The worst was the . In 1877, a series of 25-foot-tall kilns were made to produce charcoal for use in the nearby silver mine. "I have many fond memories of Phil and Gladys Phillips, as my family spent a lot of time with them. St. Francis Dam-Ruins of Collapsed Dam - Yelp Draft Environmental Impact Report with Appendices. The saga marked what was effectively the end of Mulholland's storied career, one that forever left its mark on Los Angeles' water infrastructure. LW3496 - Dam Site & Santa Paula Damage (8) | ex-Ruth Teague. LW2548 - Cascades: 1971 Earthquake Damage. DI2806 - Crowds Flock to the St. Francis Dam Tombstone, 1928 (Sharon Divis collection). AL3029 - St. Francis Dam Failure, Inspecting Ruins of the Dam, March 1928. There was also a basement, which is where I slept.". 2 Employee Housing at Stator Lane, n.d. (1930s-1950s). ES1928 - St. Francis Dam Disaster, Photos shot April 8, 1928 (11 Views). MLS# SR21049733. HB2803 - Visiting the "Tombstone," Reservoir Side, ~1928. Today, San Francisquito Canyon is a tranquil place. The information presented is posted as submitted by each reporting public employer. RJ1010 - Joseph and Della Raggio with King Snake at Raggio Ranch, ~1940s. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. 7 Views. Before it broke, the dam was a instrumental component of the long and windy chain of infrastructure that moved drinkable water from the Owens River Valley, in Inyo County, to the mushrooming city, 233 miles to the south, known as Los Angeles. Courses. AL1101 - L.A. Aqueduct Worker Sends Postcard to Mom from Jawbone Division (Mojave Desert), 1911. 2 were invited there several times when I was growing up at No. The workers and their families who lived just downstream at the Department Power's hydroelectric Powerhouse #2 were the next. The construction of a municipal dam should never be left to the sole judgment of one man, no matter how eminent. GCC : Vista Irrigation District (2021) << Special Districts Mapped in 1910-11. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $1,180,100, which has decreased by $13,029 in the last 30 days.The Rent Zestimate for this Single Family is $5,100/mo, which has decreased by $550 . I love a good case of adaptive reuse. can you leave citronella candles outside in rain . March 5, 1964 Phillips Ranch in San Francisquito Canyon. Dear reader, we're asking you to help us keep local news available for all. (Matt Tinoco/LAist) A five minute drive past Power Plant #2 is a gravelly turnoff from where you may park. LW2055 - Wm. 7/11/2017: Video: House Floor Debate: HR2156: Saint Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial Act (Congressional Record) from The New York Times: If businesses don't purchase more jackhammers and cranes, fewer construction workers are hired. . By the spring of 1928, the reservoir in San Francisquito Canyon was a. During his late years, his family reported that he was consistently haunted by the disaster, never regaining the spunk and vigor he had during his time as the chief waterman. Harris, Feinstein Submit Bill to Memorialize St. Francis Dam Victims (SCVNews) The facility has withstood the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928 and the Copper Fire of 2002, and continues to provide the City of Los Angeles with the electricity that was so vital to propelling growth from the 300,000 people present in 1910 to the 4 million Angelenos in the city today.. 1928 - Fox Newsreel: Nighttime Recovery of Bodies In the 1920s, Tumble Inn, which included a hostel and a gas station, was built along the old Ridge Route and was a stopping point for many travelers. 4/26/2017: HR2156: Saint Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial Act (Knight/Brownlee) 920 CASA DE SAN PEDRO - The first known commercial structure on the shore of San Pedro Bay was built here in 1823 by the trading firm of McCulloch and Hartnell to store cattle hides from the San Gabriel and San Fernando missions. San Francisquito Canyon was the site of placer mining for gold by Spanish missionaries from the San Fernando and San Buenaventura Missions, and later by Mexican Californios. Here's Where To Maximize The View (And Snap A Great Picture), A Los Angeles Family Seeks Answers And Accountability After Black Mom Dies In Childbirth, A Brief History Of Why It Does Occasionally Snow In LA. Why? Nuclear Power Plant Planned for Saugus-San Francisquito News Reports 1960. VIDEO: ST. FRANCIS DAM LECTURES / DOCUMENTARIES Sellout Crowd Revisits 1928 Tragedy Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel, SCVHistory.com 3-12-2016. One key feature of the property was the Phillips Ranch Restaurant, which was a large, two-story, cinder-block building that stood next to Phillips' own home and well-used swimming pool. an abandoned section of the old San Francisquito Canyon Road (previously maintained by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works). 