[2] The area of present-day Canoga Park was the homeland of Native Americans in the Tongva-Fernandeño and Chumash-Venturaño tribes, that lived in the Simi Hills and along to the tributaries of the Los Angeles River.

After the Mexican War of Independence from Spain the 'future Canoga Park' land became part of Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando.

In 1869, Alfred Workman acquired the westernmost ranch, a 13,000 acres (50 km2) wheat farm in future Canoga Park (for more: See Landmarks section below).

The purchasers of the land included Harry Chandler and Harrison Gray Otis of the Los Angeles Times, Moses Sherman (a Los Angeles Pacific Railroad streetcar line builder), and Hobart Johnstone Whitley, an all purpose real estate developer who, from a start in the Land Rush of 1889 in Oklahoma to platting out 140 towns, including Hollywood.

A pre-development scheme brought Pacific Electric streetcars and an all purpose highway (Sherman Way) out all the way from Hollywood through Cahuenga Pass, through the previously subdivided Van Nuys (1911).

Highlighting the "opening day barbecue" was the display of the "Owensmouth Baby", a racecar that could go up and down the paved Sherman Way at the incredible speed of 35 mph.

The lack of an independent water supply made annexation to the City of Los Angeles inevitable, and on February 26, 1917, it joined with its larger neighbor.

[14] Eventually, the area's zoning was rural/agricultural and its industry was small farms involved in the production of fruits, vegetables, and melons, some livestock, horses, a movie/television studio, and a stunt location.

In 1955, Rocketdyne, then a division of North American Aviation (NAA), moved into the area and built its main manufacturing facility in Canoga Park.

The use of toxic chemicals like trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethene as cleaning solvents during production by aerospace and defense contractor companies in their Canoga Park industrial facilities led to groundwater pollution on their sites and across the neighborhood.

The petition sought monetary compensation for losses in property value and called on Northrop Grumman to mitigate the contamination, alleging that the chemicals had leaked from the site and contaminated groundwater under 3,200 properties in an area about 2.4 miles long and 1.8 miles wide and that the corporation failed to properly contain or remediate the damage after it acquired the site in 2001.

[21][22] A June 2024 report on soil vapor and groundwater inspections conducted near the vacant Rocketdyne site, delivered to the California State Water Resources Control Board on behalf of RTX Corporation, reported levels of toxic cleaning solvents that were above levels that could pose a threat to the environment and human health.

The Board also reported that they had notified some 4,000 Canoga Park residents about exposure to toxic chemicals from the former Litton Industries site.

The police department named the station after a village in the Tongva language of the historically local Tongva-Fernandeño Native Americans tribe.

[38] Eighteen percent of Canoga Park residents age 25 and older had earned a four-year degree by 2000, an average figure for the city and the county.