Louis Goebel opened one of Southern California’s most popular tourist attractions on this site. In 1925, he purchased five lots for $50 along old Ventura Boulevard, later Thousand Oaks Boulevard, on land that had formerly belonged to the Newbury and Crowley families. A year later he established Goebel’s Lion Farm with seven lions and a few smaller animals, and he rented the animals to movie studios. After noticing that highway travelers stopped to look at the lions, he expanded the farm into a tourist attraction by adding other exotic animals. With the help of animal trainers such as Mabel Stark, the world’s only woman tiger trainer, he began presenting shows for visitors. Leo the Lion, famous for his roar at the beginning of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies and other productions, became a special attraction. Goebel later added a restaurant, and the business became a popular destination in Southern California. In 1945, he sold the profitable amusement park. Under new ownership it became the World Jungle Compound, and several years later, under another owner, it was renamed Jungleland. Because no one else matched Goebel’s skill in operating it, he repurchased it in 1961. Movie stars including Clark Gable, Johnny Weismuller, and Harold Lloyd came to have their pictures taken with chimps and elephants. Visitors came to photograph their children with the animals, watch trained animal shows on the Great White Stage, and ride the Jungle Flyer, a miniature steam train. Goebel was also a leader in the small community of Thousand Oaks: he belonged to the first Chamber of Commerce, staged a show to raise money for the first church, furnished all the water for construction of the Ventura Freeway through the Conejo Valley, and built the first fire station. His property was the first in the Conejo Valley to receive natural gas. In the late 1960s, Jungleland’s popularity declined because the new Ventura Freeway routed travelers around rather than directly past the animal compound. In 1969, after 43 years as a leading animal training center, zoo, and amusement park, Jungleland closed permanently and its 1,800 animals were sold at auction.
