Over 400 people perished in California's 2nd greatest disaster. Gazing out the window she witnessed a scene of calm beauty: "There was a large full moon with big white clouds rolling over it." *, Gravity dams like the St. Francis Dam use their weight to resist the water pressure exerted on them. Dam failed. *^, In May 1929, the upright section was toppled with dynamite and the remaining blocks were demolished with bulldozers and jackhammers to discourage sightseers and souvenir hunters from exploring the ruins.*^. Ventura County Star/Steve Greenberg**. March 12, 2018 2 AM PT. (1928)^^* View of Main Highway Bridge one and one-half miles from Castaic. Only the supports survived the flood waters following the St. Francis Dam collapse. The dam was designed to be 175 feet tall and to hold back a reservoir of 30,000 acre feet. The dam broke near midnight of March 12, 1928, sending a wave of water and debris down the Santa Clara River watershed. Soledad Luna was at home asleep when the St. Francis Dam collapsed, minutes before midnight on Monday, March 12, 1928. At two and a half minutes before midnight on the 12th of March 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, sending 12 billion gallons of water rushing towards the o. Not until daybreak did it finally wash into the Pacific Ocean south of Ventura, leaving in its wake millions of dollars in property damage and some 400 lost lives. In the critically acclaimed book Heavy Ground: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster, historians Norris Hundley, Jr. and Donald C. Jackson provide a detailed account and analysis of the collapse of the St. Francis Dam, which was located 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles near the present-day city of Santa Clarita. The St. Francis Dam National Memorial Foundation's vision is to create a National Memorial at the site of the remnants of the St. Francis Dam in San Francisquito Canyon in Santa Clarita, California which properly honors the memories of the over 400 victims of the dam collapse on March 12, 1928, and provides a great educational experience about the second greatest disaster in California history . St. Francis Dam Disaster - Water and Power Associates A self-taught engineer, the 72-year-old Mulholland had launched the citys remarkable growth by building both an aqueduct to pipe water 233 miles from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the St. Francis Dam, to hold a full years supply of water for Los Angeles. (1925)**^ - The St. Francis Dam nearing completion. In turn, they were picked up by her husband who, after pushing them through a window with orders to "run up the hill," went back for Daniel's two sisters, Mazie and Marjorie. 1. The famed Mulholland Dam in Hollywood, which was similar in design to the St. Francis Dam, was also evaluated and re-enforced.**^. 2. St. Francis Dam disaster | dam failure, California, United States [1928 Geologic hazards are the root cause of the St. Francis Dam collapsing. Therefore, an inquest jury determined responsibility for the disaster lay with the governmental organizations which oversaw the dam's construction and the dam's designer and engineer, Mulholland, but cleared Mulholland of any charges, since neither he nor anyone else at the time could have known of the instability of the rock formations on which the dam was built. (1928)* - Sightseers climb large chunks of concrete, St. Francis Dam. Debris and people were swept away as far as the Oxnard plains and the Pacific Ocean. The concrete-arched gravity dam was built by the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works and Supply (now DWP) under the supervision of its chief engineer, William Mulholland. The married employees' compound where the Curtises lived lay but a short walk west from Power House No. The St. Francis Dam was given an anglicized version of the name of the creek bed on which it rested (San Francisquito). Water and Power Associates St. Francis Dam Disaster (1928)*^* - Panoramic view showing the St. Francis Dam with large reservoir behind it. Mulholland was retained as Chief Consulting Engineer for a while, however, in later years, he retreated into a life of semi-isolation. (1928)* - The ruins of the San Francisquito Power Plant No. Holding tight until the impromptu raft backed into a canyon wall, he jumped to safety, all the while shouting for his wife and children. "Everything seemed perfectly safe," recalled Lillian Curtis. (1928)*^^ - Several men stand at the base of the collapsed dam's remains. The collapse of the St. Francis Dam on March 12, 1928, is, in terms of loss of life, the. Such changes would not occur with modern engineering practices, but little was said about the changes in 1925.*. It was one of a group of houses built for married employees of the Bureau of Power and Light, tucked in a small ravine off the main San Francisquito Canyon. 1, about five miles above the dam, or clustered near San Francisquito Power House No. The serenity of the moment, in contrast to the tumult to come, lingered long in her memory. *^, Despite some reports absolving Mulholland of culpability, the collapse ushered in a public distrust of all prior Mulholland projects. 5 things you didn't know about the St. Francis Dam failure Then he felt himself "thrown into the air with a force like from an explosion," the water knocking him aside and crushing the timber bungalow. Rising later recalled that his wife had shouted, "What's thata wind?" (1928)* - A woman can be seen standing on the ground below some of the huge pieces of the failed dam which were washed down by the 100 foot high wall of water which raced towards Ventura. Lessons Learned: Mulholland's Fatal Dam He retired from the Bureau of Water Works and Supply in March 1929. Several large concrete blocks can be seen scattered throughout the area, and a few people can be seen along the road at the base of the mountain as well as atop a remaining portion of the bridge in the far distance. Learned from the St. Francis Dam Failure The voice she heard was not her husband's, but Ray Rising's. Norris Hundley, Jr. (19352013) was a professor of American history at UCLA and longtime editor of Pacific Historical Quarterly. (1928)^^* - Remains of homes in Santa Paula following the collapse of St. Francis Dam. LA Times Photo: March 14, 1928. (1928)^^ - St. Francis reservoir a day or two later after all 12.4 billion gallons had drained out of it less than 70 minutes. paleolandslide Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928 was the failure of a large concrete gravity dam due to unmitigated geologic hazards, causing over 55 miles of violent flooding, and over 400 deaths. USGS. The St. Francis Dam was increased in height from the designed 175 feet to 195 feet at completion, without any substantial widening of the dams base. He died in 1935, at the age of 79.