Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-02-02
ODD PILE OF
ROCKS CAUSE
MUCH DREAD
INTERESTING BOULDER HEAP
IN GARVANzA DISTRICT
STRANGE EFFECTS PRODUCED
WHEN SEEN UNEXPECTEDLY
inotfensivc Looking Mound on Pasa-
dena Avenue Causes Many to
Leave clty-Its Mysterious
Magic Explained

WAY out in Garvanza they have a
strange rock pile. 1t is located at Pas
adena. avenue and Avenue 60
It is merely a huge pile of boulders-
something like a couple of hundred
thousand heaped together in narrow
arroyo near the railroad.
Nothing unusual about that-only 1T
bannena to be the largest rock pile OF
its kind in the state, and one of the
largest in America.
A great many men labored diligently,
dav in, day out, TO make it what 1t 49,
They received not a cent for their Ia
bor although their hands were cal
loused. their clothing wet from per-
eniration, their backs In some instances
almost wrencbed from the heavy lift
ing. 4,,
II required about fifty men month
~. more TO raise that heap of boulderS
into it's present dimensions.
EVERY rock was carried and brushed
off nv human hands before being de-
posted.
The whole heap is merely an unpre--
tentious mass-shapeless devoid Oh
plan or meaning.
There is nothing unusual about II;
vet it in a wonderful rock pile.
o,tr southern California winter tourists
hannens to come upon it unexpectedly
n nroduces a strange Sensat1on-llK-
ened ouly unto fear, dire dread, terror
A sort of nervous chill plays run
sheeu-r,,n'' along his backbone Verte-
brae. It is a feeling as if his spine
were treoidating, unjointedly.
If the tourist happens to be nioer-
nator OF a nclnadic species he almost
Invariably rushes from its presencSs
with an Indian war-Whoop' Ohe VI
those whoops that follow an oVeruose
of tobaSco Sauce. Ut suPoih"'~S
swallow of pepper.
Sometimes he Is not seen again.
Some Disappear
Occasionally. it is said, he vanishea
IN q cloud of dust. Only his footprints
toll the story of his departure. 'Iraol-
tion has it that he often roams OH
Ahasueras-like. forever, never appear
ing again in the same place. anon too'
n Is toll that strange shudder con-
vulses him, and that If not impelled by
The involuntar functions of his pedaI
felanges he stands in the magical UNI
braee OF that rock pile for long mo-
.nents at a stretch-helpless, weak,
fainting or statuesque, as one VINO 10
hound in some Internal SPELL gazing at
a deaths head
Generally it is the former-the SUD
1en flight, the wild, Unsuitable yearnlng
for other scenes; the resort 10 ue-
nart,re. But ever and always there is
n well defined inexpllcaple enecl' 1he
rock pile scares them.
children are not afraid OF H. anu
NAV at evening about its base. BIG
men. strong men, the men whose races
evince daredevil qualities ana desper-
ete lives: men who have been from
Maine TO California and who have ex-
nerienced tn most startling of expert
ences-these arc the men who tremple
when they come upon it.
Dark LARS turn gray, keen eyes grow
weak. nerculean forms tremble from
dread and horror as they gaze on the
heap OF rocks.
1t is a pile of brown rocks-no more
no less--and yet it haunts mems SUM
hers lis image has been known TO
fasten It's fata' fangs in the very brains
of giants. It's poisonous shadows seep
into the heart as the shade OF a upas
tree. and leave but blight and desola-
zion where formerly there had peen
hone and pleasant fancies. Its memory
fades rot, bur lives where it has en-
tered. u is a phantom, pursuing TO the
f,rthermost boundaries of the earth'
ike a grim Nemesis. or Frankenstein'
cursing the soul with its presence
IL is generally the hobo VINO runs
from it. Generally, too, 1t Is the noDo,