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Devil's Gate Dam is a flood control dam in the Arroyo Seco in northern Pasadena between La Cañada Flintridge and Altadena. The location is the narrowest spot on the Arroyo Seco's course below Millard Canyon. Occultists Jack Parsons and Aleister Crowley believed the site of the dam was a portal to Hell.
Devil's Gate is so-named because of the natural rock feature at the site which resembles the Devil. A 1947 article in the Metropolitan Pasadena Star-News states that Devil's Gate was named in 1858 by Judge B.S. Eaton because of "its resemblance to a point of that name on Sweetwater Creek." Judge Eaton explained in a letter that he had seen the original point in 1850 when traveling along the old California trail with a team of oxen.
Throughout the 1800s, residents of Los Angeles considered the satanic-looking outcropping at Devil's Gate to be a natural wonder and often brought out of town visitors to the site. Large public gatherings were held there and children slid down the rocks while their parents hosted picnics nearby. A steel truss bridge was eventually built across the arroyo to allow easier crossing. The first dam, a low dam designed to supply water for the Lake Vineyard Company, was completed in October 1877 by Mr. J. de Barth Shorb.