*^. A caterpillar tractor is visible on the right side. In the critically acclaimed book Heavy Ground: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster, historians Norris Hundley, Jr. and Donald C. Jackson provide a detailed account and analysis of the collapse of the St. Francis Dam, which was located 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles near the present-day city of Santa Clarita. The dam collapsed in March of 1928 at 11:57 p.m., sending 12 billion gallons of water rushing down the Santa Clara River Valley. Lillian Curtis was now also "hearing a strange noise," and she grabbed her husband and screamed, "The dam has broken!" There were no surviving eyewitnesses to the failure, but one man on the road about a half-mile away from the dam recalls feeling a strange shaking of the ground and the sound of crashing, falling blocks. The shaking he felt was no earthquake but rather the tumble of incredibly heavy pieces of concrete that were falling off the dam.^*. (1925)* - Construction site of the St. Francis Dam showing tower, concrete mixing shed and runway. Also residing in the married employees' compound were Ray Rising, his wife, Julia, and their three young daughters, Delores, Eleanor, and Adaline. "*^, J. David Rogers, a professor of geological engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, published a comprehensive account of the dam's failure. 2, located a mile and a half downstream from the reservoir. This is the story of the St. Francis Dam disaster of March 12, 1928. Andnot quite a year later, in early March 1928both families called the canyon home when water first filled the reservoir and rose within three inches of the dam's spillway crest. In the early hours of March 13, 1928, a massive wall of water flooded the Santa Clara Valley, leaving roughly 400 people dead in its wake before reaching the Pacific Ocean at dawn. The waves of water traveled a course of 54 miles into the ocean and killed over 450 civilians (Water and Power Associates, n.d.). St. Francis Dam: Worst Civil Engineering Failure of the 20th Century (1928)*^* - Panoramic view showing the St. Francis Dam with large reservoir behind it. Just past the Ventura County line along the Santa Clara River was a railroad siding called Kemp. 2 which stood just 5 miles north of Newhall. It was completed a year later, almost to the day. *, In July 1925, when the dam was about halfway completed, Mulholland again decided to raise the dam another 10 feet to a total height of 195 feet. The collapse of the St. Francis Dam was a colossal engineering and human disaster that might have slowed the national project to tame the West. (1928)^^* - Aerial view showing the aftermath of the dam's destruction. Note the man with the hat in the foreground. dedication in May of 1926, almost two years before the failure. This March 18, 1928 photo shows damage in Santa Paula, devastated by water after the March 12, 1928 St. Francis Dam collapse north of Santa Clarita, about 30 miles away. Historical Photos of the St. Francis Dam Disaster 2. During the official inquest, he claimed the mistake as entirely his own. However, immediately after construction began in 1925, Mulholland decided to raise the dam 10 feet and increase the capacity of the reservoir to 32,000 acre feet. His assistant, Harvey Van Norman, succeeded him as Chief Engineer and General Manager. The dam's failure can be attributed to three major factors: the instability of the ancient landslide material on which the dam was built, the failure to compensate for the additional height added to the dam's design, and the design and construction being overseen by only one person. A few months after the dam's collapse, 18-year-old Lercy Parker fell to his death from the standing section after his friend, in playing a joke, had thrown a dead rattlesnake at him. Neither family had been living in San Francisquito Canyon when the St. Francis Dam was completed in May 1926, but the Curtises were in residence when the reservoir, with a capacity of more than 12 billion gallons, came close to filling in May 1927. A mid-construction design change increased the total height of the dam to 195 feet. Quick Facts Location: California, USA Year Constructed: 1926 Type: Masonry/Concrete Height: 205 ft. Primary Purpose: Water Supply Date of Incident: March 12-13, 1928 Evacuation: No Fatalities: 432+ Property Damage: $7 Million Description & Background The three months . 2 are clearly visible from the canyon road above. The dam was located in the San Francisquito Canyon, about 5 miles northeast of what is now Magic Mountain, California. SaintFrancisDam.com | St. Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial | San Updated April 8, 2021. He ran through the camp, waking up as many people as possible. Click HERE to see more in Early Views of the Mulholland Dam and Hollywood Reservoir. (1928)^^* View showing the St. Francis Dam and water reservoir behind it shortly before the dam's collapse. The aqueduct was re-evaluated, reservoirs double-checked, and his prior dams were re-enforced with more earth. One large chunk of dam remains standing while another lays on the ground below it. The plant's penstocks can also be seen in the upper right. By then, William Mulhollandthe man responsible for building the damhad been roused from his bed in Los Angeles and driven 45 miles to the site of the now empty reservoir. 2. LA Times Photo: March 15, 1928. Preserving and advancing the history of the St. Francis Dam Disaster and honoring its victims. dedication in May of 1926, almost two years before the failure. Edwards would become known as the "Paul Revere of the St. Francis Flood" as he raced wildly from door to door warning residents of Santa Paula. Night watchman Ed Locke watched in horror as the huge flood of water approached the camp. (1928)* - St. Francis Dam as seen from the hillside. The center section of the dam, later nicknamed "The Tombstone", remained standing; the rest broke into numerous smaller and several large pieces most of which were washed downstream. (1928)* - Photo shows edge of the major piece still standing, and to the left of it a little of the water still left in the area.

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