header image

[Sign Up Now] to Receive Our FREE Daily SCVTV-SCVNews Digest by E-Mail

Inside
Weather


 
Calendar
Today in
S.C.V. History
March 28
1934 - Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, replacement for ill-fated St. Francis Dam & reservoir, begins to fill with water [story]
Bouquet Reservoir


| Tuesday, