Named in 1921 by landowners Frank Benjamin Yoakum (1866-1960) and Ethel Adams Conger Yoakum (1886-1951). Frank, born in Ohio to an itinerant farming family, arrived in Los Angeles in 1887 and became a successful real estate agent. In 1890, he married a woman named May White; they moved up to Alameda in 1900 and divorced soon afterwards. Frank then married 19-year-old Chico native Ethel Conger in 1905, and they settled in L.A. by the end of that year. As a land speculator, Frank had a particular interest in Benedict Canyon, co-owning 320 acres here by 1914. The Yoakums lived in the canyon for several years and in 1921 they set up the Wanda Park tract, named after their daughter. Frank also acquired 280 acres in undeveloped Laurel Canyon, which he sold in 1908 to the Lookout Mountain Park Land & Water Co. Frank retired in 1939 and he and Ethel moved to Pasadena, where he enjoyed setting up pins in a bowling alley. Their son Frank Jr. (1906-1991) was an accomplished attorney.
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