St Francis Dam Disaster Site Documentary - Doug Ward 

My Grandad was a rescue worker. My Godmother said you could see the damage for 40 years. One of my aunts was named for a victim of the flood.

I drive through this canyon everyday and always wondered about the concrete. I’m surprised not many people know what happened there. Thank you for the video.

I lived in Santa Clarita and knew about the disaster and visited the site many times on the way to the shooting range three miles further. This video and period photos are the best and most informative and many details and ruins I have missed. Than You.

I was born and raised in the San Fernando valley. Moved to Virginia in 92 and had never heard of this until I came across a story about the disaster. In 08 my wife and I toured Route 66 to California and visited the site. I now have a small piece of the dam on my fireplace mantle. Great video! Very well done!

Thanks for the video. There are photos a farmer took of the construction that also show that the base of the dam was not constructed to the specifics of the design plans.

I had read "Man Made Disaster" in 1964 in junior high school and arranged to have my brother drive us up to the dam site. It has changed a good bit over the past 57 years. First, we drove up the old road, and it was clear where the dam was because the terrain to the north of the site was lush, green and wooded. The area below was still scoured and nearly barren. The wing wall was intact, and the steps of the "tombstone" were more visible. We brought back a chunk of concrete from one of the downstream sections. I went back in the late 1980s. I hooked up with a Boy Scout troop and their scoutmasters, one who had a copy of the book. It was interesting to be among young men who were my age when I first saw the dam. It was clear that the wing wall had been demolished with explosives, not natural weathering. We went together to San Francisquito Powerplant # 1 and had a fascinating tour. The Pelton Wheel generators still had their "50 Hz buckets", designed to generate 50-cycle power that ran Los Angeles until the early 1950s. We had also talked our way into Powerplant # 2 during our 1964 trip. We saw the transformer that was wrenched out of the basement and tossed down the canyon, fished out, welded back together and re-used. I have visited the ruins of the South Fork Dam above Johnstown, PA, and, at the end of the summer, I am going on a military history tour in Belgium and France, then flying to Italy to see the Vajont Dam, the site of the October, 1963 landslide that sent a 750' tsunami down a narrower canyon, killing over 3,000 people. I have long been haunted about the St. Francis Dam. I will return sometime, in the next few years,

I just got back from hiking around the site and found your video the perfect companion piece!

Excellent history of the St. Francis Dam. Imagine the force of water to have carried such gigantic sections of the dam so far from the dam site itself. Amazing.

This was one of the most well-done documentary videos I've yet seen. Thank you.

Terrific explanation of this historic tragedy. Wonderfully narrated and produced.

Excellent! Thank you so much! I live in Ventura County so this is relevant history for me.

I’m from Santa Paula, and growing up we learned about this disaster in middle school. Fifteen years later and I drive through this road nearly every weekend to visit my family. I’m amazed by it now and makes me wonder of that tragic night over 90 years ago.

Best mini documentary on the disaster I've seen. Great work.

I've read so much about this man-made disaster and this, by far, is the best video documentary I've seen. Like the South Fork Dam above Johnstown, PA, what remains today belies the awful human tolls wrought because of poor engineering and a failure to take into account the costs of ignoring both geology and the potential impacts on downstream populations, should a failure occur. It's also noteworthy that while the City of Los Angeles accounted for around 450 fatalities, historians seem to feel the toll was likely much higher, owing to the number of residents that were undocumented and the bodies that were never accounted for. A sad day in history, indeed. Kudos for your valuable work!

Thanks for the video this is one of the best Ive seen about the dam. You left the drama out of it and reported the facts. Not many know about the collapse of the dam and I found out only because I am a part time rideshare driver and one of my passengers that live in the area told me about it. It was truly a tragedy and many lives were lost.

Documentaries like these deserve its place in Discovery channel. Much appreciate your effort and awesome production

I know this story well and still watched your whole Documentary. Very well done.

Well done, Dug Ward - thank you for this documentary!

Superb video. Lack of adequate geotechnical investigation. Similar to Vajont disaster in Italy in that respect. At least the lessons were learned. Mulholland is presumably the inspiration for the Mulwray character in Chinatown. Fascinating stuff.

I wish I could give this video a *2 thumbs up.* Well done documentary. Very informative and the before and after shots along with the overlays of where the damn was really goes a long way in helping us to visualize what was then and is now. Thank you!!

Very thorough video log, good and thank you!

This is a lot better than any other video I've seen on the dam site.

An Excellent video!!!! I liked that you showed the position of the dam instead of having to find it in the picture.... Well Done!!!! Do more!!!!!

Best documentary I’ve seen on this tragic disaster

i'm here due to Frank Black's excellent tune commemorating this disaster. thanks for context.

Thank you for the history of the St. Francis Dam

Well done documentary . . . thank you! I grew up in Green Valley in the 1960's (my parents owned the Green Valley Country Store) north of the dam site and my aunt and uncle lived along San Francisquito Cynic's Rd.

Great video…! I love this kind of history of our state. Thanks for your work.

"...its the reason California has the toughest damn construction and maintenance standards in the country." 2017 anybody?

Excellent video Barry. Indeed a very sad day in history.

