Verdugo Hills Cemetery is located at 7000 Parsons Trail in the hills of Tujunga, California – a northern suburb of Los Angeles. It is a somewhat needy and neglected place with a sad and sometimes ghastly past.
The history of the place began in 1922 when M. V. Hartranft, a land broker local to the Sunland-Tujunga area, donated four acres of ground in the hills overlooking these towns. The site was originally named Hills of Peace Cemetery, and the first interment was made on April 22, 1922, for Parson James Wornum, a local minister. A dirt road was hastily carved out of a mountainside and would later become a paved road known as Parsons Trail. The town put on an elaborate funeral service and procession for Parson Wornum. The following year, "Aunt” Jenny Wornum joined her husband on the top of the knoll now known as Pioneer Hill within the cemetery. Hills of Peace Cemetery was renamed Verdugo Hills Cemetery in 1959.
After more than 50 years of uneventful operation, the cemetery made international news during the winter of 1978. On February 9 of that year, after days of torrential rains, water had been pouring into holes made by groundhogs and saturated the earth. A massive landslide occurred in the cemetery, and the result was the unearthing of a large section of it. Fifty-five bodies washed out of the south-facing slope of the cemetery, corpses being strewn throughout the area. Rotted caskets broke open and their contents were carried away. Occording to Los Angeles County Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi's book "Coroner"[1], bodies were sent plunging into homes, businesses and city streets. When he arrived, bodies were everywhere. Some, he states were "grotesquely standing upright. " He even cites that one such body was wedged into the entrance of a supermarket. Dr. Noguchi attempted in vain the task of trying to identify the remains and rebury them under their correct markers, but as it was impractical or impossible to identify the remains, he directed the re-interment of the bodies on higher ground near the flagpole in the cemetery, and a marble marker was placed at the base which reads “Name was here perhaps but certainly known to God.”
Very much as the result of the landslide, the cemetery closed to further private burials in 1979. However, The County of Los Angeles then used it for interments of indigents for the next five years. The cemetery was otherwise virtually abandoned.
Over time the cemetery became a frequent target of vandalism of various types. Many of the grave markers (especially the bronze ones that have scrap metal value) were stolen. Marble slabs over crypts and niches were broken; some tagging occurred; fires have been set; homeless people occupy the grounds and use the water. But the most gruesome vandalism occurred in November of 1996, when volunteer caretakers at the cemetery were shocked to discover that vandals broke into eight mausoleum crypts, and seven caskets disturbed. According to news reports, the corpse of an elderly woman was removed from a casket and put in a sitting-up position with an unlit cigarette placed in her mouth.[2] No other graves were disturbed to this extent. The exposed caskets were taken to a nearby funeral home pending notification of family members.“[3] Eventually, three local teenagers who all identified themselves as “Gothics” (who dress in dark or black clothing and wear light make-up on their faces, and who are also reported to "dabble in the occult") were arrested and charged with misdemeanor vandalism, but eventually released to their parents custody pending trial.[4]
Since the cemetery had been abandoned for some time, and with no full-time caretakers, the memorial park had become the scene not only for acts of vandalism, but also for reported "satanic" rituals. Volunteers petitioned for a security fence for some time, but in the wake of a series of Southern California cemetery scandals involving reselling of burial plots, and the illegal selling of used funerary items, such matters were transferred to the California State Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) after the California State Cemetery Board was dissolved.
In 1997, the State of California passed bill AB 1560, stating in part that “the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to assume responsibility for maintaining non-endowment care cemeteries 10 years after DCA is granted conservatorship of the cemetery by the court if the endowment care fund does not have the minimum funds required by law.”[5] This bill was specifically designed to address the issues that arose at Verdugo Hills cemetery, however, at the time of passage, a total of eleven cemeteries in California (including Verdugo Hills) were included in the legislation. Since then, two have dropped out, leaving Verdugo Hills one of nine cemeteries that is technically and legally administered by the DCA[6], but an amount reported to be $219,000 in endowment funds earmarked for this cemetery have proven thus far to be inaccessible from the DCA.
