for Old Town Newhall Association's Night Under the Stars Sept. 13 for SCVTV.com • Local Television for Santa Clarita
for Old Town Newhall Association's Night Under the Stars Sept. 13 for SCVTV.com • Local Television for Santa Clarita
Reward For Heroism
St. Francis Dam Disaster, San Francisquito Canyon
Silent film star William S. Hart (left) and Presbyterian minister Wolcott Evans (right), both of Newhall, pin a hero's medal on Luis Rivera, son of saloon keeper Nick Rivera, following the St. Francis Dam disaster of March 12-13, 1928. The dam broke at three minutes before midnight on March 12th, sending a monumental 180-foot-high wall of water crashing down San Francisquito Canyon. It didn't stop until it reached the Pacific Ocean and left approximately 470 corpses in its wake. It was the second-worst disaster in California history, second only to the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
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