Worker watches as a crane clears a pile of foliate debris deposited by the flood following the failure of the Saint Francis Dam, Bardsdale (probably), 1928

Item Overview

Title

Worker watches as a crane clears a pile of foliate debris deposited by the flood following the failure of the Saint Francis Dam, Bardsdale (probably), 1928

Date Created

[March 1928]

Date

1928-03

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

Harry French Blaney Papers, 1919-1970

Notes

Description

This photo was taken in the Santa Clara River Valley. The setting with palm trees and cranes is similar to other photos in this collections identified as Bardsdale.
The St. Francis Dam was a 200-foot high concrete gravity-arch dam built between 1924 and 1926 in St. Francisquito Canyon (near present-day Castaic and Santa Clarita). The dam collapsed on March 12, 1928 at two and a half minutes before midnight. The resulting flood killed more than 600 residents plus an unknown number of itinerant farm workers camped in San Francisquito Canyon, making it the 2nd greatest loss of life in California after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It is considered the worst American civil engineering failure in the 20th century.

Caption

Text from negative sleeve: St. Francis Dam and Santa Clara Valley. St. Francis Dam Flood Area. [In an envelope from the:] United States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Bureau of Agricultural Engineering, Division of Irrigation, Official Business.

Physical Description

Extent

1 photographic negative

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

Black-and-white photographs
cellulose nitrate film

Location

Bardsdale (Calif.)

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928
Flood damage--California--Santa Clara River Valley
Hoisting machinery