The Devil’s Gate Dam was the first flood control dam in Los Angeles County. Built in 1920, the dam is located at he narrowest spot in the Arroyo Seco. In the section where they wanted to construct the dam, there was a rock formation that resembled the profile of a devil, hence the naming of the dam as the Devil’s Gate.
There are so many urban legends about this area that it is hard to know where to begin. The main urban legend claims that this area, which some call the Arroyo triangle because it includes Devil’s Gate Dam, Suicide Bridge & the Cobb Estate, is one of the seven portals to Hell. There are claims that the Native Americans even believed this was a gateway to the afterlife and they avoided this area. Then there are the mysterious disappearances and murders of children, the majority are unsolved, who were hiking, camping or riding their bikes through the area.
Others claim that the portal to hell opened when Jack Parsons came into the picture in the 1940s. Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist who co-founded the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL, located just north of the dam), was an infamous occultist with ties to Aleister Crowley and fellow occultist (and Scientology founder) L. Ron Hubbard.
Together, Parsons, Crowley and Hubbard believed that the Devil’s Gate area held great magical power and energy that could increase their own powers. Many believe this is why Parsons chose this area as the location for JPL. It was the perfect place for these three men to conduct their magical rituals and work on their project that was referred to as “Babylon Working,” a summoning of the entity known as Babylon that would aid them in the creation of an “anti-Christ,” a child who would eventually destroy mankind.