Photos to Mark Thousand Oaks at 25

It will be a weekend frozen in time, a community portrait for future generations. Beginning at noon today, 75 photographers will fan out through Thousand Oaks to chronicle everyday life in 1989 for the city’s 25th anniversary.

The cameras will record residents, architecture and freeways. They will capture a high school football game, a wedding and a play. Some of the community’s oldest and youngest members will be photographed. And on Sunday, a satellite circling 516 miles above the Earth will shoot the city from afar.

Some of the photographs will be compiled into a book for the Conejo Valley Historical Society. Others will be used for post cards and calendars, with all proceeds going to charity.

“Thousand Oaks is a pretty place, a beautiful community,” said photographer Forrest Frields, who proposed the “48 Hours in the Conejo” photo shoot after learning of a similar project in Orange County. “This is a milestone and we want to record it, just as you photograph your family at different stages.”

The anniversary celebration began with a community festival in April and will continue through October, the month the city’s first council members were sworn in 25 years ago. The series of anniversary events will culminate Oct. 20 when the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce holds a formal banquet at which Frields will present some of the photographs taken this weekend.

Different Facet of Life

Photographers involved in the three-day event include amateurs and professionals. Each will capture a different facet of life in the Conejo Valley. There will be photos of firefighters and police, of religious services and garage sales. There will be a park and a post office, a hospital and a cemetery.

There will be tonight’s football game pitting Westlake against Buena at Thousand Oaks High School. And there will be the Saturday wedding of Roberta Martin, 25, a former Miss Conejo Valley and a 1982 graduate of Westlake High School.

“It’s very important to capture the past,” said Beth Needham, historian at the Stage Coach Inn Museum. “It’s important for children and residents to know what it used to be like. When I came here in 1960, there was one stop sign and there were oak trees growing in the center of all the roads. You had to veer around them.

“The community is growing at such a fast pace that most of our landmarks are disappearing.”

Needham’s contribution to the city’s visual essay will be a photograph of Elizabeth Larson, who at age 106 is one of Thousand Oaks’ oldest residents.

French Satellite

Between 9:30 and 10:15 a.m. Sunday, a French-owned satellite will pass over Thousand Oaks, shooting a 37-square-mile area. If the weather is clear, the photo will include Camarillo to the west, Woodland Hills to the east, the ocean to the south and Fillmore to the north.

At 11 that morning, several thousand people are expected to gather on the football field of Cal Lutheran University for a community portrait.

“This is a neat place to live,” said Frields’ wife, Jacque. “Even though there are a lot of people here, it still has that community feeling. One of the things we’d like to do is record that feeling. We realize the community is growing tremendously and we would like to take this piece of time and stop it here so future generations will be able to see what it was like.”

The cost of film and its processing and funds to purchase use of the satellite are being donated by area businesses.