0. 2016 - Rep. Knight: House Committee Hearing on St. Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial Act his name and the address of his Hollywood studio appear on the back of related contact sheets. 2017) that her father, Charles Deem, inherited the property after Bert and Ora died. LW2845 - Correspondence from Man at Brand-New Power House No. Badwater Road, Badwater Rd, Furnace Creek, CA, USA. 3 dead, 2 injured in Santa Clarita crash | KTLA Unofficial property records give a construction date of 1952 for a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom house. The empty reservoir after the dam's collapse. or water main break : Brunner's Newhall History 1940. 1928. LW3102: 9600 dpi jpegs from Watson Archive negatives purchased 2017 by Leon Worden. "I have many fond memories of Phil and Gladys Phillips, as my family spent a lot of time with them. The exact location of the old dam is quick walk down from the turnoff along an eerie disused two lane highway, abandoned back in 2005 after severe storm damage. 1 Under Construction, 11-1-1915. HS2808 - (Formerly) Last Photo of the St. Francis Dam Intact, 3-9-1928. Graffiti Removal at St. Francis Dam Site 2-28-2017. Lynda Deem Burke said. L.A. County Assessor parcel map: County aerial map 2014. With an initial 28 MW capacity, it provided more than enough power to serve the entire city of Los Angeles. Dana Knauber remembers (pers. If there is an error in human judgement, I was that human." Photo credit: Wikipedia/Kbh3rd. Located in the northern rim of the Santa Clarita Valley, about a 40 minute drive north of Los Angeles, the canyon is nondescriptnot particularly different than any one of the hundreds of other foothill canyons all over Southern California. This Tejon Pass Route and the Tehachapi or Midway Route (first followed by the Southern Pacific Railroad), remained the major north-south wagon and later automobile routes to the San Joaquin Valley until the construction of the more direct Ridge Route in 1915.[4]. Avoiding Regret: Photo Essay: What's Left of the St. Francis Dam Scott, Harrison Irving, Ridge Route: The Road That United California. View more homes. 100 Mules Commemorate 100th Anniversary of L.A. Aqueduct SCVNews.com, 11-4-2013. EC1801 - Photo Album: Los Angeles Aqueduct Under Construction, 1908-1913. Trees and power lines toppled, cars and houses crushed under branches, and . The Chief Doesn't Deserve Ridicule for St. Francis Commentary by Pony Horton, 4-26-1998. Avalanche of Water Left Death, Ruin in Its Wake by Cecilia Rasmussen Los Angeles Times, 2-16-2003. LW2514 - L.A. Aqueduct Centennial Garden Opens at Mulholland Memorial Fountain, 10-23-2013. The energy was then transferred into the city across a newly constructed 115 kV transmission line. We expect the jackhammers, the sidewalk bridges and the cranes. SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (KABC) -- Three men died and two people were injured in a fiery crash in Santa Clarita, officials say. 16 juin 2022 parasitism in the sonoran desert. California Historical Landmark No. More than 400 people were killed when water burst through the leaky dam and roared across a widespread part of the area northwest of Los Angeles. 1926 - Dam Under Construction in 'The Temptress' (Greta Garbo) Power Plant One, the First Power Plant to Generate Electricity for the Mulholland equated their price collusion to extortion. RO2801 - Temporary Reconstruction of Auto Bridge Over Santa Clara River at Castaic Junction, 1928. One key feature of the property was the Phillips Ranch Restaurant, which was a large, two-story, cinder-block building that stood next to Phillips' own home and well-used swimming pool. Maximum cost of projects. FR3001 - Power House No. HC2802 - Crowds Flock to the St. Francis Dam Tombstone, 2 Views, 1928 (Helena Carter collection). JB4001 - Artifact: Newhall Dairy Farms Milk Bottle, ca. JB2804 - Louise Gipe, Switchboard Operator, Disaster Heroine, 1928. Between 1924 and 1926, the canyon was the site of the construction of the St. Francis Dam.The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began filling a reservoir in the San Francisquito Canyon in 1926. 