Simi Valley (; Chumash: Shimiyi) is a city in the valley of the same name in southeastern Ventura County, California, United States. It is northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. Simi Valley borders Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, and the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles. As of the 2020 census, Simi Valley had a population of 126,356. The city of Simi Valley is surrounded by the Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills, west of the San Fernando Valley, and northeast of the Conejo Valley. It grew as a bedroom community for the cities in the Los Angeles area and the San Fernando Valley when a freeway was built over the Santa Susana Pass.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where the former president was buried in 2004, is in Simi Valley.
History Chumash/pre-colonial period Simi Valley's name is derived from the Chumash word Shimiyi, which refers to the stringy, thread-like clouds that typify the region.Kroeber, Alfred Louis. 1917. Arapaho dialects, Volume 12. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. Page 58.Gudde, Erwin Gustav. 1960.California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. Page 311.Lynne McCall & Perry Rosalind (eds.). 1991. The Chumash People: Materials for Teachers and Students. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. San Luis Obispo, CA: EZ Nature Books. . Page 29. The name could have originated from the strands of mist from coastal fog that move into the Oxnard Plain and wind their way up the Calleguas Creek and the Arroyo Las Posas into Simi Valley.Johnson, John R. 1997. Chumash Indians in Simi Valley in Simi Valley: A Journey Through Time. Simi Valley, CA: Simi Valley Historical Society. Page 8. . The origin of the name was preserved because of the work of the anthropologist John P. Harrington, whose brother, Robert E. Harrington lived in Simi Valley. Robert Harrington later explained the name: "The word Simiji in Indian meant the little white wind clouds so often seen when the wind blows up here and Indians living on the coast, would never venture up here when those wind clouds were in the sky. The word Simiji was constructed by whites to the word Simi. There are other explanations about the name Simi, but this one was given to me by my brother who worked over 40 years for the Smithsonian Institution and it seems most plausible to me".Harrington, Robert E. 1969. Indian Caves here may be preserved. Marlborough, MA: Enterprise-Sun News. Page 33.Johnson, John R. 1997. Chumash Indians in Simi Valley in Simi Valley: A Journey Through Time. Simi Valley, CA: Simi Valley Historical Society. Pages 8–9. .
Three Chumash settlements existed in Simi Valley during the Mission period in the late 18th and early 19th century: Shimiyi, Ta'apu (present-day Tapo Canyon), and Kimishax or Quimicas (Happy Camp Canyon west of Moorpark College).Appleton, Bill. 2009. Santa Susana. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing. . Page 9.Johnson, John R. 1997. Chumash Indians in Simi Valley in Simi Valley: A Journey Through Time. Simi Valley, CA: Simi Valley Historical Society. Page 9. . There are many Chumash cave paintings in the area containing pictographs, including the Burro Flats Painted Cave in the Burro Flats area of the Simi Hills, located between the Simi Valley, West Hills, and Bell Canyon. The cave is located on private land owned by NASA. Other areas containing Chumash Native American pictographs in the Simi Hills are by Lake Manor and Chatsworth.
The Rancho period
The first Europeans to visit Simi Valley were members of the Spanish Portolá expedition (1769–1770), the first European land entry and exploration of the present-day state of California. The expedition traversed the valley on January 13–14, 1770, traveling from Conejo Valley to San Fernando Valley. They camped near a native village in the valley on the 14th.
Rancho Simí, also known as Rancho San José de Nuestra Señora de Altagracia y Simí, was a Spanish land grant in eastern Ventura and western Los Angeles counties granted in 1795 to Santiago Pico. After Santiago Pico's death in 1815, the Rancho was regranted to Santiago's sons Javier Pico and his two brothers, Patricio Pico and Miguel Pico, members of the prominent Pico family of California. Rancho Simí was the earliest Spanish colonial land grant within Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. The name derives from Shimiji, the name of the Chumash Native American village here before the Spanish. It was the largest Spanish or Mexican land grant given in Ventura County, and one of the largest given in California. The Simi Adobe-Strathearn House, later the home of Robert P. Strathearn and family, served as the headquarters of the rancho.
José de la Guerra y Noriega, a Captain of the Santa Barbara Presidio, who had begun to acquire large amounts of land in California to raise cattle, purchased Rancho Simí from the Pico family in 1842. After Jose de la Guerra death in 1858, the sons of Jose de la Guerra continued to operate the ranchos. The end of their prosperity came when several years of drought in the 1860s caused heavy losses. In 1865, the De la Guerras lost the ownership of El Rancho Simí excluding the Rancho Tapo. El Rancho Tapo was part of the original 113,009-acre Rancho Simí grant, but sometime around 1820–1830, the Rancho Tapo came to be thought of as a separate place within Rancho Simí. The last of the De la Guerras to live in Simí Valley retreated to a 14,400-acre portion of the original rancho that was known as the Tapo Rancho. As late as February 1877, Juan De la Guerra was reported in county newspapers to be preparing to plant walnuts in the Tapo, which appears to be the final mention of their farming in relation to the original Simí grant.
