Historic grove weathered Woolsey

Meadow used by Chumash, ranchers



TRAILS NOW OPEN—Hikers who make the steep climb to the China Flat meadow can see vestiges of the area’s cattle ranching history. Scorched fencing surrounds a small plot with a concrete foundation. DAWN MEGLI-THUNA/Acorn Newspapers

TRAILS NOW OPEN—Hikers who make the steep climb to the China Flat meadow can see vestiges of the area’s cattle ranching history. Scorched fencing surrounds a small plot with a concrete foundation. DAWN MEGLI-THUNA/Acorn Newspapers

Perched 2,000 feet above sea level in the hills between Simi Valley, Oak Park and Thousand Oaks, China Flat is an idyllic 1,100-acre oak meadow that features rocky sandstone outcroppings and native oak woodlands.

If hikers happen upon the right trail, they will pass by an old cistern, a small silo and an abandoned farm vehicle that are vestiges of the area’s ranching history.

China Flat sits less than 5 miles as the crow flies from where the Woolsey fire ignited near the Santa Susana Field Lab on Nov. 8. The ancient grove become engulfed by the destructive blaze.

The steep trails leading to the mountain meadow have reopened since the fire, and a visit to the National Park Service property on Dec. 28 revealed that while the wood on the ranch fencing had taken on the appearance of alligator skin in the intense heat, remnants of the area’s former cattle operation survived largely intact.

Many of the oak trees did not fare as well.

The significance of the area predates its ranching era by millennia.

FORMER LANDOWNERS—Jim and Marian Jordan are the husbandand wife stars of “Fibber McGee and Molly,” a radio comedy show that ran from 1935 to 1956. The actors bought a ranch near the Ventura and Los Angeles county border. After they sold it, a portion was developed into Oak Park. The rest became protected open space. Courtesy photo

FORMER LANDOWNERS—Jim and Marian Jordan are the husband-and-wife stars of “Fibber McGee and Molly,” a radio comedy show that ran from 1935 to 1956. The actors bought a ranch near the Ventura and Los Angeles county border. After they sold it, a portion was developed into Oak Park. The rest became protected open space. Courtesy photo

Chumash inhabited the Simi Hills area for thousands of years. In 1966, archaeologists from UCLA conducted excavations of Chumash settlements along the banks of Medea Creek, and Chumash cave paintings still adorn the stone walls of rock formations in a privately held portion of the Simi Hills.

The Chumash Indian Museum is located in nearby Lang Ranch.

Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola traveled through present-day Calabasas in the 1700s, kicking off the era of Spanish colonization. The wooded plateau above Oak Park now known as China Flat became part of the Rancho Simi Spanish land grant.

In 1925, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst bought 40,000 acres that stretched from the Conejo Valley to Upper Las Virgenes Canyon, according to Image of America’s book on Oak Park.

Hearst rarely visited his vast holdings in the area, although he reportedly did drop by once to see his love interest, actress Marion Davies, when she was filming 1927’s “Quality Street” at nearby Lake Sherwood.

REMNANTS OF THE PAST—An old tractor, a metal silo and weathered oil barrels can be found at the former ranching site. DAWN MEGLI-THUNA/Acorn Newspapers

REMNANTS OF THE PAST—An old tractor, a metal silo and weathered oil barrels can be found at the former ranching site. DAWN MEGLI-THUNA/Acorn Newspapers

In 1954, radio stars Jim and Marian Jordan bought several thousand acres of ranch land in what is now Oak Park.

The Jordans were the stars of “Fibber McGee and Molly,” a radio comedy series that ran from 1935 to 1959. It featured life in the fictional Midwestern town of Wistful Vista, and trails in modern-day Oak Park bear that name in homage to the Jordans.

The Thousand Oaks Library has a collection of the Jordans’ radio recordings that spans a period in American history from the Great Depression through World War II and post-war prosperity.

After his wife’s health began to decline in the late 1950s, Jim Jordan sold portions of his property to Mark Boyar, who developed Oak Park.

The Jordans sold the portion of their property that contained China Flat to Bob Hope, their rival in the radio ratings.

According to newspaper reports, the entertainer-turned-real estate mogul had plans in the late ’80s to let developers build luxury homes and a golf course on the site, but activists, including the Jordans’ granddaughter, Molly, fought to preserve the land—including the nearby Palo Comado area—as open space.

It is now part of the northernmost reaches of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation area.

China Flat sits under the 2,405-foot Simi Peak and can be accessed from trailheads in Thousand Oaks, Westlake and Oak Park.