28774 San Francisquito Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91390 is for sale. The death toll was estimated at more than 450, but experts say that figure could be much higher. Designs for a memorial managed by the U.S. Forest Service in honor of the St. Francis Dam disaster victims are being considered. It was the most amazing pool and house I had ever seen as a young child. St. Francis Dam Disaster. Five days later, on March 12, 1928, dam keeper Tony Harnischfeger discovered a newer, larger leak with muddy and murky water. FILM: Pathe Newsreel Footage of Broken St. Francis Dam and Story of Pilot Who Died Getting It, 3-13-1928. The property was originally homesteaded by Ben Hickin [cq], who on July 15, 1912, was granted a patent to 47.56 acres of land straddling San Francisquito Canyon Road (see plat below). AL3028 - St. Francis Dam Failure, Aerial View, March 1928. 39210 San Francisquito Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91390 Unlike the privately held land in Big Tujunga, the land in San Francisquito Canyon was federally owned, and therefore easy to flood with a reservoir of water. San Francisquito Canyon Map - Valley - Los Angeles, United States - Mapcarta From 1854, the wagon route of the Stockton - Los Angeles Road followed its course as did the Butterfield Overland Mail in California from 1858 to 1861. St. Francis Dam - Wikipedia St. Francis Dam Disaster, by Charles C. Teague (Ventura County Committee) Excerpt from "Fifty Years a Rancher," 1944. San Francisquito Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91390 Though the bond campaign almost didn't make it, Mulholland managed to persuade investors to buy $1.5 million of municipal bonds. English - Cadillac Desert Mulholland's Dream merged files | Amara Exhuming California's St. Francis Dam Disaster | The Nation here. Three minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, sending over 12 billion gallons of water and debris rushing down the Santa Clara River Valley from San Francisquito Canyon to the Pacific Ocean, 54 miles away. Doors and windows were nailed shut, the pool was empty and needed new filters (which were stored in a manmade cave in the hillside), dozens of peacocks roamed the ranch because the aviary was wrecked, and the side house needed extensive repair. St. Francis Dam Disaster: Victims and Heroes by Alan Pollack, 03-2008. For LADWPs COVID-19 response, visit www.ladwp.com/covid19response. Knauber (Hart Class of 1968) said his mother owned the property about four years; he left for college before she sold it. AL3042 - St. Francis Dam Failure, Real Photo Postcard, Ruins of the Dam, April 13, 1928. LW2054 - William Mulholland, Civil Engineer & St. Francis Dam Builder, LW2206 - William Mulholland, Civil Engineer & St. Francis Dam Builder. Newhall Morgue March 1928, FILM: Fox News Footage: Nighttime Recovery of Bodies 3-17-1928, Memorialization and Memory of Southern California's St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928 Master's Thesis by Ann C. Stansell, CSUN 2014. [2][3] The collapse of the St. Francis Dam is considered to be one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of the 20th century and remains the second-greatest loss of life in California's history, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. This could be about when "Phil" Phillips who may have operated an early ready-mix concrete company in the San Fernando Valley and wife Gladys acquired the property. RO2802 - Map of Flood-damaged Bridges in Santa Clarita Valley. Video: St. Francis Dam Disaster The History Channel (segment). In 1968, Gladys Phillips took out classified ads in the L.A. Times to sell a bulldozer, cement mixer and other personal property. Gladys had a palomino horse named Baby that I learned to ride on. GR0812 - Gold Mining on the LeBrun Ranch, 1890s. The dam reached a height of 205 feet and a width of 1,300 feet when the concrete barrier, a key piece of Los Angeles chief water engineer William Mulholland's water system that transformed the city into what it is today, was completed two years later. It appeared Mulholland had achieved governance over nature -- but there were early signs that was only a fantasy. LW2714 - Power House No. Of the equipment inside the century-old facility, one of the original 1917 turbine generators remains intact Unit 3 with 10 MW of capacity. The acres ( sq. View 16 photos of this 7.42 acre lot land with a list price of $599900. 