Turnbull Canyon Road

Turnbull Canyon Road winds through the Puente Hills above Whittier, and the canyon's reputation rests on a real, well-documented disaster. On April 18, 1952, Robin Airlines Trip 416W, a Curtiss C-46 charter flying from New York to Burbank, was diverted to Los Angeles International by fog. On its instrument approach it struck a fog-shrouded ridge in the hills near Turnbull Canyon, and all 29 people aboard, 26 passengers and three crew, were killed. Figures reported along the road after dark, such as indistinct shapes in the roadside brush or the sense of being accompanied on foot, are most often attributed locally to the crash, which is the subject of a regional documentary. The canyon's other well-known story, a "Gates of Hell" legend involving cult activity at a ruined orphanage or asylum, has no documented basis at all; the USC Digital Folklore Archives collected it as folklore, not history. The canyon is part of the Puente Hills Preserve and a popular hiking area today.