The Story of the St. Francis Dam
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- Опубліковано 12 бер 2018
- March 12th, 2018 marked the 90th anniversary of the 1928 St. Francis Dam Disaster, the second greatest disaster in California history. 400 lives, and possibly more were lost.
Produced by The City of Santa Clarita
For more information about the St. Francis Dam Disaster:
scvhistory.com/scvhistory/stf...
I was lucky to move to San Fernando valley in 1969. When I got my drivers license I drove to this area and explored the area with day hikes. What a great time.
Such a tragedy--never, ever live below a dam.
Splendid documentary short. Out of all the dams Mulholland did have a part in either designing or consulting (including a Panama Canal dam), the St. Francis was the only dam on his list of achievements that failed. Have walked the area where the wing dike and original dam stood. Quite an amazing event. I have a piece of the dam on my fireplace mantle with a plaque from one of the pieces I chiseled off back then.
It's been reported that when Mulholland died in '35, there was a public viewing held at the L.A. city hall with thousands of people filing passed his casket; many brought flowers, but one angry sole left a commemorative vial from the 1913 opening day of the Aqueduct filled with urine.
Excellent short documentary. Although you got most of the critical info in I only wish you could have made it longer to include more! Thanks for the post.
My mom and dad and I when I was a kid, would drive up the canyon to go shooting. You could see along the road giant pieces of the dam. That was 55 years ago.
@Ogmios Ogmios: We would shoot in the creek canyon. There were still giant chunks of damn. Very cool place.
LA DWP and Mr. Mulholland were responding to the demands of landowners who wanted their desert transformed to productive/lucrative land. Many of Mulholland's engineering projects are amazing and allowed Los Angeles to become a world class city, but the SF dam disaster tends to obscure all Mulholland accomplished at LA DWP. Mulholland took responsibility for the dam failure and he suffered because he understood the suffering of the many people who lost family members, friends, homes, and belongings. The survivors of the disaster with whom I have spoken never spoke with hate about Mulholland nor did they want to see him suffer.
Flood water wasn't running into the dam , Mulholland decided to fill up the dam 10 f. higher then what it was engineered for, the very night that it finally filled was the night it gave away. No flood water just irresponsibility. The dam was also built on very unstable ground, and the concrete was not tempered properly and way to porous.
Visited the site in 1966 with our engineering college class from Santa Monica College as a field trip.
What this video doesnt say was the dam during construction had been built 20 feet higher than designed and eastern "wing" added to contain the added volume of water..the eastern side was what started to fail..
Here's a closer look at the remains and what's left ua-cam.com/video/BwXKmDgvtpY/v-deo.html
The number I'm hearing in 2020 is in excess of 600 people who died.
The sad part is that so many families could not be included in memorials like this because everything they were and had was washed away by the flood. Some, mainly migrant farm workers, weren't documented. And most non-white survivors' stories were never heard or preserved because of the racist social mores of the time. Thank goodness for families with pictures and relatives who didn't live in the area at the time who preserved pictures and can help us personalize this event.
Darn this is absolutely crazy
Don’t you mean Dam this is absolutely crazy?
My, I am finding many videos on YT depicting dam failures over the decades. It seems that a dam will fail given time.
You could have all the gold a semi can carry. But if you have no water.
Why in the world would they try to erase that piece of History ?
The dam was under so much immense pressure it was said to be tilting at a 1/2 a degree forward angle.
Power house 1 is UPSTREAM from the dam site, pics you have are power house #2
Didn't it have any rebar in that dam? I didn't see any!
Mass concrete, without rebar, was a valid construction technique at the time - and still is if it's designed properly. Rebar allows equally-strong structures to be built with less material, i.e., more cheaply, but with the additional risk of failure due to the rebar corroding.
David Miller Rebar used in bridges and dams are now fully encased in an epoxy, preventing rust and corrosion.
Power House #1 was, and is, upstream of the former dam. Power House #2 and the employee housing on Stator Ln were downstream of the failure. Power House #2 was rebuilt along with the employee housing after the flood.
thats my uncle biz
I learned to shoot at the base of where the dam was in the 70s. Its all houses now.
