The St. Francis Dam Disaster’s 93rd anniversary is still remembered to this day by the Santa Clarita Valley, along with other cities affected by the collapse.
93 years ago, the Saint Francis Dam broke and killed more than 400 people in Santa Clarita and the surrounding areas.
Filled with water supplied by the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which allowed water to flow south from the Owens Valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the St. Francis Dam provided Los Angeles with a reserve aquifer that could last at least a year.
On March 12, 1928, three minutes before midnight, the dam broke and sent a wall of water down San Francisquito Canyon through Castaic Junction, Santa Clarita, Piru, Camulos, Bardsdale, Fillmore, Santa Paula and Ventura before emptying into the Pacific Ocean between Oxnard and Ventura.
The dam collapse created a 55-mile path of death and destruction, costing millions of dollars and destroying many homes and other property.
An estimated 37.5 square miles of farmland was entirely swept away by the wall of water.
The death toll was officially estimated at more than 450, but experts say that figure could be much higher, as numerous transient farmworkers who perished in the flood were never accounted for in official statistics.
Bodies were discovered in the rubble and deposited miles from where they had been caught up in the wave for years after the collapse, while others were washed out to sea.
See Related: St. Francis Dam Disaster To Be Commemorated In Memorial Design Competition
The man-made flood marks the second-largest loss of life in a single disaster in California. Only the 1906 San Francisco earthquake accounted for more fatalities, according to officials.
A year after the disaster, lawmakers created what would become the Division of Safety of Dams under the California Department of Water Resources. The division’s geologists and engineers review and approve dam construction plans and conduct regular inspections.
In 2019, President Trump signed a bill bringing the St. Francis Dam disaster national memorial and national monument into existence.
The U.S. Forest Service announced In February of 2021 that it had launched a design competition, open to the general public through April 31, for a memorial commemorating the disaster.
“The U.S. Forest Service vision is for the memorial to serve both a commemorative and an educational function,” reads a statement issued by the service. “More than just a plaque, the memorial should help the public learn about this significant historical event, while placing the tragedy in its broader historical and national context.”
In previous years, bus tours and lectures were held to commemorate the disaster, as well as bringing tourists to the new St. Francis Dam Memorial. In 2021, no such tour was officially announced.
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