St. Francis Dam Disaster Site

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

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Francis Dam Disaster Site — steps away
  The dam failed just before midnight on March 12, 1928, and the flood ran fifty miles down the canyon to the sea.
• Oak of the Golden Dream — 11 mi
  Gold was found in California here in 1842, six years before Sutter's Mill, and the oak it was found under is still standing.
• Pioneer Oil Refinery — 11 mi
  The first commercially successful refinery in the West, built in 1876 to take the crude coming down the pipeline from Pico Canyon.
• Mentryville and Pico Canyon — 12 mi
  A company town in a canyon, and a mile and a half further up the road, the well that started the California oil industry.

More markers nearby

• Rancho San Francisco — 8.0 mi
• Lang — 11 mi
• Oak of the Golden Dream — 11 mi
• Pioneer Oil Refinery — 11 mi