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. Bardsdale is in the Santa Clara River Valley on the south side of the Santa Clara River near the town of Fillmore. Men standing outside a rope cordoning off an area with tents in the days following the failure of the Saint Francis Dam and resulting flood. A sign in a tree on the right reads "Bardsdale Hdqtrs" with an arrow pointing to the left and a sign on a tent reads "Headquarters." There is a building partially visible on the left, a house behind the tents on the right, 2 parked automobiles and one truck. A sign on the truck reads "...studios ...corp. ...D. Brown...Generator [?] No. 1." Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
Image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1949 ark:/21198/zz002dcv5n
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928 Disaster relief--California--Bardsdale
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.
