Beginning with the first people who inhabited Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco, there have been rumors of a spiritual connection to the place. The Tongva believed water running through the gorge sounded like laughter, which they attributed to the coyote spirit.
In the 1920s, the narrowest place in the Arroyo Seco was dammed to control flooding, and it was named Devil's Gate Dam, for the demon-like face of a horned figure in the natural rock outcropping.
Pictured: Devil's Gate Dam.
In the 1940s, a group of occultists became interested in the area and attempted rituals intended to open a portal to Hell.
Pictured: The face in the rock.
The group included rocket scientist Jack Parsons (a follower of Aleister Crowley's Thelema) and L. Ron Hubbard (future founder of Scientology). Their goal was to bring forth a "moonchild," which they hoped would be an Antichrist figure that would lead a Thelemic revolution.
Pictured: Jack Parsons.
In the 1950s, after Parsons perished in an accidental explosion, several children went missing in the area around Devil's Gate Dam. Though none of them were ever found, a serial killer took credit for two of the disappearances 13 years after they went missing. As the man, Mack Ray Edwards, was a construction worker at the time, their bodies were hidden somewhere in the concrete of California's freeways.
Pictured: Devil's Gate.
Two other children seemed to have vanished into thin air, one after turning a corner in front of his parents, and the other while returning to a YMCA campsite. In both instances, the children only left supervision for a matter of seconds when they somehow disappeared.
Pictured: The tunnel behind the gate. (Note: Exploring a dam could be dangerous for obvious reasons.)
Some people believe the rituals Parsons led in the area opened a portal to Hell and made the area a magnet for all kinds of dark activity. Devil’s Gate Dam continues to draw the attention of people interested in paranormal investigation. The face in the rock remains, silently holding its secrets, the laughter of the water providing no clues to what it may have seen.
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