Etymology One of the earliest names used for the area was Conejo Mountain Valley, as used by the founder of Newbury Park,
Egbert Starr Newbury, in the 1870s. During the 1920s, today's Thousand Oaks was home to 100 residents. In the 1920s, the residents held a naming competition where the 14-year-old Bobby Harrington's name suggestion won: Thousand Oaks. The valley is characterized by its tens of thousands of oak trees (50,000–60,000 in 2012). When the city was incorporated in 1964, the
Janss Corporation suggested the name Conejo City (City of Conejo). A petition was signed by enough residents to put Thousand Oaks on the ballot. An overwhelming majority—87%—of the city's 19,000 residents voted for the name Thousand Oaks during the September 29, 1964, election.
Pre-colonial period in Thousand Oaks
Chumash people were the first to inhabit the area, Sap'wi is now by the
Chumash Interpretive Center which is home to multiple 2,000-year-old pictographs.
Satwiwa is the home of the Native American Indian Culture Center which sits at the foothills of
Mount Boney in
Newbury Park, a sacred mountain to the Chumash. A smaller village, Yitimasɨh, was located where Wildwood Elementary School sits today. The area surrounding
Wildwood Regional Park has been inhabited by the Chumash for thousands of years. Some of the artifacts discovered in Wildwood include stone tools,
shell beads and arrowheads. Another small Chumash settlement, known as Šihaw (Ven-632i), was located where
Lang Ranch sits today. A cave containing several swordfish and cupules pictographs is located here. Two other villages were located by today's Ventu Park Road in Newbury Park. These were populated 2,000 years ago and had a population of 100–200 in each village. The Chumash also had several summer encampments, including one located where
Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza currently stands, known as Ipuc (Ven-654). Another summer encampment was located at the current location of
Los Robles Hospital. Each village was ruled by a chief or several chieftains, who often traveled between villages to discuss matters of common interest. A council of elders directed village life and organized events. Most villages had a cemetery, gaming field, a sweat house, and a place for ceremonies. Locally discovered tribal artifacts are at display at Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center and the
Chumash Indian Museum. The region's recorded history dates to 1542, when
Spanish explorer
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo landed at
Point Mugu and claimed the land for Spain. The Battle of Triunfo, which took place by
Triunfo Creek, was waged over land between native Chumash and the Spanish newcomers.
19th century , owned by Don
José de la Guerra y Noriega, founder of the prominent
Guerra family of California. was one of the first to buy former
Rancho El Conejo land. From 1804 to 1848, Thousand Oaks was part of
Alta California, which originally was a Spanish
polity in North America. It was the Spaniards who first named it Conejo Valley, or Valley of Rabbits. The
Spaniards and indigenous
Chumash clashed numerous times in disputes over land. Conejo Valley was given the name El Rancho Conejo in 1803. This year, Jose Polanco and Ignacio Rodriguez were granted El Rancho Conejo by Governor
José Joaquín de Arrillaga of Alta California. The land contained 48,671.56 acres.
El Conejo was just one of two land grants in what became
Ventura County, the other being
Rancho Simi. The ranch period began when the de la Guerra family sold thousands of acres through the 1860s and early 1870s. He later established the valley's first post office in 1875:
Newbury Park Post Office. When the Conejo Valley School District was established in March 1877, there were 126 residents living in Conejo Valley. In the late 19th century,
Newbury Park was on the
stagecoach route between
Los Angeles and
Santa Barbara. The
Stagecoach Inn (Grand Union Hotel) was built in 1876, and is now a
California Historical Landmark and museum.
Norwegian Colony Thousand Oaks was home to a
Norwegian community in the late 1890s and early 1900s, known as Norwegian Colony. Norwegian settlers were among the first to settle in Conejo Valley. The Norwegian Colony was located at today's intersection of Moorpark- and Olsen Roads, now home to
California Lutheran University and surrounding areas. The Norwegian Colony constituted of over 650 acres and stretched from
Mount Clef Ridge to Avenida de Los Arboles. The son of Norwegian immigrants donated his ranch to California Lutheran College in the 1950s. California Lutheran University is now home to the Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation and the Scandinavian Festival. Many place names are named after Norwegian immigrants such as the Olsen and Pedersen families. The first Norwegians came from the village of
Stranda by
Storfjorden. Ole Anderson bought 199 acres here, while Lars Pederson owned 111 acres. Other Norwegian pioneers also included Ole Nilsen, George Hansen and Nils Olsen. A major contribution was the construction of the handmade
Norwegian Grade in 1911, a mile-long road leading from Thousand Oaks to
Santa Rosa Valley. With no doctors or hospitals nearby, the Norwegian Colony was short-lived. The Olsen family lost seven of their ten children, while Ole Anderson, Lars Pederson, and George Hansen all died in 1901 due to a diphtheria epidemic.
20th century was one of the first theme parks in California. on N. Moorpark Road.
Newbury Park was a more established community than Thousand Oaks at the turn of the 20th century. A few lots existed early in the 1900s, wedged between Borchard land on the south and Friedrich land on the north. The
Janss family, developers of Southern California subdivisions, purchased in the early 20th century. They eventually created plans for a "total community", and the name remains prominently featured in the city. Despite early aspirations, no large subdivisions were developed until the 1920s. The development was slow and hampered even more under the
Great Depression of the 1930s. Besides agriculture, the movie industry became an important industry in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1950 and 1970,
Conejo Valley experienced a population boom, and increased its population from 3,000 to 30,000 residents. From 3,500 residents in 1957, Thousand Oaks had over 103,000 inhabitants by 1989. While ranching and agriculture were the dominant industries until the 1950s, a number of new businesses appeared throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Particularly many high-tech firms moved to Thousand Oaks in the '60s and '70s.