The De la Guerra heirs tried every legal means, but by the 1880s, the Rancho Tapo also slipped from their ownership, as had the rest of the Rancho.
The Pioneer period The Pioneer, or 'American,' period in Simi Valley began with the 96,000-acre purchase of El Rancho Simí by an eastern speculator named Thomas A. Scott (1814–1882), who had made his money as an investor in the Pennsylvania Railroad during the Civil War. He was president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and a partner in Philadelphia and California Petroleum Company. Scouts came to California to purchase lands, and thus Scott acquired El Rancho Simí (1865). His goal was to locate sites for oil, since the first oil well had been developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania just a few years earlier (1859). Within a short time, a 27-year-old man named Thomas Bard was sent west by Scott to manage the California properties. In the late 1880s, Simí Land and Water Company was formed to see to the selling of the huge rancho in ranch-size properties. Some American farmers had begun to lease land in the greater Rancho Simí for farming.
The earliest Anglo American ranchers showed up in Simí Valley in the late 1860s into the 1870s. Charles Emerson Hoar was given the title of "first American farmer" by early Simí historian Janet Scott Cameron. He had purchased the Hummingbird's Nest Ranch in the northeast corner of the Valley, and he leased land from the new owners of the Simí Rancho for raising sheep, already a proven way of making a living.
Much of the Simí Rancho land continued, as in Spanish days, to be used for raising sheep, cattle and grain. Wheat was more likely to prosper here than in the rest of the county, being free of wheat leaf rust, a fungal disease. Barley soon became the predominant grain crop.
Agriculture and ranching dominated the landscape through the 1950s. Citrus, walnuts and apricots were all grown in Simi Valley. In the early 1960s modern residential development began to take place.
Modern residential development Prior to modern residential development, Simí was an agricultural community, with ranch houses dotting the valley. 1957 and 1958 brought the first 'tract' housing developments when the Dennis and Ayhens, Wright Ranch and Valley Vista tracts were built, a rapid increase in residential development took place beginning in 1960. The population which was 4,073 in 19501950 Census of Population. Tabular census data included Moorpark (1,146) as part of Simí Township for a total of 5,219 doubled to 8,110 in 1960.Note: In 1960 the Census reported a population of Simí Township as 4,417. This was inclusive of Simí (2,107) and Santa Susana (2,310). The source for this 1960 population figure is the Ventura County Planning Department (VCPD) data. The 1960 population number as reported by the VCPD is a little less than double when compared to the Census figure. This is likely due to the different geographical areas which were included in the count. Census data included Santa Susana and Simí, while the table below is an example of the areas which the VCPD included – Burro Flats (Knolls), Santa Susana, Simí Urban (town of Simí), Tripas-Tapo (area north of Santa Susana). It is unclear where Community Center was categorized. Due to the differential between the Census and the VCPD population numbers, it needs to be considered that, though a good indicator of growth, the population numbers prior to 1960 may be under-representing the population of Simí. By 1970 the population in Simi is reported by the census as 59,832.
Four communities prior to modern residential development The pioneers arrived in the late 1860s – 1870s and ever since, this has been 'The Valley of Simi.' But, not all the communities in the valley were known as 'Simi.' There was the township of Simi (known as 'Simiopolis' for about a six-month period in 1888). In the valley there were also the communities of Santa Susana, Community Center and the Susana Knolls (known first as Mortimer Park) at different points in time.
Simi – In late 1887–1888, the incorporation of Simi Land and Water Company came about. El Rancho Simí was divided into ranches and farms by that corporation, and advertised for sale to midwestern and New England states. An investor group, the California Mutual Benefit Colony of Chicago, purchased land and laid out a townsite (located between First and Fifth Streets and from Los Angeles south to Ventura Ave), named it 'Simiopolis' and shipped twelve pre-cut, partially assembled houses from a lumberyard in Chicago via rail to Saticoy, then brought by wagon to Simi. These are known as 'colony houses.' This was the first 'neighborhood' in Simi. Stores sprung up on Los Angeles Ave, and the first Simi School was built in 1890 on Third and California Streets, and was used until Simi Elementary was built in the mid-1920s.
Santa Susana – In 1903 the Santa Susana Train Depot was built, and the railroad was complete through Simi Valley, except for the tunnel, which was completed in 1904. A small business community grew up near the Santa Susana Train Depot, which was located on the north side of Los Angeles Ave, just east of Tapo Street. Over time residential developments followed and the town of Santa Susana was born. The Depot was moved in 1975 by Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District to its current location off of Kuehner.
Community Center – In 1922 L.F. Roussey laid out the small development which became known as Community Center. The driving force behind this development was the need for a High School in Simi Valley, as well as an elementary school in a more central location in the valley. The first graduating class from Simi High School was 1924, Simi Elementary was completed in 1926, The Methodist Church (which is now the Cultural Arts Center) was built in 1924. Numerous houses were built in Community Center in the 1920s and 1930s. The Simi Valley Woman's Club was located there as well (the building which served as the clubhouse for the Woman's Club was moved from the town of Simi). The Woman's Club club house was used by many individuals and organizations as a community meeting place.