Upon transition of stewardship of the cemetery, it was discovered that a number of grave markers had never been properly placed, but rather were only stored in one of the empty crypts. Since the detailed cemetery records were some how lost by state officials in the transition to DCA authority, it became impossible to place these markers over the correct graves, and so in 2001 they were placed in the Garden of Remembrance section of the cemetery.
Due to increased vandalism, the Cemetery as closed to the public in November of 2002. In September of 2003, the Los Angeles City Council agreed to erect a tall chain link fence around the main cemetery (but not the annex across the street), the fence and gates to be topped with barbed and razor-wire, in an attempt to prevent further vandalism.[7] Construction was completed at a cost of $30,450, but the city was not reimbursed by the DCA until November of 2006.[8]
Originally, Parson’s Trail ended at the cemetery gates, but it has since been extended past that point to accommodate driveways and houses. The city and county only recognize and maintain the road up to the cemetery property, and the extension may have been done without appropriate approvals. Recent investigation suggests that it may be possible that the road extension and possibly other construction on “private property” may actually overlay a portion of the cemetery annex (and possibly graves) across the street from the main cemetery grounds.
Comparatively minor acts of vandalism continue to this day, to both the main cemetery, but most certainly to the annex across the street, which remains unprotected by fence, in contrast to the main cemetery grounds. Only a handful of markers remain in the annex, for example, as most (particularly the bronze ones, which have scrap metal value) have been stolen.
Included within the confines of the Cemetery are some 2,400 interments, many of those being the early pioneers of Sunland-Tujunga. Sadly, only 152 of their final resting places are marked. Among those resting there are at least two veterans of the Civil War (Parson Wornum and Hiram Hatch). The Cemetery is home to the early movers and shakers of the community as well as just plain folk. Some of the more notable of the individuals interred at Verdugo Hills include:
1. George Washington Harris, a publisher, promoter, philosopher and builder; in 1913, Mr. Harris built Bolton Hall (which now houses the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga). His rustic garden furniture, fireplaces, walls and buildings remain a testament to his artistry. In 1923, he built the lava rock wall surrounding Pioneer Hill in the Heritage Park section of the cemetery.
2. Daisy Bell Rinehart, Born in La Crescenta in 1878 to Horace and Georgia Bell. In a family of five boys and six girls, she was known for her bravery for riding her buckboard daily to the flag stop at Roscoe. She would pick up the mail from the steam trains and deliver it to the Monte Vista (Sunland) Post Office. Her father, Horace Bell, was an author, attorney, California Ranger and publisher.
3. The Reverend James I. Wornum, "The Parson of the Green Verdugo Hills" was the first person laid to rest in the cemetery, on the hill overlooking the Valley. He was a Civil War soldier, itinerate preacher, horse trainer and trader as well as the valley's most beloved citizen. His wooden grave marker now resides at Bolton Hall Museum. Parson’s Trail (the road leading to the cemetery) is named for him.
4. Jenny B. Wornum, “Aunt Jenny” was an evangelist preacher and singer, the wife of Parson Wornum. She traveled the Church Circuit of the Foothills with her husband in their horse drawn camp wagon. An upright cement monument was placed on her previously unmarked grave in the 1950s
5. Hiram Hatch, Born in Michigan, he served as a captain in the Civil War. He was later warden of the Michigan State Penitentiary. He settled in the “Little Lands Colony” in 1913, with his daughter, Mabel and his sister, Corabelle Linaberry.
6. Brigadier General Henry Hatch, Laid to rest alongside his father on Pioneer Hill. George Harris built his upright lava rock headstone. After passing away in New York, he was returned to Tujunga and buried with a large and impressive military funeral.
7. Ashley Hatch, in 1995, after a twenty-year wait, his cremains were inurned in the family plot, high on Pioneer Hill. World War I veteran and Fuller Brush salesman, he lived with his Aunt Mabel Hatch most of his life.