Very thorough forensics, geology and photography. Great job

Hiked in the valley today and saw the remains of the dam. Sad, but interesting part of LA history that i didnt know until recently

In 1982, I was an engineering student at LA Pierce College. During a Concrete Construction class (I still have all my notes!), I learned some of the issues with the dam was poor aggregate "in the mix" and faulty anchoring at the ends.. So, that really was a DAM shame!

i spent 20 years in LA and never knew any of this! thanks so much for putting this together, Doug!

Excellent documentary!

Excellent documentary! Thank you!

Thank you for a great documentary!

Thank you for this excellent documentary!

Excellent job. Thank you! The visualizations were especially great.

You did a great job on the history of this dam. A high quality production.

Raised in Camarillo in the sixties, we visited the dam in 1965 and the Center Section was still standing ! Not much overgrowth then.

Very informative. I've been up San Francisquito Cyn Rd many times. Thank you for taking the time to make this video and for posting it.

Thanks Doug. I was there in 2012 and it was unprotected. I’m glad to hear it’s now a National Historic Site.

Oh! this is a brilliant video!! SO interesting to see how it looks now, with the overlay!! Thankyou!

Clearly explained 👍

I visited the site many years ago, but before I go back, I'll review this excellent video.

I’m really impressed with your work, you did a very nice job showing the actual site.

Fantastic visual explanation.

Excellent! Thank you!

Lived in Palmdale this road was my shortcut to Santa Clarita and Ventura

Wonderful historic information, thank you.

Thank you for this well done documentary.

great narration

i remember reading about this in school and then seeing this on tv via newsreels at that time . i remember reading when land line telgrpahers and telephone operators were at their posts franticly calling people to head to higher ground . a number of operators died as did telegraphers . the call came from either a power house or the dam itself . i do not remember that aspect.

Damn fine narration, research, and videography, "BB". Subscribed !

Great work -thanks!

Very well done

excellent video and thankyou for sharing it

Thanks for your take on this disaster and looking at the remains 91 years later. Those leaks in the dam, prior to its failure should have promoted investigation. But, that’s water under the bridge.

Hello from Australia. Just subscribing to help get to 1k and also because of the fantastic content. Thanks for sharing this. Have a fabulous day. Ella.

That was really informative and well done. Thank you.

Great video would love to see more

Very nice job on this doc

Thanks for creating such an interesting and informative video!

Great video!!

Very nicely done.

You did a great job on the video!

Fantastic video!

Tadpole generally give zero f's about most things but tadpolling and future frogging.

i'm here because I watched "chinatown" last night. Greetings from Lake Lanier, Buford Dam GA. lol

This video prompted me to look for other dam failures. Seems like dam failures are quite common.

In college geology class we visited there...was told the failure was due to the dam being built where the rock on both sides was not good...one shale the other gypsum...and that the lone dam watchman at the bottom canyon with his son and only a wood ladder to escape would perish but not before the bottom leak was reported to Mullholland who came to see for himself in the late afternoon only to say they’ll be back in the morning to look again...that night it failed...the leak having water from the shale side eddy back the gypsum side undercutting the structure the dam was built perpendicularly against the shale side which made it easy to fail under pressure...this was discovered by a graduate student at UCLA I think it was and was also told to Mullholland....after the tragedy he continued distraught gave away most all his fortune before his death...some say he killed himself....

lovely video

Well done 👏 ✔️ 👍 👌

I have been driving through this canyon since 2003. Just south of the dam is the first stop sign. As you continue past the pumping station you can see the telltale power of the water as it scared the surrounding hills on its way to the Pacific Ocean. May the victims R.I.P.

very cool!

great documentary

Detailed. I love it.

Well done

Dam good documentary.

Super eerie

I used to drive by it, KNOWING what was once there, and still not see any evidence. Only when you stop your car and get out will you have a "why didn't I see this earlier" moment. And, yes, this is what the movie "Chinatown" is loosely based on.

toughest guidelines for dam management and inspection. Ah, Oroville?

Never Heard of this before. That was a big dam . It flowed to the Ocean 50 miles away. Wow that was a nasty flood .

Interesting documentary and I don't even live in California!

The St Francis Dam disaster is obliquely referenced in 'Chinatown', Polanski's magisterial movie that fictionalises the corruption that surrounded LA's thirst for water whatever the cost.

Specifically, how do I get there? I live in LA county.

There should be more content like this.

How about an overall picture on a map where that dam was located. Is it out by lancaster? Or is it west of I 5? All I got was that it was in CA...somewhere. LA owns land all the way to Owens Lake.

Have Doug do more docs hes good at them

I'm from Santa Paula, and the water that washed to the pacific ocean would have had to travel 17 or so miles east from my town, theres also about.. 3 more cities before the ocean gets there.

Wow

I used to fish on the Sespe Creek near Fillmore not knowing the history

One of the largest gold nuggets ever found in California was found here after a heavy rainstorm in the 1990s

That damn site...

Treebeard at it again, destroyer of dams and evil wizards

damn it!

I went into the dam canyon to find the dam. I couldn't find anything worth a dam. When I found it. I took my dam pictures. The bad thing was that I couldn't find the dam bathroom.

DAM IT!

What powers the current power house?