Floodpath

by Jon Wilkman

  7Santa Paula Chronicle, March 1, 1928.

  8G.E. Gaylord, Report to the Southern Pacific Railroad: “History of the Collapse of the St. Francis Dam in San Francisquito Canyon on March 12, 1928” (1928).

  9Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 123–26.

  10Ibid., 127.

  11Ventura Free Press, March 24, 1928.

  12Report from DWP engineer J.E. Phillips, 5.

  13Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1928.

  14Interview with Matt Basolo by Ann Stansell and Julee Licon (2013).

  15Interview by Don Reed based on research by Don Ray (1978).

  16Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1929.

  17Moorpark Enterprise, July 15, 1928.

  18Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1929.

  19Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 130.

  20Interview by Don Reed based on research by Don Ray.

  21Transcript of Ventura Coroner’s Report (March 15, 1928).

  22Ibid.

  23Fillmore Herald, March 16, 1928.

  24Ventura Star, March 14, 1928.

  25Author interview with Thelma McCawley Shaw, 2002.

  26Author interview with Doris Navarro Jackson, 2001.

  27Author interview with Paul Morris, 2001.

  28Ralph Bennett, oral history from Ventura Museum of History and Art, June 29, 1982.

  29New York Herald Tribune, March 25, 1928.

  30Santa Paula Chronicle, March 13, 1928.

  31Fillmore American, March 15, 1928.

  32Author interview with Margaret Moreno, 2001.

  33Ibid.

  34Santa Paula Chronicle, March 15, 1928.

  35Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 142.

  36Lois Clemore oral history, recorded by the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, 1987.

  37Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 147.

  38Nazarene Donlon oral history, recorded by the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, 1987.

  39J.R. Dawson, oral history, recorded by the UCLA Oral History Project, 1966.

  Chapter 7: The Dead Zone

  1Transcript of C. Clarke Keely interview, 34.

  2Los Angeles Examiner, March 13, 1928.

  3Report from DWP engineer J.E. Phillips, October 22, 1928.

  4Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 249.

  5Author interview with Ivan Dorsett, 2001.

  6Transcript of C. Clarke Keely interview, 30.

  7Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 187.

  8Santa Paula Chronicle, March 16, 1928.

  9Venice Evening Vanguard, March 16,1928.

  10New York Times, March 14, 1928.

  11Ibid.

  12G.E. Gaylord, Report to the Southern Pacific Railroad: “History of the Collapse of the St. Francis Dam.”

  13Figures provided by L.S. Lothridge, manager of Southern California Edison in Santa Paula, August 17, 1929.

  14Los Angeles Record (March 14, 1928).

  15Transcript of report from Dr. H.C. Stinchfield, Head of the Medical Department of Edison Company, March 14, 1928.

  16Author interview with Harry Lechler, 2001.

  17Ventura Star, March 14, 1928.

  18Santa Paula Chronicle, March 14, 1928.

  19Author interview with Thelma McCawley Shaw, 2001.

  20William A. Myers, Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of Southern California Edison Company, 2nd ed., rev. (Trans-Anglo Books, 1986): 165.

  21Santa Paula Chronicle, March 13, 1928.

  22Harold Hubbard’s March 13,1928 reporter’s notes, courtesy of Jud O. Roberts.

  23Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, March 13, 1928.

  24“The Hundred Percenter,” Paramount News Newsletter (April 3, 1928).

  25Frank Mussetter, “The St. Francis Dam Disaster,” Western Electric News (May 1928).

  26Brooklyn Standard Union, March 15, 1928.

  27New York Journal, March 13, 1928.

  28Correspondence from Harry Carey Jr. to Frank Rock, December 18, 1991.

  29Los Angeles Times, March 14, 1928.

  30New York Telegram, March 16, 1928.

  31Letter to S.V. Cortelyou, division engineer, California Highway Commission, from I.S. Voorhees, secretary of the Los Angeles Board of Water Commissioners, March 16, 1928.

  32Report of Ford Hendricks after inspection of flood area, March 17, 1928.

  33Harold Hubbard’s March 13, 1928 reporter’s notes, courtesy of Jud O. Roberts.

  34Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 298.

  35Ibid., 299.

  36Santa Paula Chronicle, March 13, 1928.

