From reading a book by oldtime Conejo Valley rancher, J. H. Russell, “Heads and Tails..and Odds and Ends,” I learned that Calabasas used to be a really tough place. Russell writes in page 53 of his book, that Calabasas “was hard and tough. Its many misdeeds, sometimes as serious as murder, were chronicled in the Los Angeles papers continually.” I am not sure of the time he is writing about, although he does say it is later than the 1850′s.
What a contrast to today! Now Calabasas has an upscale image of sophistication. But in back then, Russell writes that if someone said, “You must be from Calabasas,” it was not a compliment!
FYI, the book was printed in 1963 by Thomas Litho & Printing Company, and J. H. Russell is also author of “Cattle on the Conejo.” I now think of Conejo history every time I drive by Russell Ranch Road in Westlake Village.
Posted by Janna Orkney
Dances in Rain // Jul 23, 2010 at 10:07 PM
Does anybody remember that a dummy used to be strung up on a dead tree in Calabasas Old Town? That would have been in the late ’70′s or early ’80′s. I think it was next to where the Sagebrush Cantina is now. I always thought it was bizarre, and I was told that the area used to like the old wild west. I guess I have to read Russell’s book.