8. Mabel Louise Hatch, as an original “Little Lander”, she came to Tujunga in 1913. An insurance agency owner and civic leader, she ran the Hills of Peace Cemetery for thirty-two years.
9. Phillip Fanner Johnson was born in Sunland in 1893. The Johnson family first homesteaded in Big Tujunga Canyon in the 1870's. His father, John, opened the Monte Vista Inn (1880) and outdoor pavilion (1923), later named Twin Pines, on property in the rear of Monte Vista (Sunland) Park. Mr. Johnson was a beekeeper, owner of Johnson Lumber Company, and a World War I veteran.
The “Friends of the Hills of Peace Cemetery” was organized in 1990 by a group of concerned citizens who were appalled by the ravage of vandalism and neglect at the cemetery. The group agreed to preserve this important community landmark.
The Friends are dedicated to the restoration, beautification and preservation of the cemetery. Since their formation, this group has been responsible for obtaining burial records and plat maps, creating a meditation garden, repairing the mausoleum, organizing a semi-annual brush clearance, acquiring new signs and various special projects. A special memorial to honor the veterans interred at Verdugo Hills is now in the planning stages.
Community involvement is now necessary for the continued preservation of this historic landmark. If you would like to join the volunteer support group or make a donation, please contact Mary Lou Pozzo[9] at her office in the Bolton Hall Museum at (818) 352-3420.
The history of the place began in 1922 when M. V. Hartranft, a land broker local to the Sunland-Tujunga area, donated four acres of ground in the hills overlooking these towns. The site was originally named Hills of Peace Cemetery, and the first interment was made on April 22, 1922, for Parson James Wornum, a local minister. A dirt road was hastily carved out of a mountainside and would later become a paved road known as Parsons Trail. The town put on an elaborate funeral service and procession for Parson Wornum. The following year, "Aunt” Jenny Wornum joined her husband on the top of the knoll now known as Pioneer Hill within the cemetery. Hills of Peace Cemetery was renamed Verdugo Hills Cemetery in 1959.
After more than 50 years of uneventful operation, the cemetery made international news during the winter of 1978. On February 9 of that year, after days of torrential rains, water had been pouring into holes made by groundhogs and saturated the earth. A massive landslide occurred in the cemetery, and the result was the unearthing of a large section of it. Fifty-five bodies washed out of the south-facing slope of the cemetery, corpses being strewn throughout the area. Rotted caskets broke open and their contents were carried away. Occording to Los Angeles County Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi's book "Coroner"[1], bodies were sent plunging into homes, businesses and city streets. When he arrived, bodies were everywhere. Some, he states were "grotesquely standing upright. " He even cites that one such body was wedged into the entrance of a supermarket. Dr. Noguchi attempted in vain the task of trying to identify the remains and rebury them under their correct markers, but as it was impractical or impossible to identify the remains, he directed the re-interment of the bodies on higher ground near the flagpole in the cemetery, and a marble marker was placed at the base which reads “Name was here perhaps but certainly known to God.”
Very much as the result of the landslide, the cemetery closed to further private burials in 1979. However, The County of Los Angeles then used it for interments of indigents for the next five years. The cemetery was otherwise virtually abandoned.
Over time the cemetery became a frequent target of vandalism of various types. Many of the grave markers (especially the bronze ones that have scrap metal value) were stolen. Marble slabs over crypts and niches were broken; some tagging occurred; fires have been set; homeless people occupy the grounds and use the water. But the most gruesome vandalism occurred in November of 1996, when volunteer caretakers at the cemetery were shocked to discover that vandals broke into eight mausoleum crypts, and seven caskets disturbed. According to news reports, the corpse of an elderly woman was removed from a casket and put in a sitting-up position with an unlit cigarette placed in her mouth.[2] No other graves were disturbed to this extent. The exposed caskets were taken to a nearby funeral home pending notification of family members.“[3] Eventually, three local teenagers who all identified themselves as “Gothics” (who dress in dark or black clothing and wear light make-up on their faces, and who are also reported to "dabble in the occult") were arrested and charged with misdemeanor vandalism, but eventually released to their parents custody pending trial.[4]
Since the cemetery had been abandoned for some time, and with no full-time caretakers, the memorial park had become the scene not only for acts of vandalism, but also for reported "satanic" rituals. Volunteers petitioned for a security fence for some time, but in the wake of a series of Southern California cemetery scandals involving reselling of burial plots, and the illegal selling of used funerary items, such matters were transferred to the California State Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) after the California State Cemetery Board was dissolved.