39210 San Francisquito Canyon Rd Santa Clarita, CA 91390 Historic Headlines: Remembering the St. Francis Dam Disaster by Michele E. Buttelman The Signal, 3-11-2001. Solstice Canyon, 3455 Solstice Canyon Rd, Malibu, CA 90265, USA. Of the 74 children, women and men who lived around the power station, only three survived. This building, Power Plant #2, is one of two electrical generating stations in the canyon, that derives hydroelectric power from the Los Angeles aqueduct pipes buried underground in the canyon. At the San Francisquito Canyon head is the San Francisquito Pass, which the early routes between Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley crossed. 1928 - Fillmore After the Flood "William Mulholland" Presides Over L.A. Aqueduct Cascades Centennial LADWP, 11-5-2013. The property had been in foreclosure at least twice, once in 1996 and again a month before the fire. 2010 - Raw Oral History: Thelma McCawley Shaw, Dam Survivor (Barely) A few hours later at about midnight, the Harnischfegers were among the first to die when a wall of water roared down on the canyon. This is an archival story that predates current editorial management. By the time the water reached the Pacific Ocean at 5:30 a.m., the watery froth of earth, debris and victims was nearly 2 miles wide. The (future) Phillips Ranch was under the St. Francis reservoir, shown in blue. Historical Society Trio Lauded for Work to Remember Dam Victims 1-28-2019. The abandoned portion of San Francisquito Canyon Road, passing over where the dam once stood. Guy L. Jones, 1928. In order to insure against cost overruns, each total cost set forth with respect to a project for water resources development and conservation and related purposes authorized to be carried out by the Secretary in this Act or in a law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act, including the Water Resources Development . Though the U.S. House of representatives passed the bill back in July, the U.S. Senate is yet to. On April 16 and April 28, 1917, Units 2 and 3 were placed in operation bringing the facilitys capacity up to 28 MW, enough for about 20,000 homes. Power Plant One, the First Power Plant to Generate Electricity for the City of Los Angeles' Utility, Turns 100 Years Old. LW2479 - Red Cross Relief: Shelters, Soup Lines, Nurses, Hospital. Obscured by the cottonwoods and willows that . "The construction of a municipal dam should never be left to the sole judgment of one man, no matter how eminent," the jury said. "The children from Powerhouse No. San Francisquito Canyon's St. Francis Dam burst on March 12th,1928, sending twelve billion gallons of water through the canyon. Big Rig Crash into Bridge Prompts Closure of San Francisquito Road A visitor center and educational facilities will be built within the next three years. The exhibition areas located both indoors and outdoors, feature historic photos, equipment and information. 29354 San Francisquito Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91390 While the city maintained a store of water using smaller, more immediately local reservoirs after the aqueduct's opening, Mulholland saw the city's rapidly growing population as a sign that a large reservoir was still needed. Most of these declared bluntly that the dam's design was defective, and the collapse was the consequence building on a weak foundation, though geologists of the time found no fault in the San Francisquito Canyon rock. Knauber described the single-family home: "Living room with a large fireplace, a long, wood dining table with leather covered wrap-around 'diner style' seating on the window side and captain chairs on the kitchen side and a medium sized kitchen. AP2332 - St. Francis Dam With Water in Reservoir, May 1926-March 1928. March 5, 1964 Phillips Ranch in San Francisquito Canyon. Crash kills 3 in Saugus, 2 others in critical condition If SoCal history is your thing, check out this short but history-filled scenic road trip. The middle and upper portions of this canyon fall within the Angeles National Forest. View more property details, sales history and Zestimate data on Zillow. "(Charles Deem) sold some of the property between the two ranches to Gladys." Geology of the St. Francis Dam Area Jesus Ruiz Elizondo, Master's Thesis, CalTech, 1953. The ruins of this disaster can still be seen today. LW2510 - Christine Mulholland at L.A. Aqueduct Centennial Celebration, 11-5-2013. 2009 - John Bergstrom (Music Video): The St. Francis Dam 0 Vac/Sierra Hwy Pav /Vic Mi, Agua Dulce, CA 91350. LW3184 - Sun Rays Penetrate Storm Clouds Over St. Francis Reservoir, 1927. Onlookers watch the swollen Santa Clara River sweep debris towards the Pacific Ocean. ST0901 - L.A. Aqueduct Construction Headquarters at Saugus Junction, 1909. DR2813 - St. Francis Dam: West Abutment & Wing Dyke, March? 