West Hills shares a rich history in the west valley. Before 1931, it was known as Owensmouth and that year, was renamed Canoga Park. Prominent early civic leader of Owensmouth, Mary Logan Orcutt (1873-1972), was influential in the renaming of the area with some help from her friend President Herbert Hoover. The area of Canoga Park today known as West Hills, was renamed in 1987. Last year, the community celebrated its 20th anniversary at the annual West Hills Fall Fest.

The Orcutt Ranch, formally called Rancho Sombra del Roble, was the vacation and retirement estate of William Orcutt Ranch and his wife Mary Logan Orcutt. The adobe residence, as well as the estate’s garden, ranch structures, oak trees, and citrus orchard have historic significance because of the distinction of its owner W.W. Orcutt, pioneer of the oil production industry in California and discoverer of the prehistoric fossils at the Los Angeles La Brea Tar Pits.

W.W. Orcutt owned several ranches in Southern California, and took personal interest in their management. One of these ranches was Rancho Sombra del Roble, which translates from Spanish to mean “ranch in the shade of the oak,” approximately 210-acres of cattle ranch and citrus orchard located in the west San Fernando Valley. The original Orcutt Ranch (now part of West Hills) comprised much of what is today’s Canoga Park.