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Women and children stand outside a tent after the flood resulting from the failure of the Saint Francis Dam, Santa Clara River Valley (Calif.), 1928

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Title: Women and children stand outside a tent after the flood resulting from the failure of the Saint Francis Dam, Santa Clara River Valley (Calif.), 1928
Date Created and/or Issued: March 1928
1928-03
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
Description: Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds.
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.
Eleven children, 4 women and a dog, displaced by the flood resulting from the Saint Francis Dam failure, stand outside a tent. Printed on the tent above the doorway is "160 / P.75." beneath an image of crossed rifles.
Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type: image
Format: b&w nitrate negative
Identifier: uclamss_1429_1860
ark:/21198/zz002dcr35
Language: No linguistic content
Subject: Disaster
Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928
Disaster relief--California--Santa Clara River Valley
Lifestyle
Disaster victims--California--Santa Clara River Valley
Weather
Source: Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

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