  37New York Evening Telegraph, March 18, 1928.

  38Ibid.

  39Author interview with Bob Proctor, 2001.

  40The American National Red Cross Annual Report for the Year Ended June 30, 1928.

  41George Travis, “St. Francis Dam Disaster and Subsequent Restoration Program” (August 22, 1929): 9.

  42Salvation Army, Western War Cry (April 14, 1928).

  43Memorandum from George Grane, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Right of Way and Land Division, March 13, 1928.

  44Ibid., 10.

  45George Travis, “St. Francis Dam Disaster and Subsequent Restoration Program,” 7.

  46Heraldo de Mexico, March 20, 1928.

  47Fillmore Herald, March 23, 1928.

  48Author interview with Doris Navarro Jackson, 2001.

  49C.K. Chapin, DWP Report of Conditions in the Santa Clara River Valley, March 14, 1928.

  50Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 326.

  51Author interview with Paul Morris, 2001.

  52Author interview with Norris Proctor, 2001.

  53Los Angeles Daily News, March 14, 1928.

  54Santa Paula Chronicle, March 16, 1928.

  55Los Angeles Examiner, March 13, 1928.

  56Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 14, 1928.

  57United Press, March 14, 1928.

  58Transcript of C. Clarke Keely interview.

  59J.A. Hennesey, DWP Report after Inspection of the Flood Area, June 7, 1928.

  60Los Angeles Record, March 21, 1928.

  61DWP Claims Records, affidavit signed June 5, 1928.

  62Oxnard Daily News, March 17,1928.

  63Leslie T. White, Me, Detective (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936): 88–91.

  64Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1928.

  65Santa Paula Chronicle, March 19, 1928.

  66La Voz de la Colonia, March 22, 1928.

  67La Voz de la Colonia, March 13, 1928.

  68John Nichols, St. Francis Dam Disaster (Chicago: Arcadia Press, 2002): 30.

  69Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1928.

  70Ventura Star, March 22, 1978.

  71Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 74.

  72Los Angeles Record, March 14, 1928.

  73Leslie T. White, Me, Detective, 88–91.

  74Oxnard Courier, April 4, 1928.

  Chapter 8: Sympathy, Anger, and Amends

  1Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Intake (April 1928).

  2Santa Paula Chronicle, March 17, 1928.

  3Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society, http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/al2062.htm.

  4The Official Website for Vernon Dalhart, http://www.vernondalhart.com.

  5Bess Lomax Hawes, “El Corrido de la Inundación de la Presa de San Francisquito: The Story of a Local Ballad,” Western Folklore (1974).

  6Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1928.

  7Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1928.

  8Long Beach Press Telegram.

  9Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1928.

  10Daily Worker, March 19, 1928.

  11El Heraldo de Mexico, April 1, 1928.

  12Quoted in Sarah S. Elkind, How Local Politics Shape Federal Policy, Business, Power and the Environment in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles (Columbia, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2011): 117–147.

  13Wall Street Jo
urnal (March 16, 1928).

  14Oxnard Courier.

  15Letter from Philip Schuyler to George Holmes Moore, April 20, 1928.

  16Board of Water Commissioners Board Meeting Minutes, March 13, 1928.

  17Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1928.

  18Letter from Pierson Hall.

  19George Travis, Report to C.C. Teague: “St. Francis Dam Disaster and Subsequent Restoration Program,” 18.

  20Notes from Los Angeles City Council Minutes (1928).

  21Introduction, Charles Collins Teague Papers, 1901–1950. Department of Special Collections, UCLA Library.

  22Philadelphia Public Ledger (March 15, 1928).

  23Handwritten notes by Jess E. Stephens, date unknown, courtesy Harrison Stephens.

  24George Travis, Report to C.C. Teague: “St. Francis Dam Disaster and Subsequent Restoration Program,” 69.

  25H.B. Garrett and A.R. Arledge, “Reconstruction of San Francisquito No. 2 Power Plant,” Electrical West (January 1, 1929).

  26Wm. A. Lindauer, “City of Los Angeles General Accounting Report on St. Francis Dam Disaster as of October 31, 1930,” 1.

  27Ibid., 6.

