The St. Francis Dam disaster was one of the worst engineering
failures in California history. On March 28th 1938, the St. Francis Dam
failed and collapsed. A wall of water flowed through San Fransicquito
canyon, through the Castaic Junction, Fillmore, Santa Paula and finally
ended up in the pacific ocean.
Growing up in Southern
California I don’t recall ever hearing about this, I guess it wasn't a
proud moment in California History. As an adult living in the Santa
Clarita Valley I became interested in the history of the surrounding
areas. After reading up on the disaster and the history of the site I
decided to go check it out for myself. It’s hard to believe that the
site and the remains of the dam have just been sitting there off San
Fransisquito Canyon road for nearly 90 years.
Below are some pictures I took from three different trips out to the site between Feb and Nov 2014
Someone was nice enough to let you know when get there and when you pass the site.
This is the top of the west ridge. The remains are far less weathered up here.
This
huge rock like structure is actually a large piece of the dam. This is
about 1/4 mile down the river bed from the dam site. I'd say it's about
the size of a two story house.
You can line up this last shot with the shot right after the dam failed linked below. Note the dark rubble on top of the stepped concrete.
http://www.scvhistory.com/gif/al3030.jpg
This
is an interesting trip and not a long hike. If you’re interested in
learning more about this site and the history please visit the link
below
http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/stfrancis.htm
