Tarzana, California, USA

January 1, 2026

Lauren’s sister, Marcy, lives in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Tarzana. Located in the San Fernando Valley (AKA The Valley), the land it sits on was once owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, hence the name.

Burroughs led an interesting life. Born in Chicago in 1875 he graduated from the Michigan Military Academy in 1895 and having been rejected by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, enlisted in the Seventh U.S. Cavalry and was posted in Arizona. His mission there, as he put it, was to chase Apaches. “I chased a good many Apaches but fortunately for me I never caught up with any of them”. After leaving the cavalry he got married and moved back and forth across the United States taking on various jobs for the next eleven years. He became a cowboy, a shopkeeper, a railroad policeman, a gold miner, and perhaps most surprisingly, an accountant. He even applied for a commission in the Chinese Army but his application was summarily rejected. He also began writing stories. After having a number of stories rejected he finally found a publisher for his novel Tarzan of the Apes. The book was a huge success and Burroughs followed up with a torrent of novels, including over two dozen Tarzan sequels. In 1918 the first Tarzan novel came to the screen and to date there have been over 40 Tarzan movies and fifty television episodes. Finding himself increasingly wealthy, Burroughs purchased a 550 acre estate in the Valley which he named Tarzan Ranch.

The original homes in the neighborhood are mid-century ranch-style homes. However, as the area has become more affluent, more and more of these homes have been pulled down and replaced with larger homes of different styles.

Yoga anyone?

We also came across a very tiny art gallery.