4/26/2017: Knight, Brownlee Resubmit Dam Victim Memorial Bill (SCVNews) The flood also washed over an Edison Power Company worker's camp, taking with it 84 workers, and carved a mile-wide gash across the Oxnard Plain where countless migrant agricultural workers slept. The Phillips Ranch was located at GPS coordinates 3434'02.6"N 11828'04.8"W (34.567390, -118.468002) in Baird Canyon, an offshoot of San Francisquito Canyon, 4.4 road miles north of Stator Lane (the LADWP Powerhouse 2 community) on the southeast side of San Francisquito Canyon Road. ID2101 - Lyman & Lillian Curtis, St. Francis Dam Victims, 1921. It's been many, many years since we saw this much snow in our mountains. DI2812 - Wrecked Farmhouse in Santa Paula? The Last Dam Victim / Dynamiting the Tombstone. Click to enlarge or download original scan. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. This article was originally published March 11, 2019. In the Depression Era of the 1930s, Author Marshall South built a home at the top of what he called Ghost Mountain. "Phil (Phillips) did build the ranch to be a resort," Knauber said. Engineering Disasters: the St Francis Dam Failure Mulholland was even recorded saying at the coroner's inquest after the disaster, "of all the dams I have built and of all the dams I have ever seen, it was the driest dam of its size I ever saw.". San Francisquito's Power House #1 by Kimberley Renee 2 This is one of two generating plants in San Francisquito Canyon where the Los Angeles Aqueduct runs alongside the canyon. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, March 19, 1928, Page 7, Image 7, brought to you by Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and the National Digital Newspaper Program. AL3034 - St. Francis Dam Under Construction ~1925. At its height, nearly 1000 people had moved to this colony established by Job Harriman, who dreamed of cooperative living without war or interest on money or rent or land or profiteering. Life was difficult here and the colony virtually crumbled in 1918. The St. Francis Dam Break Lyrics by Dan DeVere & Jane Williams 3-9-2003. comm. 2003, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: San Francisquito Canyon, "Roster of St. Francis Dam Disaster Victims", Rancho El Rio de Santa Clara o la Colonia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=San_Francisquito_Canyon&oldid=1119939015, Landforms of Los Angeles County, California, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using Infobox landform with no type, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 November 2022, at 06:38. Mulholland inspected the dam, ordered some patchwork fixes to be built, and signed off on the dam's structural sanctity. Visiting The Site Of L.A.'s Most Deadly Disaster: The Collapse Of The Media related to San Francisquito Canyon at Wikimedia Commons. Unofficial property records give a construction date of 1952 for a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom house. Historic Ruins In Southern California Take You Back In Time For the City of LAs COVID-19 response, visit corona-virus.la The two main buildings the restaurant and the house had been abandoned by the time they were destroyed in the June 2002 Copper fire . Video: Man-Made Disaster: The Story of St. Francis Dam Narrated by Frank Rock, SCVTV 2009. The flood killed approximately 450 . 2 were invited there several times when I was growing up at No. It was totally possible, Mulholland assured, as the water would flow downhill the entire way. The history of the Rancho San Francisco (and it was also sometimes confusingly called Rancho San Francisquito) is rather complicated and can be found on the SCVHistory website, so I won't cover it extensively here, but it was granted by Mexican Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Antonio del Valle on January 22, 1839. DI2819 - (2) Tourist Photos of the Tombstone with Ladder, 1928 (Sharon Divis collection). San Francisquito Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91350 - Redfin . LW2420 - Jawbone Siphon (L.A. Aqueduct), Early 1910s. The photographs were made to illustrate a feature story about the ranch, probably LW2743 - St. Francis Dam Floodpath, about a mile below the dam. . Ada on Catalina Island, The, EVENT: Explore the St. Francis Dam Disaster Site & LA Aqueduct, Photo Essay: Riverside Main Library's New Life As The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, Photo Essay: The End of the Line for the Last of Its Kind, Gardena Cinema, Photo Essay: In Search of Terra Firma in the Mojave Desert, Where Earthquakes Cracked the Earth, Photo Essay: Wildflower Season Begins at Hemet Maze Stone, Photo Essay: The 8th Wonder of the World Is In Palm Springs? "Gladys said it was very popular for quite a while, having a pool, a restaurant, an aviary, a shooting range, deer and quail hunting, horse back riding and far enough away to limit uninvited law enforcement.". 