Sprankling receives Older American honor

By Lori Porter Acorn Staff Writer

Miriam Sprankling

The Westlake Village City Council recently named Miriam Sprankling of Westlake Village as this year’s Older American Recognition Day honoree.

On May 28, the city of Los Angeles was to have conducted a ceremony at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion recognizing older Americans, one from each city in L.A. County, who’ve made special contributions to their communities.

Sprankling was chosen by Westlake councilmembers after she wrote and published a book on the history of the Conejo Valley, distributing 20 copies, free of charge, to every elementary school in the area to be used for third-grade history curriculum.

As a historian and curator at Stagecoach Inn Museum, which is run by the Conejo Valley Historical Society, Sprankling was aware that little had been written on the history of the Conejo Valley which made it difficult for educators to fulfill a state of California requirement that third-graders learn their local history.

The solution came after Conejo Valley Historical Society decided to apply for a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation Heritage Fund, proposing to write the history book as a student handbook with a corresponding teacher’s manual, promising to distribute 20 copies to schools.

They received the grant and Sprankling went to work on her book, "Discovering the Story of the Conejo Valley," which was just delivered last week to schools.

The book, dedicated to the children of the Conejo Valley, has five chapters, which include early family histories of those who established the Conejo Valley as their home many years ago.

Beginning with the Chumash Indians, each chapter takes third-graders through a story that includes vocabulary and geography words, historical and modern photos, a map of Rancho El Conejo, and a cute graphic of a backpacking rabbit who invites kids to be a "Conejo Explorer, " informing them about various sites to learn even more history.

There are many fascinating facts about local history. Did you know there was a volcano here? Well, not an active one. According to Sprankling, it’s been inactive for millions of years but was active when this area was under the sea. Today it’s called Conejo Mountain.

It isn’t every day that a person finds the jaw bone of an Imperial Mammoth, but someone did in 1971near Ventu Park Road and State Highway 101 and today the mandible is exhibited at Stagecoach Inn Museum.

The book concentrates on some of the more famous families in the Conejo such as the Borchard family, the Hunt family, the Russells and the Newburys.

Sprankling is a native of Los Angeles, growing up there and moving to Westlake Village 27 years ago. She graduated from USC with a bachelor of art’s degree in sociology and later she became a teacher. She worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District for many years as a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher.

Sprankling has been a volunteer at Stagecoach Inn for 20 years. She’s been a docent, a trustee of the Historical Society, president of the Historical Society and has written many articles and biographies that have been published in the Museum’s monthly newsletter, Stage Lines.

She gives history lessons to groups such as service clubs, women’s groups and churches. Additionally, Sprankling established a program in 1990 at Stagecoach Inn called the Living History Program in which participants portray an evening in the life of historical characters from the Conejo Valley back in 1876. The program takes place every October.

In addition to the copies of her book in local schools, there’s also a copy in local libraries and at Stagecoach Inn museum.