Seniors Check Out Tarzana

 Senior travelers learn that Tarzana, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, is a mostly residential community on the site of a former ranch owned by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. It carries the same name as Burroughs’ storybook jungle character hero, Tarzan.

In February 1919, Edgar Rice Burroughs arrived in California with his family, relocating from Oak Park, Illinois. He and his family had wintered in southern California twice before, and he found the climate ideal. Burroughs purchased Otis’s tract and established Tarzana Ranch.

Burroughs sold his first “Tarzan” story to a magazine in 1912 but continued to move around as his book-length Tarzan efforts were turned down by all the publishers he contacted.

Burroughs and his wife spent the winter of 1913 in San Diego, then returned to the Chicago suburb of Oak Park before the A.C. McClurg Co. published Burroughs’ first book, Tarzan of the Apes, in 1914. The response was phenomenal, and Burroughs went on to pen twenty-three Tarzan novels in all.

 Seniors Find One Of Oldest Communities In The Valley

Historically, the area now known as Tarzana was occupied in 1797 by Spanish settlers and missionaries who established the San Fernando Mission. Tarzana is one of the oldest communities in the Valley. Burroughs subdivided and sold the land for residential development with neighboring small farms following suit. Today the population runs right at 30,000.

Get the story of Tarzana straight from the “horses mouth”… Burroughs himself.  Snopes.com notes that Burroughs dubbed his land “Tarzana Ranch,” after the sleepy little community in which it was situated, and his creation of a character named “Tarzan” two years later can hardly be considered a coincidence.

Because Tarzana did not become an “official” community with its own post office until 1930 the legend has arisen that the town was named after Burroughs’ ape man, but actually the reverse is true.

Had Burroughs lived a few miles to the west, in the Topanga Canyon, we would undoubtedly know his immortal creation as “Topang, the ape man” instead. So how about that?

Senior golfers, toss in your golf clubs, as I counted four quality courses in Tarzana including a US Open and a Masters Course.

You will not run out of things to do in and around Tarzana  It is one exciting place for visitors to spend some quality time. So set your GPS for Tarzana and enjoy the experience. -jeb