Town file
Canyon Lake, California
Canyon Lake, California (Riverside County, California) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 70, "Three Murders & A Strangling" (23 May 2018). Canyon Lake sits in Riverside County in southern California, roughly an hour and a quarter from both Los Angeles and San Diego, built around a lake in Railroad Canyon.
- Town
- Canyon Lake
- County
- Riverside County
- State
- California
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 70
- Approximate location
- 33.688, -117.264
Episode 70 / 23 May 2018 / 158 min / full
Three Murders & A Strangling
"We're going to Canyon Lake, California ... it's in Riverside County" about 0:06:40
The case: Murder of Norma Davis (February 14th, 1994); Murder of June Roberts (February 1994); Murder of Dora Beeby (March 16th, 1994); Strangling of Dorinda Hawkins (March 10th, 1994). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2018
- Population
- 11,080
- Median age
- about 43.4
- Median home value
- $414,200
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $1,650
- Cost of living
- 142
- Religious
- about 46%
- Violent crime
- ▼ about 20% less
- Property crime
- ▼ about 20% lower
- Women executed in California
- four
- Death penalty requests for a woman in Riverside County
- ▼ the third
History, in brief
- The California Southern Railroad, the Santa Fe line, began work through the canyon on July 10th, 1880. about 0:09:18
- The original plan was a rail connection from San Diego to Chicago, but the line only got as far as Barstow, about 150 miles away. about 0:09:46
- A frog war is when a small railroad crosses another company's tracks; the companies sued and their workers brawled. about 0:11:58
- Native people warned the railroad that the canyon flooded every six months. about 0:13:32
- Huge floods in 1884 and 1916 were total washouts of the rail line. about 0:14:37
- A 1927 flood destroyed the line so badly that the company gave up after about 50 years. about 0:14:46
- The place was called Railroad Canyon and the name stuck. about 0:15:02
- The Temescal company built a dam there instead, to fill a reservoir. about 0:15:33
- In 1928 Ella Van Fossen, a wealthy Oakland widow living a few hundred yards downstream, blockaded the road with rocks and wire and lay down in front of the trucks. about 0:16:13
- She was taken from the road to a mental institution for observation. about 0:17:19
- Once released she set fire to her house and the surrounding area; the fire burned over 800 acres in Railroad Canyon and destroyed several cabins. about 0:17:31
- In 1964 they filled the canyon to make the lake. about 0:19:05
- In 1968 the Corona Land Company started the City of Canyon Lake with 4,801 lots. about 0:21:36
- The whole town is gated, with no downtown beyond a nail shop and a couple of restaurants, and no banks or insurance offices. about 0:22:08
- The HOA fines residents $500 for rinsing the undercarriage of a car, because the runoff reaches the lake. about 0:22:34
- The population was only about 2,000 until around 1980. about 0:26:25
- In 2006 the BBC made a documentary called The United Gates of America, which called Canyon Lake the world's most paranoid town. about 0:25:44
The reviews read out
1 star
"Titled 'Drug addicts alcoholics and snobs'; says crime is high, there is only one incompetent police officer on patrol at all times, and there are car thefts, arson and much, much more; would not recommend raising a family there."about 0:24:08
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Borrego Springs, California61 miles
- Lomita, California61 miles
- Cottonwood, California151 miles
- Lake Havasu City, Arizona178 miles
- Olancha, California183 miles
- Springville, California190 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.