  28Pierson Mitchell Hall, “Book Review of Man-Made Disaster: The Story of the St. Francis Dam, by Charles Outland,” California Historical Society Quarterly 44, no. 1 (March 1965): 63.

  29Handwritten notes by Jess E. Stephens, 7.

  30Ibid., 7.

  31Ibid., 7.

  32Report to DWP engineer J.E. Phillips, Department of Water and Power, from the Los Angeles Law Offices of Stephens and Green, July 29, 1929, 3.

  33Ibid., 27.

  34Handwritten notes by Jess E. Stephens, 9.

  35Report from Walter B. Allen, Chairman, Joint Restoration Committee subcommittee on death and disability claims, July 15, 1928.

  36George Travis, Report to C.C. Teague: “St. Francis Dam Disaster and Subsequent Restoration Program,” 54.

  37Right of Way and Land Division Claims Memo, May 15, 1928.

  38Letter to Los Angeles First Assistant City Attorney Lucius Green from DWP Right of Way and Land Division investigator Elmer Porter, June 8, 1928.

  39Ibid., 38.

  40Charles Collins Teague, Fifty Years a Rancher: The Recollections of Half a Century Devoted to the Citrus and Walnut Industries of California and to Furthering the Cooperative Movement in Agriculture (Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1944): 186–87.

  41DWP Right of Way and Land Division interview with Mr. W.E. McCampbell, July 19, 1928.

  42Ibid.

  43Letter to J.W. Richardson from Margaret Gilbert, July 13, 1928.

  44Letter to Los Angeles Water Commissioner J.W. Richardson from C.C. Teague, July 21, 1928.

  45Memo from DWP Right of Way and Land Division Agent Elmer Porter, May 15, 1928.

  46DWP Right of Way and Land Division Report, June 15, 1928.

  47This speeding ticket is in the DWP Archives.

  48Stenographer’s verbatim transcript of Garrett’s speech, April 17, 1928.

  49Report to Los Angeles City Council on the St. Francis Dam Disaster, July 15, 1929.

  50Handwritten notes by Jess E. Stephens, 14.

  51Author correspondence with Carol Rising Longo, Ray Rising’s daughter.

  52Santa Paula Chronicle, March 24, 1928.

  53Letters from DWP Archives.

  Chapter 9: Arguing Over the Ruins

  1Santa Paula Chronicle, March 16, 1928

  2Los Angeles Evening Express, March 18, 1928.

  3Santa Paula Chronicle, March 17, 1928.

  4Santa Paula Chronicle, March 22, 1928.

  5New York Times, March 18, 1928.

  6Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 120 (1955): 1568–69.

  7Los Angeles Times, March 14, 1928.

  8Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 379.

  9Los Angeles Examiner, March 16, 1928.

  10New York Times, March 14, 1928.

  11Brooklyn Eagle, March 19, 1929.

  12Los Angeles Examiner, March 14, 1928.

  13J. David Rogers, “The 1928 St. Francis Dam Failure and Its Impact on American Civil Engineering.” In Engineering Geology Practice in Southern California, eds. R. Proctor and B. Pipkin (Association of Engineering Geologists, Special Publication No. 4).

  14Letter to geologist F.L. Ransome, March 23, 1928.

  15J. David Rogers, “A Man, a Dam and a Disaster,” 80.

  16Letter to California State Engineer Edward Hyatt, March 15, 1928.

  17Letter from Frederick C. Finkle to the Anti-Annexation Committee, Santa Monica, September 8, 1924.

  18Letter from F.C. Finkle to the president of the Woman’s City Club of Long Beach, September 1, 1931.

  19C.E. Grunsky, “Report on the Failure, March 12th and 13th 1928 of the St. Francis Dam” (April 1928): 11.

  20Los Angeles Record, March 17, 1928.

  21Letter from engineer B.F. Jakobsen to California State Engineer Edward Hyatt, Jr., March 24, 1928.

  22Santa Paula Chronicle, March 24, 1928.

  23Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Intake (May 1928).

  24Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1928.

  25Robert F. Hill, C.F. Tolman, and D.W. Murphy, “Report on the Failure of the St. Francis Dam on March 12, 1928.”

  26Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 242–43.

  27Los Angeles Examiner, March 14, 1928.

  28Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 191.

  29Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 70.

  30Handwritten notes by Jess E. Stephens.

