Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. Four men stand in a crevice in the remains of the inside of the failed Saint Francis Dam in San Francisquito Canyon. Water depth signs are visible on the concrete dam remains, reading: 1670, 1675, 1680, 1685. A metal door in the wall of the dam attached to a long pole is visible on the left. 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. Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
Image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1882 ark:/21198/zz002dcrvj
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Dam failures--California--San Francisquito Canyon Weather Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928 Disaster
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