Wow! Thanks for sharing that fun fact. It's sad how his life ended in seclusion. You can spend a lifetime building something whether it be a career, marriage or respect and destroy it in a second. An Irish immigrant that became a self taught civil engineer while working his way up the latter of Los Angeles Water and Power. He envisioned an expanding Los Angeles which needed a source of water. He lead the way and directed the project that would one day allow L.A to become the second largest city in the 🇺🇸 . Some have compared the complexity of the Aqueduct project to that of the Panama Canal. A tragic ending to a illustrious career.
Well they were wrong.
@@rayjames6096 About what?
Comparing the aqueduct to the Panama canal, the canal is an engineering marvel, the aqueduct while impressive doesn't compare to it.
@@rayjames6096 When completed in 1913, the Los Angeles Aqueduct was considered to be a great engineering accomplishment only second to the Panama Canal. Facts
@@goosewayne3320 I would think the Suez canal would also be more impressive than the aqueduct.
Where is the rebar?
kinezo1961 that’s what I commented in another rendition of this event, also read a book about it and noticed the same thing in one particular picture of that cement block. And they say, questionable construction, com’on.
Re-bar corrodes and causes weaknesses. Thicker concrete is better.
kinezo1961 that’s a viable idea.
The Webar is where the workers went for lunch
It’s very sad they destroyed the ruins after it failed it feels like all the Histroy of my city has been destroyed and there is no way for me to truly appreciate where this city’s roots sprout from it’s crazy that I learned local history in elementary school and they never even mentioned this dam or if they did I don’t remember it bc I was so young it’s honestly disappointing that we don’t teach more of the Histroy of our community in schools I learned more through UA-cam. I didn’t even know about menrtyville until my friends wanted to sneak around it at night in hs and I’m just now learning it was an oil town and we had oil in the 1800s wild they don’t teach us our town was literally here b4 newhall and we were built on the biggest economic force of the past 2 centuries
Los Angeles is not a desert. Koppen climate classification.
LA isn't a desert averages about 15 inches of rain a year more or less depending on area
Not since 2012. Me as a sants Clarita resident has noticed less and less rain fall. The climate is changing as we speak. This is a desert we took our own natural river supply now using aqueducts
@@OneBasedGodthey continue to raise the average yearly rainfall amount every 12 years or so. Yes I said raise, but you will never hear about this anywhere because it goes against the narrative and goes against what they want you to believe. Step outside your box and just do some common sense research and when you do you will debunk almost everything that has been told to you.
Mulholland was not ever trained as an engineer he came over as a laborer, working to dig irrigation ditches in LA, he saw that whoever controlled the water controlled the population in LA, so he put together a plan to steal all the water in the Owens river by buying up farms and their water rights. The people of Owens valley didn't see what was happening until it was too late, LA controlled all the water rights and owned most of the small towns like Lone Pine and still does. Most all the buildings in Lone Pine, Big Pine etc. are owned by LA water district and leased to the businesses. He made a fortune on worthless land in the San Fernando valley he bought for pennies, but was worth a fortune when it had water and could be planted in oranges. He drained Owens Lake which at one time was over 30 miles long and 10 miles wide, they had steam ships that plied Owens Lake, just think what a recreation paradise that lake would be today. Some of the local Owens Valley residents have on a few occasions have blown up the aqueduct, but it was rebuilt. If I lived in the Owens Valley I would figure out how to reclaim the land by eminent domain, and renew the Owens Lake, let LA get their water by desalination of the ever present Pacific Ocean. F Mulholland
@Angky Doodle There used to be a tram from Keeler up the mountain to the town of Cerro Gorda (now a ghost town). From Keeler you would take a ferry across the lake to the west side where you could catch a stage.
If water rights in the valley (actually the whole drainage system into the valley) could not be gotten by "conventional" means criminal thugs would be hired to convince the local that resisted to change their minds. If they didn't they were burned out.
Rivers in the Desert by Margaret Leslie Davis paint a different story of the Los Angeles Aqueduct which brought the Owens Valley water to Los Angeles and was engineered by Mulholland. Mulholland was indeed interested in bringing water to Los Angeles so it could grow, however it was some cronies of his who did the land speculating and made fortunes from land purchases before the water got to LA.
The book, to me, shows that the dam was probably dynamited by Owens Valley people who took their vengance on LA. No doubt there was a lot of nefarious people involved in the Aqueduct from the very beginning, but I don't think Mulholland was one of them.
He became a scapegoat after the dam was destroyed, and exculpatory evidence was not presented at his trial.