In 1997, the State of California passed bill AB 1560, stating in part that “the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to assume responsibility for maintaining non-endowment care cemeteries 10 years after DCA is granted conservatorship of the cemetery by the court if the endowment care fund does not have the minimum funds required by law.”[5] This bill was specifically designed to address the issues that arose at Verdugo Hills cemetery, however, at the time of passage, a total of eleven cemeteries in California (including Verdugo Hills) were included in the legislation. Since then, two have dropped out, leaving Verdugo Hills one of nine cemeteries that is technically and legally administered by the DCA[6], but an amount reported to be $219,000 in endowment funds earmarked for this cemetery have proven thus far to be inaccessible from the DCA.
Upon transition of stewardship of the cemetery, it was discovered that a number of grave markers had never been properly placed, but rather were only stored in one of the empty crypts. Since the detailed cemetery records were some how lost by state officials in the transition to DCA authority, it became impossible to place these markers over the correct graves, and so in 2001 they were placed in the Garden of Remembrance section of the cemetery.
Due to increased vandalism, the Cemetery as closed to the public in November of 2002. In September of 2003, the Los Angeles City Council agreed to erect a tall chain link fence around the main cemetery (but not the annex across the street), the fence and gates to be topped with barbed and razor-wire, in an attempt to prevent further vandalism.[7] Construction was completed at a cost of $30,450, but the city was not reimbursed by the DCA until November of 2006.[8]
Originally, Parson’s Trail ended at the cemetery gates, but it has since been extended past that point to accommodate driveways and houses. The city and county only recognize and maintain the road up to the cemetery property, and the extension may have been done without appropriate approvals. Recent investigation suggests that it may be possible that the road extension and possibly other construction on “private property” may actually overlay a portion of the cemetery annex (and possibly graves) across the street from the main cemetery grounds.
Comparatively minor acts of vandalism continue to this day, to both the main cemetery, but most certainly to the annex across the street, which remains unprotected by fence, in contrast to the main cemetery grounds. Only a handful of markers remain in the annex, for example, as most (particularly the bronze ones, which have scrap metal value) have been stolen.
Included within the confines of the Cemetery are some 2,400 interments, many of those being the early pioneers of Sunland-Tujunga. Sadly, only 152 of their final resting places are marked. Among those resting there are at least two veterans of the Civil War (Parson Wornum and Hiram Hatch). The Cemetery is home to the early movers and shakers of the community as well as just plain folk. Some of the more notable of the individuals interred at Verdugo Hills include:
1. George Washington Harris, a publisher, promoter, philosopher and builder; in 1913, Mr. Harris built Bolton Hall (which now houses the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga). His rustic garden furniture, fireplaces, walls and buildings remain a testament to his artistry. In 1923, he built the lava rock wall surrounding Pioneer Hill in the Heritage Park section of the cemetery.
2. Daisy Bell Rinehart, Born in La Crescenta in 1878 to Horace and Georgia Bell. In a family of five boys and six girls, she was known for her bravery for riding her buckboard daily to the flag stop at Roscoe. She would pick up the mail from the steam trains and deliver it to the Monte Vista (Sunland) Post Office. Her father, Horace Bell, was an author, attorney, California Ranger and publisher.
