Calabasas Turns 30, Asks For Historical Artifacts

CALABASAS, CA — 30 years ago Monday, Calabasas officially incorporated as a city, exactly one month after residents voted 91 to 9% for independence. Though it may not be getting the party it originally envisioned, the city - the last in Los Angeles County to incorporate - is celebrating the milestone through a ‘Historical Treasure Contest,’ that calls on residents to submit artifacts of Calabasas history.

Residents who submit the most fascinating artifact by the 20th of each month will win a $100 gift certificate. But fear not - you won’t have to give up that priceless yearbook or vintage Pumpkin Festival poster- you just need to email an image of it to info@cityofcalabasas.com.

“We hope to discover and share with the community an interesting collection of pictures, artifacts, and other unique curiosities which might otherwise be lost to time,” Mayor James Bozajian said in a statement in which he asked residents to “reflect upon our beautiful City’s many landmark achievements since its birth.”

The history of Calabasas goes back far before 1991. Chumash tribes lived for centuries in what is now Calabasas, and some believe that the word “Calabasas” comes from the Chumash word for “where the wild geese fly", according to the city website. Others believe it comes from the Spanish word for “pumpkin” or “gourd.” Part of the Chumash diet included acorns from 600-year-old oak trees that still stand today.

The Spanish arrived in the 1700s, establishing ranches and missions. During the city’s ‘Wild West’ period, deadly gunfights over property were commonplace. Miguel Leonis, a Basque immigrant known as the “King of Calabasas,” acquired 1100 acres by marrying a Native American princess. Leonis hired gunmen to defend his land, and was killed in 1889 when he fell off a wagon fighting squatters on his property. His home, called the Leonis Adobe, still sits in Old Town Calabasas.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Angelenos began traveling to the area on weekends. As the film industry took off, Calabasas’s Wild West feel made it a favorite filming site, and films like “Tarzan” and “The Adventures of Robin Hood” were filmed there.

The area was eventually filled with homes, schools, and shops. In 1958, the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District was founded, at last assuring access to clean water. Clean water and a postwar population boom in Southern California resulted in rapid development, and residents began to fear resulting environmental degradation and loss of its small town charm.

In the 1980s, after a pro-development Board of Supervisors took steps to permit more intensive growth, city leaders proposed an independent, 44-square-mile city called Rancho Las Virgenes that would have included what is now Agoura Hills. The proposal was deemed financially unfeasible and rejected.

City leaders reworked their proposal, which included a compromise to let a developer build 550 homes, a church, and commercial center. Some vacant areas in the Santa Monica Mountains were also excluded from city boundaries. Still, many in the city were elated.

“The results vindicate the community’s desire to be independent and self-governing,” Dennis Washburn, a long-time councilmember and one of the leaders of the independence drive, told The Los Angeles Times in 1991, right after the vote. “We really meant it.”

“Calabasas was at long last free to chart its own destiny,” Bozajian said in a statement. “Starting from scratch, our founders immediately set to work on building the infrastructure of the fledgling municipality from the ground up. It was far from easy. In the intervening 30 years, Calabasas has been hit with everything from natural disasters, to economic recessions, to pitched land use battles, and more. Through it all, we have persevered and thrived.”

For more information and examples of items to submit, visit www.cityofcalabasas.com/30th.

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Happy Birthday Calabasas! City Celebrates 30 Years | Calabasas, CA Patch