  31Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1928.

  32Los Angeles Examiner, March 20, 1928.

  33“Hollywoodland, A Site About Hollywood and Its History,” allanellenberger.com/frank-a-nance-profile.

  34Los Angeles Record, March 20, 1928.

  35San Francisco Bulletin, March 22, 1928.

  36John Walton, Western Times and Water Wars, 181–82.

  37Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 79.

  38DWP Report, March 21, 1928.

  39Sellers’s business card is in the files of the Charles H. Lee Collection in the Water Resources Collections and Archives, University of California, Riverside.

  40Fillmore Herald, March 23, 1928.

  41Los Angeles Examiner, March 21, 1928.

  42Los Angeles Record, March 21, 1928.

  43Los Angeles Evening Herald, March 21, 1928.

  Chapter 10: Los Angeles on Trial

  1Robert B. Jansen, Dams and Public Safety (U.S. Department of the Interior, 1980): 212.

  2Ibid., 234.

  3Association of State Dam Safety Officials, www.damsafety.org.

  4Robert B. Jansen, Dams and Public Safety, 94.

  5Association of State Dam Safety Officials, www.damsafety.org.

  6Norman Smith, A History of Dams, 195–98.

  7Ibid., 201.

  8George Holmes Moore, “Neglected First Principles of Masonry Dam Design,” Engineering News (September 4, 1913).

  9Norman Smith, A History of Dams, 195–98.

  10Ibid., 172, 181.

  11Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 138.

  12“The Construction and Failure of the Calavaras Dam,” California Department of Water Resources, www.water.ca.gov/damsafety/docs/Calaveras.pdf.

  13Donald C. Jackson and Norris Hundley Jr., “Privilege and Responsibility: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster,” California History 82, no. 3 (January 2004): 42–43.

  14Author interview with DWP engineer Robert Phillips, 2002.

  15Construction details from testimony of Construction Superintendent Stanley Dunham, Los Angeles Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 1912: 38–58.

  16Ibid., 149.

  17Los Angeles Times, March 21, 1928.

  18Juror biographical research by J. David Rogers.

  19Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 1.

  20Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1928. />
  21Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 212.

  22Ibid., 394.

  23Ibid., 30.

  24Ibid., 34.

  25Ibid., 12.

  26Ibid., 21.

  27Ibid., 13.

  28Ibid., 191.

  29Ibid., 35.

  30Los Angeles Record, March 21, 1928.

  31Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 16.

  32Ibid., 98.

  33Los Angeles Examiner, March 23, 1928.

  34Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 290.

  35Ibid., 268.

  36Ibid., 289.

  37Ibid., 299.

  38Ibid., 254.

  39Typescript report from Mead Committee to Los Angeles City Council, March 23, 1928.

  40Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 248.

  41Robert B. Jansen, Dams and Public Safety.

  42Ibid.

  43Thanks to J. David Rogers for his description and analysis of the Elephant Butte Dam.

  44Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 376.

  45Ibid., 24.

  46Ibid., 25.

  47Ibid., 378.

  48Author interview with Frank Raggio Jr., 2001.

  Chapter 11: Rewinding Time

  1Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 624–34.

  2For information about aerial photography techniques, see James W. Bagley, Aerophotography and Aerosurveying (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1941).

  3Mead et al, “Report of Committee Appointed by the City Council of Los Angeles to Investigate and Report the Cause of the Failure of the St. Francis Dam,” March 31, 1928.

  4“Report of the Commission Appointed by Governor C.C. Young to Investigate the Causes Leading to the Failure of the St. Francis Dam Near Saugus, California,” March 24, 1928.

  5Unsigned memo from DWP hydrographer, March 27, 1928.

  6“DWP Memorandum Concerning Destruction at San Francisquito Power Plant No. 2 and St. Francis Dam—March 19,1928,” March 27, 1928.

  7California Governor’s Report, 15.

  8Ibid., 16.

  9Los Angeles City Council Committee Report, 22.

  10Letter from Harry O. Wood to Dr. F.L. Ransome, March 23, 1928.

  11Los Angeles City Council Committee Report, 23.

  12Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 671.

  13Frank Rieber biographical sketch written for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) by Curtis H. Johnson, Missouri Southern State University.