Generations of dreamers have had grand plans for the place. So why is it that Lake Enchanto remains an enigma for nearly everyone who touches it?
For 16 years the oak- and sycamore-shaded glen next to Triunfo Creek in Agoura has been a 64-acre federal park called the Peter Strauss Ranch. But it is one of the National Park Service's least-used California treasures. And least understood.
Only one visitor was there last Saturday afternoon. Bird watcher Jim Hardesty, a retired math professor from Woodland Hills, had just spied a great blue heron and a black-headed grosbeak. He paused to ponder the park's name.
"I presume he's one of the early settlers in the area. Probably the 1800s or earlier," surmised Hardesty.
Actually, Strauss is an actor and producer. And how his name came to be placed on the land's front gate is just one of the intriguing tales of Lake Enchanto--like the property's unexpected ties to Watergate, the Manson Family and to the Indianapolis 500.
The property sprawls southward from the intersection of Mulholland Highway and Troutdale Drive. It was first developed in the early 1920s as a weekend getaway by Harry Miller, a wealthy Los Angeles automotive carburetor inventor whose "Miller Special" race cars won 11 early Indy 500 races.
Miller built the ranch's stone house and cottage and its concrete-and-rock root cellar. He constructed a house-size aviary and pens for animals such as deer, a mountain lion and a monkey for the amusement of his family. But he lost his shirt -- and his Agoura ranch -- when he tried unsuccessfully to manufacture airplane motors in the late 1930s.
For a brief time, the property was owned by cinematographer Arthur Edeson and lawyer Warren Shobert. They were residents of nearby Malibu Lake who had visions of turning the ranch into a commercial recreation center.
Along with a partner, Charles Hinman, they installed a terrazzo outdoor dance floor made of Italian marble. It was surrounded by white pergolas that trailed flowering honeysuckle vines and was illuminated by twinkling lights hung from overhead oak branches.
They dammed Triunfo Creek to create a quarter-mile-long lake for canoeing. Nearby, they built a 125-foot-wide, 650,000-gallon oval swimming pool. With a capacity of 3,000 swimmers, it was touted as the largest pool west of the Rockies. A platform-like island in the center was reached by boat and served as a stage for musicians who entertained crowds of up to 5,000 that watched from benches carved into a hillside above the pool.
