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
St. Francis Dam Disaster
San Francisquito Canyon & Floodpath
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][Fillmore Herald]
Floodplain of the St. Francis Dam disaster. Probably Castaic Junction where Interstate 5 and Highway 126 intersect today, looking east. Photos courtesy of Caroline and Glenn Marshall; shot by Caroline Marshall's grandparents on March 13, 1928.Construction on the 600-foot-long, 185-foot-high St. Francis Dam started in August 1924. With a 12.5 billion-gallon capacity, the reservoir began to fill with water on March 1, 1926. It was completed two months later.
At 11:57:30 p.m. on March 12, 1928, the dam failed, sending a 180-foot-high wall of water crashing down San Francisquito Canyon. An estimated 470 people lay dead by the time the floodwaters reached the Pacific Ocean south of Ventura 5 1/2 hours later.
It was the second-worst disaster in California history, after the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, in terms of lives lost.
CG2807: 300 dpi jpeg from original print
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