Packard Bell and Technology Instrument Company were two high-technology businesses that moved into the Newbury Park industrial park in the 1960s. Other companies that followed included Westinghouse Astroelectronics Laboratory,
Semtech Corporation,
Purolator Inc., and Westland Plastics.
Jungleland USA put Thousand Oaks on the map in the 1920s and helped attract
Hollywood producers to the city. Some of the first films to be made here were
The Birth of a Nation (1915) at Jungleland USA and
Roaring Ranch (1930) at the
Stagecoach Inn.
Thousand Oaks Boulevard was featured in the "Walls of Jericho" scenes in the film
It Happened One Night (1934). A western village was erected at
California Lutheran University for the filming of
Welcome to Hard Times (1967), while
Elvis Presley and
John Wayne starred in several westerns made in
Wildwood Regional Park. A nearby road, Flaming Star Avenue, is named after the film
Flaming Star (1960) starring Elvis Presley, which was filmed here. Other movies filmed in the valley included
Lassie Come Home (1943),
To the Shores of Iwo Jima (1945) and
The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–85).
Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis visited Thousand Oaks for the filming of
Hollywood or Bust (1956), which included a scene filmed on Live Oak Street. Movie actor
Joel McCrea, who had been advised by
Will Rogers to buy land in the area, raised his family on a
ranch he had acquired in the early 1930s. Numerous celebrities later joined McCrea and relocated to the Conejo Valley, including Dean Martin,
Bob Hope,
Roy Rogers,
Strother Martin,
Virginia Mayo,
Michael O'Shea,
Ben Johnson,
Slim Pickens,
Ronald Colman,
George Brent,
Eve Arden,
Alan Ladd,
Richard Widmark,
Charles Martin Smith, and
Bing- and
Kurt Russell. While the city was home to 1,700 businesses in 1970, Thousand Oaks had 11,000 businesses in town by 1988. The world's largest independent biotechnology company,
Amgen, was established in
Newbury Park in 1980.
Jungleland USA (zoo) s who resided at
Jungleland USA. Louis Goebel of New York bought five lots off Ventura Boulevard (today's
Thousand Oaks Boulevard) in 1925. He worked for the
Universal film studio, and decided to create his own film industry zoo after the closure of
Universal Zoo in the mid-1920s. He established
Goebel's Lion Farm in 1926, situated where
Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza is located today. Goebel began with five lions and seven malamute dogs, but he soon acquired new animals such as giraffes, camels, hippos, monkeys, tigers, gorillas, seals and other exotic animals. It became home to several animals used for
Leo the Lion MGM logo. There were held public animal shows, which drew thousands of spectators from throughout California. The animals from the park have been used in many movies and TV series, including many of the
Tarzan films;
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), which used the site as a location, and
Doctor Doolittle (1967). Goebel himself camped by the filming site of
Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932) by
Lake Sherwood to watch his lions during filming. The park later went bankrupt in May 1969, due to competition from parks such as Disneyland,
Knott's Berry Farm and
Universal Studios. The park's 1,800 animals were sold at a public auction in October 1969. On September 29, 1964, voters approved the incorporation and selected the name. The incorporation became official once the certificates of election were filed with the California Secretary of State, and the record of affidavit was filed with the Ventura County Clerk. The results of the cityhood election was clear on September 24, 1964. 2,780 residents voted to set up a city, while 1,821 had voted no to incorporation. Certain areas however tried to set up its own municipality. An attempt at a cityhood election in
Newbury Park failed in 1963, as Talley Corporation and Janss Rancho Conejo Industrial Park refused to join the efforts.
Reba Hays Jeffries, a local opponent of cityhood, told interviewers why she thought the cityhood election failed: Cityhood backers had to collect signatures from owners who represented 29% of the land that was to be incorporated. As the efforts collected 29% of registered voters, rather than owners of 29% of the land, the measure never came on the ballot. Most of the previously unincorporated Newbury Park lands were annexed into Thousand Oaks through the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, forming the Newbury Park neighborhood within the city.
Casa Conejo and
Ventu Park are the only parts of Newbury Park left, which are not parts of Thousand Oaks. Lynn Ranch also decided to remain outside city limits. Two-thirds of the master planned community of
Westlake was annexed by Thousand Oaks in two portions – in 1968 and 1972. The nearby neighborhood of
North Ranch remained an unincorporated area until January 1973, when Thousand Oaks approved the annexation of North Ranch. North Ranch borders
Oak Park, an unincorporated area where voters have chosen not to be annexed into Thousand Oaks.
Dos Vientos is a 2,350-unit housing development which was approved by the council in April 1988. The master-planned community was the largest residential project ever in Newbury Park.
Modern history Thousand Oaks is encouraging
mixed-use retail and housing development along the downtown portion of
Thousand Oaks Boulevard. The city is built-out within the confines of the Conejo Valley and has adopted a
smart growth strategy as there is no room for the
sprawling suburban growth the city is known for. Increased development in Moorpark and Simi Valley in the late 1990s and early 2000s caused the
Moorpark Freeway (Highway 23) to become heavily congested during both morning and afternoon rush hours. A major widening project began in 2008. On March 30, 2016,
California Lutheran University and the NFL Rams team reached an agreement that allowed the team to have regular season training operations at CLU's campus in Thousand Oaks for the next two years. The Rams paid for two practice fields, paved parking, and modular buildings constructed on the northwestern corner of the campus. On November 7, 2018, a lone gunman killed 12 people
in a mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill. Days later, the
Woolsey Fire threatened the community, burning homes across Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. The fire continued most of November, charring almost 100,000 acres and destroying nearly 400 structures in the region. ==Geography==