At the time of the dam failure he was involved in the Boulder dam project to bring more water to Los Angeles, and the LA Water Board wanted his trial, the lawsuits that sprung from it by dam survivors, over and done with quickly so LA paid off the lawsuits without contesting them, because the longer they drug out, the worse publicity LA would get. Which might imperil the possibility of the US Govt. cancelling the Aqueduct which would bring water from Lake Mead to Los Angeles.
It is a highly readable book and one I heartily recommend to anyone interested in how Los Angeles gets its water. And as Paul Harvey used to say: "Now you know the Rest of the story!"
How does a man who is a laborer digging ditches afford to by up houses and towns to get water rights.
Question... Where in the hell did he get MILLIONS of dollars to repay the people????
He was a corrupt politician & developer, as well as a self-taught engineer, so go figure!
Find a copy of "Floodpath" by Jon Wilkman, 2016. It explains the payout source and much more. Great story and researched well.
@@marvinthiessen3454 Will do! Thank You!
If this is the 2nd greatest disaster, what is the 1st ?
Democrats
I'm guess the Johnstown (PA) flood. But there was the "Texas City Explosion," & several large tropical storms that might be in the running.
Thanks for your response but this was referring to California. Turns out it was the 1906 earthquake.
@@GilmerJohn
@@drguffey still Democrats
It's the second greatest disaster in California history, no. 1 is the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. What I've often wondered is what's no.3?
Definitely not even close to the worst civil engineering disaster of the 20th century.
Consider the Banqiao Reservoir Dam that claimed an estimated 171,000 lives.
It said in California.
Vajont Damn accident in Italy was worst.
There is no rebar in the structure
Its Chinatown re-visited...
It is an oddity that Saint Francis is associated by name with the two greatest disasters in California history.
We did not for get 🙏 rip to all . California did recover.👍
He said "sorry"
So a few people died .....
Timothy Estabrooks And then they covered it up so no one could be reminded of it. 🤔 Then built how many more dams? Hmmm
Could have been worse.
Wasn’t Powerhouse #2 that was destroyed by the floodwaters??
I think it is a pity that the narrative fails to explain, except in a few passing words, WHY the dam failed.
2.58. Epitome of an idiot. Told it had broken. So him and his friends instead of getting out of there sat around discussion why it couldn't happen. ....and many die as a result. These are the sort of idiots you get in front of you looking for hand luggage when evacuating a plane...
*Los Angeles is NOT a desert.
If I lost my family, there wouldn't be enough protection or money in the world to protect him,.
shut the fuck up
Bully for you, Rambo!
Mulholland was a corrupt politician & developer, as well as a self-taught engineer, so what could possibly go wrong!?!
Lake Francis had its dam removed.dam removal
Complete load of horse manure, it was found there and dynamited as they did to the dam at Niagara falls. It was too advanced for them to explain because it was found here like everything else.
So the country learned nothing from Johnstown ?
H
Folks on here quick to shoot Mulholland at dawn. First of all he probably had little to nothing to do with the engineering which was really to blame. So shoot the engineers? Well maybe not so quick - how do you think America has amassed the greatest engineering knowledge of all mankind - in part by trial and error. Finally folks seem itching to sue or be compensated because they are so entitled - I suggest they move to an under developed country where they run no risk of tragedy due to the community trying to advance - of course they will also not enjoy any benifit - but it is more honest than belly aching with your mouth full.
D.Joseph Virnig he was called out to inspect it the day before it broke. He stated it was fine, just a little normal leakage. If he wasn’t the expert, he had no business making the call on its safety
Actually he was a self taught engineer and HE designed the dam so YES he IS to blame, and he publicly said he was to blame.
So maybe you should do some research and pay attention to the video as well as to his own comments about the dam and HIS failure in his own words smartass.
To say he designed the dam is out of touch. He spearheaded the project and he was chief engineer - he was in charge and he paid a price. But look, there undoubtedly was a raft of engineers who made thousands of calculations based on what was known at the time to be sound practice which at the end of the day decided the fate. My point is he ended up being a scape goat and we as humans like to have someone else to blame. I am saying put this in perspective and realize that the world we live in with all of its advances came at a steep cost and this disaster was one of the charges. So throw him under the bus and think who you would sue but I say that is a sign of entitlement thinking.
@@d.josephvirnig764 no dumbass, he did design it. Do some research and learn something brainless
what a waste of time to watch this. poorly done