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Urban Legends of Turnbull Canyon(Whittier Ca.


ARKHAM ASYLUM 24

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The story that I'm about to tell you all about the incident that took place at Turnbull Canyon in 94 has never been told to ANYONE outside my family. My wife (girlfriend at the time!) is the only other person who experienced it that is still with me. I really dont know whatever became of the other two that were with us that night. We still live in this city. Its been 14 yrs and we've never liked to talk about it much and we have NEVER GONE BACK!! The reason I've even decided to bring this all up now is because of a strange text message I recieved from my sister only yesterday. She asked me "Where was the area that you had that incident back in high school?".. I responded, "Turnbull Canyon!" then asked "Why?".. She went on to tell me that a classmate of my niece was doing a report in school on Urban Legends and Strange Occurences...That place came up. When I dared to ask my sister what this classmate had found, my sister reawoke alot of old bad memories. She didnt wanna go into detail with me but told me to just google the location and read for myself. So I later did.. and it was ALL there again! All the discussions, all the historical details and ALOT of word of mouth experiences!! EVERYBODY was saying "I heard that..!" or He saw..!" or "She felt..!" Seems nobody really SAW anything for certain..or at least not for themselves. What IWILL give them is that they accuratley heard about, felt or described what I!..ME!.Experienced!!..And so this story begins!

I live in historical Uptown Whittier Ca. When i was growing up and going to high school around 91- 94, alot of our crowd(mostly old punkers!)used to very often hang out in Turnbull Canyon. It was an area in Uptown that leads up into miles of mountains and very old trails. We'd hear all the rumors of Ghosts, Haunted sites, Satanic Cult meetings, blah!blah!..and so on! WE WERE TEENS!.Hearing that stuff didnt scare us away!..It only made us all the more curious (Like some cheezy horror movie plot!)..Anyways! Over the years we continued to go there mostly in the day, til about my Senior year when my girlfriend(now wife!) Sandra had some friends from the Navy come down and visit from San Diego(John & Tony). It was oddly about 15 min. til midnight. They had a car and an urge for a cheap thrill. For some strange reason (i dont know what the heck possessed me!), I suggested driving out to Turnbull Canyon (having neeeever been there this late..or early!). There was an area that was christened "The Spot". It requires going through this very narrow hiking trail with heavy brush on both sides of you. This trail stretches and curves for quite a distance before you come to a small opening on the right side of the brush.This opening goes down a slightly steep incline to a tree surrounding area where the crowd hung out..This is "The Spot".

We had arrived and parked the car outside the opening to the trail. It was dark, cold and I had already creeped John and Tony out with the rumors of Turnbull Canyon. We had already walked quite a ways down into the trail when we first heard it. There was this volume of multiple muffled voices coming from the direction we had just come in from. At first it sounded alot like military type chants. The kind that sound real aggressive, like when they say "Sir yes sir!!. But this was about twenty of them..and at the same time that we realized the voices were getting closer, we also regretfully realized that the voices were not speaking English.. or any other language any of us had ever heard. Sandra looked really freaked out and both John and Tony were turning to me as if I had all the answers. All we could do was whisper to each other. We knew we couldnt go back the way we came because we would run right into whoever or whatever that was. I decided that we should just keep heading for "The Spot" area, hide there and wait it out. This marching of angry voices were still getting louder.. and closer.

When we finally reached "The Spot", which wasnt that much farther ahead, We quickly got down the incline and within the trees for cover. With the moonlight, we could still somewhat see through the branches up to the trail. We were able to talk a little louder to each other. The voices were still coming and would soon reach us and hopefully pass us. Our hearts were pounding like mad as they reached the top of our area and came into our view. I could make out about 15 or so dark figures through the branches. I dont know if i was just breathing hard or in a SERIOUS panic attack. I could clearly hear now that they were freakin chanting something repeatedly. The one in front would chant something then the rest in the back would answer aggressively. I remember turning around in our hiding place and looking behind us for the first time and my heart literally STOPPED! There with us, the whole time were backpacks,big 5 gallon water containers and some other stuff that sure didnt belong to us..so that left you know who!!.We felt like sitting ducks!

About that time the chanting suddenly stopped. We all just listened as one of the figures recited something in that same unknown language. They all said something together then one of them let out this loud blood curdling shriek..and all hell broke loose! They all began screaming, beating or stabbing either one volunteered individual OR all each other. I couldnt tell which through the branches and commotion. I could hear painful screams, the sound of impact and of people getting the air knocked out of them. This continued on for what felt like a lifetime. I remember holding Sandra close to me and whispering every cuss word in the book to myself for taking us there. I pictured them finding us, I thought back to all those stories and rumors and I imagined us on the front of a newspaper.."MISSING" or "FOUND DEAD!" I looked up at the houses far away on the hillsides and thought "They gotta be hearing this and calling the police!" "This is loud enough!!".

