Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures
> ST. FRANCIS DAM DISASTER
Santa Paula Flood Damage
St. Francis Dam Disaster


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SANTA PAULA
4-8-1928

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April 8, 1928 — Flood damage in Santa Paula. Photograph by Thomas Ward of Southern California. 6x3.5-inch velox print.


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 411 people lay dead by the time the floodwaters reached the Pacific Ocean south of Ventura 5½ 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 — and America's worst civil engineering failure of the 20th Century.


LP2803: 19200 dpi jpeg from original print purchased 2013 by Lauren Parker.
FILLMORE-SANTA PAULA FLOOD DAMAGE
St. Francis Dam Disaster 1928

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FILM: Fillmore

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Bardsdale-Fillmore (Mult.)

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Broken Highway

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Broken Water Main

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Santa Paula Structures x11

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Santa Paula 3/16/1928

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Near Santa Paula

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Controlled Burn

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April 8, 1928 x2

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Teague Photos x8

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Wrecked Farmhouse

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