| Puente Hills | |
|---|---|
 View of theSan Gabriel Mountains from the Puente Hills | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Workman Hill |
| Elevation | 424 m (1,391 ft) |
| Geography | |
  Puente Hills Location of the Puente Hills in Los Angeles County Show map of the United States Puente Hills Puente Hills (the Los Angeles metropolitan area) Show map of the Los Angeles metropolitan area | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| District | Los Angeles County |
| Range coordinates | 33°59′59.044″N117°55′3.226″W / 33.99973444°N 117.91756278°W /33.99973444; -117.91756278 |
| Topo map | USGS La Habra |
ThePuente Hills are a chain ofhills, one of the lowerTransverse Ranges, in an unincorporated area in easternLos Angeles County,California, in theUnited States. The western end of the range is often referred to locally as the Whittier Hills. The eastern end is in the city ofChino Hills inSan Bernardino County.
The Puente Hills lie to the south of theSan Gabriel Valley and thePomona Freeway (State Route 60), to the east of the San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605), to the north ofWhittier Boulevard, and to the west of the city ofDiamond Bar andChino Hills. To its north are the City ofIndustry,Hacienda Heights, andRowland Heights. To the south areWhittier,La Habra Heights,La Habra andBrea. ThePuente Formation underlies the hills, and theBrea-Olinda Oil Field, discovered in 1880 and still producing in 2025, is in the southernmost portion of the hills adjacent to the city of Brea.
The Puente Hills are in theCalifornia chaparral and woodlandsecoregion of theCalifornia Floristic Province. The remnantCalifornia native plants here are in thechaparral andoak woodlandplant communities, with stands ofCalifornia native grasses.Vascular Plants of the Whittier Hills, a floristic study, was completed by Julie A. Schneider Ljubenkov and Timothy S. Ross (2001), and published inCrossosoma. It built on the work of Bob Muns.[2]
Rio Hondo College is located at the foot of the western end of the hills, and thePuente Hills Landfill is nearby, which was one of the largest landfills in the U.S. before shutting down in 2013.[3][4]Rose Hills Memorial Park occupies portions of the northern area. The highest point in the western hills is Workman Hill, named for the pioneerWorkman family. ThePuente Hills Mall is located north of the hills.Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, the largestBuddhist temple and monastery in theWestern Hemisphere, is located in the hills.
Puente Hills is home to thePuente Hills Landfill, the country's largest landfill, which closed in 2013. The high-tech landfill has begun offering tours.[5][6] The Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority directs the acquisition, restoration, and management of open space in the Puente Hills for preservation of the land to protect the biological diversity and provide opportunities for outdoor education and low-impact recreation, and scheduled hikes are offered.[7][8][9]
Hellman Wilderness Park is located in the western Puente Hills ("Whittier Hills") with trailheads inWhittier.[10] It is managed by the Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority.[11] It has trails into nativecoastal sage scrubhabitats, and up to vistas of theLos Angeles Basin.[12]
Schabarum Regional Park is partially in the eastern Puente Hills, inRowland Heights, eastern Los Angeles County, California. It has equestrian and hiking trails in the hills.[13][14]
A commercial discovery was made in 1897, for what would become theWhittier Oil Field, when a well was drilled to a depth of 984 feet. The location was in the central area of production. By 1903, about 100 wells were in operation and by 1924, there were 163 commercial wells in operation.[15]
There has been a long history of oil drilling in the Puente Hills. In the early 20th century, several companies drilled, includingSimon Murphy's Murphy Oil Company. Recently,Matrix Oil has proposed resumption of oil drilling on several acres in the Puente Hills. Oil drilling began to decline in the Puente hills in the 1940s.[16]
Powder Canyon, near La Habra Heights, was named after some explosion tests took placec. 1910 by a company experimenting in blasting powder. The venture failed during World War I, but the name remained.[17]
In the early 1930s an unsuccessful high-voltage experiment was made at Turnbull Canyon (near Skyline Drive) in an attempt tocreate rain.[18]
A Robin AirlinesCurtiss C-46 passenger plane crashed in the Puente Hills near Turnbull Canyon, killing all 29 passengers on April 16, 1952.[19]
In the1953 film adaptation ofH. G. Wells' science-fiction novelThe War of the Worlds, the Puente Hills was the location of an unsuccessful attempt to use a nuclear bomb against the Martian invaders.[20]
It was one of the sites forNike anti-aircraft missiles in the 1950s till the late 1960s.[21]
In the 1985 filmBack to the Future, Doc Brown introduces the iconic Delorean time machine in the parking lot ofPuente Hills Mall.[22]
The October1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake revealed a previously unrecognized fault line under the Puente Hills Area.[23][24]
From the 1970s to the early 2000s ahillside letter with initials "L.A." were cemented on a hill in Hacienda Heights, (west of Palm Avenue and Beech Hill Avenue, bordering the Puente Hills Landfill). It was made by students fromLos Altos High School. The letter has slowly disappeared over time.