Moments later, my prayers were heard. As this was all still going on, outta nowhere there was a sudden burst of police lights and the sound of reving car engines rushing in up there from both sides. Now!!.Remember that I say the cars came "outta nowhere!" and I saw the red lights and could hear the engines..but I dont remember EVER having heard the approaching sound of the sirens. We stayed where we were hidden and watched it all unravel itself.

The cars rushed into the area and someone screamed "Scatter!". I heard and could make out figures scrambling in all directions. Oddly, not one single person ever ran down into our spot. The sounds of chained belts and heavy footsteps followed after. I saw the headlights and redlights of the police cars speed off. Then as quickly as it all began..it was all over. Total absolute silence!

It was a good thing we hesitated to come out of hiding right away. As we waited there, we suddenly heard a single set of footsteps slowly coming up the trail. We didnt know which group this person belonged to, the police..or them! We remained quiet and kept listening then all of a sudden a flashlight beam shined in on the ground about 10 feet away from us. I felt Sandra gasp and I had to literally put my hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. The light began to slowly move in our direction but shut off about two feet from my foot. We heard the footsteps walk away back down the trail path. We decided to wait there for ten more minutes before finally coming up out of our hiding place and making our way back out towards the entrance of the trail where the car was parked.

As we exited out, we found something disturbing lying on the ground next to the car. It was a clear plastic bag, tied up. Inside the bag we could different rocks and some sort of plant or weed(No! not that kind!). The disturbing part is that smeared all over the bag was something that even at that time of night(or morning!) was clearly BLOOD. We quickly jumped in the car, started it up and did about 90 mph down the road back to the city lights..But not before letting out a loooooooong overdue scream that coulda been heard miles away.

To this day, I truly dont know what we walked into that night and the worst part is I now dont know if what we saw was REALLY there! What I mean by that is that recently alot of unanswered questions have come up about that whole incident. Mostly from Sandra. I never really analyzed the details of it all..Probably because I was just relieved to had gotten out of there alive. But the questions did remain in the end. Why didnt we hear or notice such a large number of figures upon entering the trail?..They just came out of thin air! The same question applies to those police cars we never heard approaching the scene..and they all disappeared just as quickly. Wouldnt the police have had the area closed off and searched? We didnt see any officers or squad cars when we came out of the trail..and the streets were dead silent. Nobody once ran for cover or was chased into the area we were hiding nor did any cop step foot into it. Its as if the entire occurence of that night were destined to play out only in the limited confines of that trail.

Back then after it happened, I always figured we had just picked a reeeeally bad night to go up there. Now! After I've read all the recent info online, the history and reports people have submitted, I'm truly convinced that it wouldnt have mattered whichever night we decided to show up. Something up there is choosing to reenact itself to anyone that should happen to stumble upon it. Whether or not we choose to admit these things happen is up to us. I thank the heavens now for the fact that I had someone up there with me that night to reassure me that I WASNT crazy and it was not some bad dream..IT HAPPENED! Otherwise, I probably WOULD have gone mad after that...I leave the rest up to all of you! -Thanx! AA24

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Sounds like a wierd crazy cult

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considering u never heard the police or the dark figures until they were actually there or saw them on the way out then im going to go ahead and suggest that this was some kind of annual recreation of an evvent that happened that involved numerous deaths this probably recreated by ghosts but the only event that comes to mind where something like u described sounds like either a ku klux klan meeting that was raided by the police or a stanic cult that was raided by the police

the problem with this theory is that unlike ghosts this event left PHYSICAL EVEIDENCE this evidence being that bag with a plant in it and blood smeared over it so if this was real it could still be either of the ones ive mentioned b4 these being a satanic cult/ku klux klan meeting that was raided by the police

Edited by Elite
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  • 3 months later...

Welcome Ark and many thanks for the strange story. Extremely interesting and oddly entertaining.

I have to disagree about it being a "reenactment" ie residual haunting. As was said, the physical evidence, bag, backpacks, etc. lend this to being a real occurrence. Also, the police seem to have actually been there in the flesh. I have no explanation for why you didn't see the weirdos as you came up the trail. There is the possibility they were hiding from you and knew you were there all the time with y'all being the next step in their strange ritual. The arrival of the police could have saved your lives. Anyway, that's my take on it. Very unique experience.

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Interesting story mate. I'd love to hear more stories involving turnbull canyon.

There are actually quite a few on here. There is at least one big thread about the goings-on there.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Back in the late 70's I was at a party in Whittier. I had been drinking but no other drugs had been consumed. I ending up taking a drive through Turnbull Canyon, we pulled over and for no better words, were "making out".

Soon I realized I needed to pee badly and got out of the car went down the hill a little ways. So there I am squatting, and I swear to you, I starting hearing movement in the bushes around me.

In those days, I had great vision, with excellent night vision. I remember remaining completely still, trying to figure out what I was hearing. At first, I thought coyotes, but the strangest thing was the movements happened in unison, followed by silence. I focused my eyes in the area around me and after the last movement from the bushes I could see eyes reflecting off the moonlight, a lot, of very large eyes.