3. The Reverend James I. Wornum, "The Parson of the Green Verdugo Hills" was the first person laid to rest in the cemetery, on the hill overlooking the Valley. He was a Civil War soldier, itinerate preacher, horse trainer and trader as well as the valley's most beloved citizen. His wooden grave marker now resides at Bolton Hall Museum. Parson’s Trail (the road leading to the cemetery) is named for him.
4. Jenny B. Wornum, “Aunt Jenny” was an evangelist preacher and singer, the wife of Parson Wornum. She traveled the Church Circuit of the Foothills with her husband in their horse drawn camp wagon. An upright cement monument was placed on her previously unmarked grave in the 1950s
5. Hiram Hatch, Born in Michigan, he served as a captain in the Civil War. He was later warden of the Michigan State Penitentiary. He settled in the “Little Lands Colony” in 1913, with his daughter, Mabel and his sister, Corabelle Linaberry.
6. Brigadier General Henry Hatch, Laid to rest alongside his father on Pioneer Hill. George Harris built his upright lava rock headstone. After passing away in New York, he was returned to Tujunga and buried with a large and impressive military funeral.
7. Ashley Hatch, in 1995, after a twenty-year wait, his cremains were inurned in the family plot, high on Pioneer Hill. World War I veteran and Fuller Brush salesman, he lived with his Aunt Mabel Hatch most of his life.
8. Mabel Louise Hatch, as an original “Little Lander”, she came to Tujunga in 1913. An insurance agency owner and civic leader, she ran the Hills of Peace Cemetery for thirty-two years.
9. Phillip Fanner Johnson was born in Sunland in 1893. The Johnson family first homesteaded in Big Tujunga Canyon in the 1870's. His father, John, opened the Monte Vista Inn (1880) and outdoor pavilion (1923), later named Twin Pines, on property in the rear of Monte Vista (Sunland) Park. Mr. Johnson was a beekeeper, owner of Johnson Lumber Company, and a World War I veteran.
The “Friends of the Hills of Peace Cemetery” was organized in 1990 by a group of concerned citizens who were appalled by the ravage of vandalism and neglect at the cemetery. The group agreed to preserve this important community landmark.
The Friends are dedicated to the restoration, beautification and preservation of the cemetery. Since their formation, this group has been responsible for obtaining burial records and plat maps, creating a meditation garden, repairing the mausoleum, organizing a semi-annual brush clearance, acquiring new signs and various special projects. A special memorial to honor the veterans interred at Verdugo Hills is now in the planning stages.
Community involvement is now necessary for the continued preservation of this historic landmark. If you would like to join the volunteer support group or make a donation, please contact Mary Lou Pozzo[9] at her office in the Bolton Hall Museum at (818) 352-3420.
[1] Coroner; Thomas T. Noguchi, with Joseph Di Mona; Simon and Schuster, 1983; Pocket Books, 1984; New York
[2] Los Angeles Daily News, November 27, 1996
[3] The Grim Reader; Issue VI, Volume III (Internet Edition); November, 1996
[4] The Grim Reader; Issue VI, Volume III (Internet Edition); December, 1996
[5] Bill Analysis (AB 1560); Hearing held on May 21, 1997; California State Assembly Committee on Appropriations; Carole Migden, Chairwoman
[6] Presumably the stated 10-year period expired in approximately May of 2007.
[7] Proceedings of the Los Angeles City Council; September 2, 2003; Item Numbered 16 (adopted)
[8] Report from the Office of the City of Los Angeles Administrative Officer; June 1, 2007; CAO File No. 0640-01 399-0000; Karen L. Sisson, City Administrative Officer
[9] In addition to being an active member of the Friends of the Hills of Peace Cemetery, Mary Lou Pozzo is the Librarian at the Bolton Hall Museum, a past President of the Little Landers Historical Society, and President of the Associated Historical Society of Los Angeles County, as well as a member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Westerners (Los Angeles and Huntington Corrals), and the author of Founding Sisters: Life Stories of Tujunga’s Early Women Pioneers 1886-1926; Zinnia Press, Tujunga, California; 2005