1 & 2 (Complete) March-April 1928, FILM: Fox News Footage: St. Francis Dam Victims, Red Cross Workers, Temp. comm. The dam was to be 185 feet tall, and would have a maximum capacity of 12.4 billion gallons, enough water to supply roughly 500,000 households for one year. Remnants of the dam can be found along the creek bed beside San Francisquito Canyon Road about five miles south of Green Valley. LW2403 - Damkeeper Tony Harnischfeger & Family, n.d. LW3321 - Initial Associated Press Wire Photo, Distributed 3-13-1928. Avoiding Regret: Photo Essay: Hiking Old San Francisquito Canyon Road Annual SCVHS St. Francis Dam Disaster Lecture (Video) 3-11-2017. We believe when reliable local reporting is widely available, the entire community benefits. 1928 - Fox Newsreel: Wreckage, Red Cross Relief, more 6-3-2004. St. Francis Dam Disaster Poem by Ron Pinkerton 7-16-1979. Drone Video: St. Francis Dam Disaster Site Danny Sullivan, 3-12-2017. The canyon grows wider as it approaches the Santa Clarita Valley. Memories of St. Francis Dam Disaster. 3D WALKTHROUGH. San Francisquito Canyon Map - Valley - Los Angeles, United States from CNBC: Jackhammers, strobe lights and sudden blackouts add to the play's provocative and . Original post from 8:36 a.m. Thursday: The Los Angeles County Public Works announced Thursday the closure of San Francisquito Canyon Road between Copper Hill Road and Spunky Canyon Road in the . Two semi-trucks jam San Francisquito Canyon Road (1928)*^* - Panoramic view showing the St. Francis Dam with large reservoir behind it. The abandoned portion of San Francisquito Canyon Road, passing over where the dam once stood. A state commission later determined that the dam was poorly built in a geologically unstable site. A look back at the St. Francis Dam disaster of March 1928. 5) Failing St. Francis: Water Pressure or Political Pressure? The March 12, 1928, collapse of the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles is, in terms of loss of life, the second-greatest disaster in California history. Mismanagement, Sloppy Hiring Practices, Lack Of Transparency. Text - H.R.3684 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Infrastructure Investment 1928 titled 'Destruction of a Dam', depicting the dam break via miniatures and also showing footage of the aftermath and rescue operations. 2017 - Oddity Odysseys: Exploring the St. Francis Dam Ruins HB2802 - Visiting the "Tombstone," March 1928. There are no signs, no memorials, nor even any recognizable ruins that mark the location where, on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam suddenly and catastrophically collapsed. Upcoming Courses. SaintFrancisDam.com | St. Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial | San California is not generally considered a particularly old place, but believe it or not, this state is full of history. Residents and workers near the dam, including damkeeper Tony Harnischfeger, noticed problems from the start. SP0000 - Dam & Power House Before & After Failure, 1926-1928, 20 Views. Water and Power Associates DR2817 - St. Francis Dam: Tombstone & Perimeter Road, 1928. Coroner's Inquest in the News: Witnesses Report Leaks News reports, 1928. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began filling a reservoir in the San Francisquito Canyon in 1926. She says hearing that the seismic risk to the dam is taken seriously and that it's been upgraded . Powered by JettyManage My Subscriptions, DWP-NC MOU and Advocacy Committee Meetings. It wasn't until 1:20 a.m. that the first official warning sounded, while the deluge of water, dirt and debris oozed downhill to the Pacific Ocean at around 18 mph. FILM: Pathe Newsreel Footage of Broken St. Francis Dam and Story of Pilot Who Died Getting It, 3-13-1928.. SP0000 - Dam & Power House Before & After Failure, 1926-1928, 20 Views.. AS2802 - Survey Map: Flood-damaged Properties, San Francisquito Canyon, 1928.. WS2801 - Cleanup at Power House No.