View of plant debris and a muddy agricultural field with evenly spaced plantings beyond in the path of the flood caused by the failure of the Saint Francis Dam. A straight, elevated area in the background may be a road.
Edward E. Sweeney (left) , former land and tax agent for the Southern California Gas Company, most likely when he was on trial for embezzlement, forgery, and grand theft. He is walking with two unidentified men. Reported in "BRIBERY MADE THEFT DEFENSE: E. E. Sweeney Says Money Went to Officials Missing $190,000 Purchased Favors, Court Told Gas Company Head Denied ex-Employee's Charges," Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 1928: A1.
Three men stand in Harry Chandler's Baja California ranch, the California-Mexico Land and Cattle Company (C & M Ranch). The courtyard's landscaping includes a variety of desert plants.
An investigator in a clothes closet holds a magnifying glass and a flashlight to examine something on a wall. He is probably in the home of murder victim Mabel Monahan.
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.
Photograph of four young women seated on a pier railing opposite the entrance to a dance hall (not visible in this photo, see image ark no. 21198/zz002d9zdt). A young man watches from the background.
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.