Pacoima, the neighborhood at the top of the Valley around the Hansen Dam, has a magnificent setting, among the most magnificent in the Southland. But it has struggled (fascinating story, more later). Much of it has turned into a de-placed industrial Sprawls-ville, easy to ignore. Hansen Dam obscures the hills, one of which, Top Hill, forms the Dam’s western anchor.

The ridge rises high enough over the Tujunga flood marshes to command a 360-degree view of the entire San Fernando Valley, and up into the watersheds of Little Tujunga and Big Tujunga Canyons.

The legend goes on that Mission-resistant Indians used the promontory as an observation platform and communications post. On one ridge they could keep an eye on the increasingly elaborate goings-on down at San Fernando. From Rabbit Ridge, behind Hi Hill and out of view of the Spaniards, they could use signal fires and animal-skin screens to relay news up into the Tataviam canyons.

What’s sure is these sunny canyons and south-facing hills were the home of the Tataviam Indians, whose name means “people of the southern slopes.” They called the place “Pacoigna,” translated as “la Entrada,” “the gateway” or “the entrance.” The place was their front door, their sun-drenched lobby, where converged many of the corridors into their world of the mountains.

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https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/9048/1/Basham_w_1948.pdf

Click on the link above for a 1948 geology paper on Pacoima Hills!