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. This photograph appears on a photo page with the title: "Rebuilding of Shattered Dam Depends on Reports to be Made by Engineering Force." Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 1928: 3. Text from newspaper caption: Scenes of destruction and horror followed in the wake of the death-dealing collapse of the St. Francis Dam in San Francisquito Canyon yesterday. In the Santa Paula and Saticoy regions the water continued its wild course with the results shown above as caught by Times photographers. (5) Flooded houses in the more densley settled sections of Santa Paula. Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1894 ark:/21198/zz002dcs87
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Dwellings--California--Santa Paula Flood damage--California--Santa Paula Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928
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