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is a private, guard-gated residential community located near the western San Fernando Valley. Although only minutes from Los Angeles, Bell Canyon is located in neighboring Ventura County.
The Chumash Indians occupied the area about 2,000 years ago and their shrine of jagged sandstone, known as Cwaya Cuquele ("the feathered banner is waving"), remains the gateway to modern Bell Canyon. Research has shown that the Chumash town of Humaliwo had ties to the aboriginal town Huwam (also known as El Escopion in Bell Canyon).
Until 1967, Bell Canyon was a working cattle ranch. In the fall of 1968, Bell Canyon’s equestrian center, designed by famed architect Cliff May, was built and began operation. Spruce Land Corporation and Boise-Cascade joined in a partnership to purchase what was to be Bell Canyon, and, several years later, a new subdivision called "Woodland Hills Country Estates" was opened. It was an amazing success, having sold almost all of the 800 home sites within 10 days. It did not take long before the new property owners took over the association in the fall of 1969 and renamed the development "Bell Canyon," after Charles A. Bell, a lawyer, who was Justice of the Peace of Calabasas in 1906 and was said to have lost his right arm in a gun battle while raiding a moonshiner in 1887.