# Where's the ravine in Chavez Ravine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-ravine-in-chavez-ravine/475254 "2008-12-01T22:29:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-ravine-in-chavez-ravine/475254/1 "2008-12-01T22:29:58Z")
I remember reading about the building of Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. In my youthful imagination, there was a deep, long crack in the earth in which a baseball stadium had been pushed. Perhaps you could step from the edge of the ravine right into the top level of seating. Looking at an [aerial photograph](http://www.yesterdayla.com/Graphics/downtown2.jpg) of Los Angeles, which Chavez Ravine supposedly at center, I see nothing that looks like my idea of a ravine, a walled channel of some kind, something like a canyon, perhaps, but not as big. What’s my malfunction here? Do I have a mistaken idea of what a ravine is? Where is the ravine? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-ravine-in-chavez-ravine/475254/2 "2008-12-01T23:06:10Z")
A ravine makes for a very bumpy parking lot. Most of the depressions in the area were filled in when the stadium was built and the land leveled. See this [photo](http://www.walteromalley.com/phot_detail.php?gallery=1&set=2&photoID=10). And this [one](http://www.walteromalley.com/phot_detail.php?gallery=1&set=2&photoID=11). Now look at the stadium [today](http://google.earth.fan.free.fr/reperes.php?repere=142). ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-ravine-in-chavez-ravine/475254/3 "2008-12-01T23:38:59Z")
I always felt like I was on the edge of a damned ravine if we were sitting up top! 😉 Player seats are much better… ETA- in all seriousness, remember that there were quite a few people living in Chavez Ravine. So it wasn’t a steep-sided ravine in the classic sense. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-ravine-in-chavez-ravine/475254/4 "2008-12-03T04:22:47Z")
I can’t recall the name of it, but there was a comic book character back in the early sixties called Chavez Ravine. He was a stereotypical Mexican bandito. Lving in LA, I got the joke, but wondered at the time whether anyone living out of So Cal would understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-ravine-in-chavez-ravine/475254/5 "2008-12-03T05:36:06Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > I always felt like I was on the edge of a damned ravine if we were sitting up top! 😉 Player seats are much better… > > ETA- in all seriousness, remember that there were quite a few people living in Chavez Ravine. So it wasn’t a steep-sided ravine in the classic sense. 😃 Having grown up and lived half way up a very steep hill just a couple of miles north of Chavez Ravine, I can assure that people will build houses damn near anywhere. Even on the sides of steep ravines.