Local Attractions

Peter Strauss Ranch - National Recreation area, Santa Monica Mountains

This enchanting oak woodland has long ago been a source of dreams, visions, and memories. Inhabited for thousands of years by the Chumash people, this area became part of Rancho Las Virgenes after Spanish colonization. The original coast live oak, used as the marker in the 1881 land grant survey, still stands just west of the swimming pool. The upside-down letter "T" is still evident in the bark. The "vision of enchantment" continues at this site today with hiking, concerts, picnics, and art exhibits.

Explore this peaceful refuge and create some memories of your own.
For more information about the park and the National park Service, visit www.nps.gov/samo

Paramount Ranch

America cinema plays a starring role in the cultural life of the United States and the world. Since before the advent of "taking pictures", Paramount Ranch has served as a setting for hundreds of cinematic productions. In 1927, Paramount Pictures purchased 2400 acres of the old Rancho Las Virgenes for use as a "movie ranch". For 25 years, a veritable who’s who of Hollywood practiced their craft at Paramount Ranch including direc-tor Cecil B. Demille and actors Bob Hope, Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert. The diverse landscape was the real star of the show. It offered film makers the freedom to create distant locales such as colonial Massachusetts in The Maid of Salem, an-cient China in The Adventures of Marco Polo, a South Seas island in Ebb Tide (1937) and numerous western locations including San Francisco in Wells Fargo. The art of illusion was mastered on the landscape.

For more information an directions, visit http://www.nps.gov/samo/maps/para.htm