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Turnbull Canyon is a 4 mile loop trail located near Whittier, California and is part of Puente Hills Preserve. It lies in the northern-central part of the preserve, and is an east-west canyon with relatively steep drainage. The canyon has a creek at its bottom that supports a narrow strip of riparian woodland dominated by sycamore trees, while the slopes are covered in coastal sage and native and non-native grasses.
Satanists, Child Snatcher and Drifters in Turnbull Canyon, Whittier:
Satanists, kidnappers, ghosts, and supposedly, a gravity hill—this canyon, popular with hikers, mountain bikers and road racers hides many dark secrets. The chaparral-covered mountain with its twisted road lies between the suburban sprawl of Whittier on one side and the capitalist paradise called the City of Industry at the other. While signs along the trails warn strolling couples and fitness nuts about mountain lions and rattlesnakes, the more sinister features of this area are known only to some unfortunate locals as well as finer connoisseurs of the weird.
History tells us that like many unhallowed places in North America, the area now known as Turnbull Canyon was considered off-limits to the Native Americans who first roamed sunny southern California. They called it "Hutukngna," which supposedly means "the dark place." The Indians, called "Gabrileños" after the nearby San Gabriel Mission, were converted and supplanted by the Spanish, who often killed those who refused to convert to Catholicism. Turnbull Canyon may be the site of at least some of these depredations.
In 1845, the Spanish governor of Alta California deeded most of the land in what is now Whittier to two white settlers, John Rowland and William Workman, who emigrated from Taos, New Mexico, where they ran a successful fur-trapping business. The huge 49,000-acre spread included the present site of Turnbull Canyon. Workman was not well-liked by the Gabrileños, who initially staged constant raids on his property. He built a tunnel and living space under the home to protect his family. Later, when the Indians actually worked for him, they reported seeing ghosts and "witches" in the subterranean passage, which ended at the family burial ground. Workman was also involved in a plot to usurp the governor who had originally given him his land, and carried all of this bad juju to the end of his life. He lost most of his property and money in a failed banking enterprise with his son-in-law, and shot himself in 1876.
During the Depression years, rumors started that Turnbull Canyon was the site of strange rituals involving a child and baby-selling cult. Some claim that the area is still used for satanic worship, or something equally evil. An anonymous source recently reported an old metal sign far up the canyon was spray painted with the words "Die Jesus." We must assume that the sign was not written in German.
An insane asylum was apparently once located somewhere in the now weed-choked floor of Turnbull Canyon. It flourished in the 1930s, but burned down in the early 1940s. Sometime around 1962, a group of teenagers were partying in the ruins and legend has it that one of the more daring boys was killed by the remains of a long-dormant electroshock device, which pumped several thousand volts through his drug-addled brain.
