Lake Sherwood is an unincorporated community in the Santa Monica Mountains, in Ventura County, California overlooking Lake Sherwood reservoir. It is a private body contact lake, swimming, fishing, SUP and boating allowed, located south of the Conejo Valley and city of Thousand Oaks, and west of Westlake overlooking the Sherwood Reservoir.
In 1896, W. H. Matthiessen bought the Potrero Ranch from Banning. Then in 1904, Matthiessen built a 45 foot dam (originally called Alturas Dam) that created Potrero Lake (also referred to as Lake Matthiessen). Total capacity of the 156 acre lake, which today is called Lake Sherwood, is 877 million gallons of water. In the early 1920s, the area around the lake was transformed into Sherwood Forest for the filming of Robin Hood, featuring Douglas Fairbanks which is where the name Lake Sherwood originated. In 1985, billionaire businessman David Murdock bought the then dry Lake Sherwood lake bed and surrounding property. His Ventura Farms and Lake Sherwood Ranch are on the old F. W. Matthiessen property in Hidden Valley.In 1986, heavy rains filled Lake Sherwood back up and Murdock developed the community with over 650 homes in three gated neighborhoods along with the Sherwood Country Club and Sherwood Lake Club.
The private Sherwood Country Club offers the famous Sherwood Country Club golf course, once host to Greg Norman’s Shark Shootout and Tiger Woods’ annual PGA events.
For school information click this link for Conejo Valley Unified
School District: https://www.conejousd.org
Parks and Recreation Areas:
- Maid Marian Park
- Lake Elinore Sentinel
