Historical Marker · No. 919
St. Francis Dam Disaster Site
Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Receation, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, U.S. Forest Service, and The Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society, 1979
Three minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928 the dam let go, and twelve billion gallons went down the Santa Clara River to the sea, fifty-five miles away. It killed at least 431 people, most of them asleep. William Mulholland had inspected it that morning and pronounced it safe. At the inquest he took the whole of it: if there was an error in human judgment, he said, he was the human. California wrote its dam safety law the next year.
What the plaque says
The 185-foot concrete St. Francis Dam, part of the Los Angeles aqueduct system, stood 1½ miles north of this site. On March 12, 1928, the 185-foot high concrete dam collapsed just before midnight, sending 12½ billion gallons of water roaring down the Santa Clara River Valley 54 miles to the ocean. This was one of California's greatest disasters: Over 450 lives were lost.
Where it stands
34.53505, -118.52549 · Directions
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