I also could tell from the height level of the eyes that whatever was out there was not any animal I could think of then or now, since the eyes were between 3-4 ft from the ground.

Needless to say, I ran up that hill as fast as I could, pulling my pants up on my way. I got in the car explaining what I had just experienced and we took off.

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  • 1 year later...

It has a lot of the same elements as the time space word account that happened in Modena back in the seventies to those four teenage girls driving through the Gadyanton Canyon.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 6 months later...

Paragraphing would make your story easier to read

Sorry ,but I just had to comment on this.... Yes you are very correct but ,if you would have thought about it for just maybe long enough to put yourself in his shoes and how he was recalling and reliving that night over again. I know you have either been really frightened or maybe excited about telling something that happened, We all have.

Come on why be so criticaL, he was just typing away and thinking about what happened and getting it out and heard . Not even thinking about paragrahing or correcting. I mean really was that needed to be said? I'm sure he knew that. Obviously he just wasn't thinking , probably deep in thought....!

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Yeah it was kind of hard to read it all, but anways, don't think I saw it in your post but there were suppose to be a lot of satanic rituals going on over there. At least that's what people told me when they would tell us not to go there.

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  • 9 months later...

I grew up in Whittier, CA, and spent pleny of time in Turnbull Canyon. It is a creepy place, without a doubt.

I tend to be a debunker at heart. This is not because I doubt the existence of the supernatural, but simply because most of the time I think people's accounts of such things are full of you-know-what.

As for this story, I can't take it too seriously. Here we have a group of people who go through an experience like this, have a bunch of cops show up, and nobody wants to talk to the police? Then, there's the matter of the backpacks and such right there to be scooped up after all of this. And with multiple people witnessing this "event," nobody thinks to pick up these items and take them to the authorities, or report this incident at all? Sorry, but that's just far too implausible to even begin to buy.

Again, don't take this as a guy who is skeptical of the supernatural. I'm just skeptical of people.

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I was high but I know what I saw that night and I will never forget it.

It started when a group of us were bored and high. We were looking for something to do, and decided to check out Turnbull Canyon. So we went, we were driving up and we kept getting lost. At first we were looking for the Gates of Hell, and we couldnt find it at first. So we just went to water tower and decided to smoke more... on the way up the road, i kept looking back for some reason. I didnt see any car behind us or on the road. Something felt sketchy though, I had that gut feeling that someone was watching us. We couldnt find the tower so we just reached the top and parked on the side and started walking up some trail. We were standing at the top, passing around the joints and whatnot when I decided to look at the road behind me. It was a pretty long way up and I remembered that there wasnt any cars behind us or on the road..but for some reason there were about 15-20 head lights right behind each other racing towards us at the last turn. Right when we started bugging out we heard alot of movement in the bushes around us. We all started to run to the car and took off. The only thing was when we were all in the car going back down the road, there werent any cars or anything. It was quiet and empty. On the way down, we took a wrong turn and somehow im guessing we ended up at the Gates of Hell and there were dogs sitting infront. When we seen that, we just stepped on the gas and finally got out and went home. No one talked the whole ride home.

Can someone help explaining to me what I saw that night?

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  • 3 weeks later...

It has a lot of the same elements as the time space word account that happened in Modena back in the seventies to those four teenage girls driving through the Gadyanton Canyon.

that's what leapt to my mind as well. I wonder how close/related the two places are geologically.

ETA: What's with all the first-post people in this thread? My bsometer is going off now.

Edited by Wearer of Hats
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  • 2 weeks later...

they probably signed up just to comment and tell their stories its no BS

But all of them, in such a short space of time, all talking about the same region and offering roughly the same information? That's got an air, at the very least of damp concrete and day old goat if you get my drift.

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  • 1 year later...
 

Local Legend, you really should check your facts before making statements, cuz you obviously don't know what you are talking about. The Tongva did not practice human sacrifice! The book "Chinigchinich" does not mention that anywhere! At any rate, the Chinigchinich religion was probably a response to early contact with Catholicism. You can see the influences. That book is also written by someone who understood little of what he saw, and looked upon the tribes with disdain. I was very closely affiliated with the Tongva for many years, and spent many hours doing research for them. It wouldn't hurt for you to do a little more research yourself, you will avoid spreading misinformation and sounding foolish that way. I have also spent many happy hours at Puvungna, and have taken my dog there many times with no weirdness.

Also, I happen to live in Whittier, and this stuff is silly. I'm a 57 year old woman, and take that road often, by myself, sometimes close to midnight. I took it over the hill and back 4 times on Monday! I have hiked there numerous times, and have found only found something creepy once. Of course, anyone hiking out there at night is suffering from stupidity, but hiking during the day is fine. Many years ago, I was there on the lower canyon trail near Beverly with a son of the tomyaar (chief), and we hiked into a side canyon and found a deer's head mounted on a stick looking up at the sky. So, I'm not saying that stuff doesn't happen there, animal sacrifice to be specific, but most of this crap is just urban legend best ignored.

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