Tapo Canyon in the western Santa Susana Mountains north of Simi Valley has long linked natural history, Indigenous settlement, and modern recreation. Once shaped by a Miocene inland sea, the area later became home to Ta’apu, a major Ventureño Chumash village near Tapo Creek that endured for thousands of years before the mission period. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the canyon shifted to ranching, grape growing, and oil production. Ventura County acquired it as a regional park in 1969, and it also became known as the main filming location for Little House on the Prairie. Today it remains protected open space, wildlife habitat, and a recreation area.