Image / View from below, looking up at remains of St. Francis Dam after …

View from below, looking up at remains of St. Francis Dam after its disastrous collapse, Francisquito Canyon (Calif.), 1928

View source image on contributor's website.

Get Citation

Have a question about this item?

Contact Owner

Item information. View source record on contributor's website.

Title: View from below, looking up at remains of St. Francis Dam after its disastrous collapse, Francisquito Canyon (Calif.), 1928
Date Created and/or Issued: March 1928
Publication Information: Los Angeles Times
Contributing Institution: UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library
Collection: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives
Rights Information: US
UCLA Library Special Collections, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310) 825-4207
Description: The St. Francis Dam was a 200-foot high concrete gravity-arch dam built between 1924 and 1926 in St. Francisquito Canyon (near present-day Castaic and Santa Clarita). The dam collapsed on March 12, 1928 at two and a half minutes before midnight. The resulting flood killed more than 600 residents plus an unknown number of itinerant farm workers camped in San Francisquito Canyon, making it the 2nd greatest loss of life in California after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It is considered the worst American civil engineering failure in the 20th century.
Type: Image
Format: b&w glass negative
Identifier: uclalat_1429_b3701_G1268
ark:/21198/zz0002p004
Language: No linguistic content
Subject: Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928
Dam failures--California--San Francisquito Canyon
Disaster
Flood damage--California--San Francisquito Canyon
Source: Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.