park in the world. It holds more than 80 miles of some of Southern California's best public hiking trails, fed by a 30-mile system of biking paths, walkways and bridges. (On one of those trails, you can view the site of the St. Francis Dam built by William Mulholland, whose aqueduct made Southern California's suburban sprawl possible. The dam's 1928 collapse that killed hundreds is still remembered as one of the worst U.S. civil engineering disasters of the 20th century.)

And then there's CalArts, a private visual and performing school whose graduates -- including filmmaker Tim Burton, Pixar's John Lasseter and jazz musician Ravi Coltrane -- have had an outsized influence on modern animation and pop music.

Through it all, Old Town Newhall, the core of what once was a railroad and ranching hub, remains the beating heart and soul of the area. You'll find echos of the past on Main Street -- the historic district is still lined with hitching posts, though they're mainly decorative nowadays, and embedded with bronze stars and terrazzo tiles honoring the legends of western film, television and radio. And all over the community, the legacy of William S. Hart, Newhall's original silent screen cowboy, lives on in the streets, schools, museums and parks that bear his name.

To see where it all began, spend a day in Santa Clarita, a place where you can discover cowboy history and sip a sophisticated Chardonnay at a wine bar all on an afternoon stroll.

This must be Santa Clarita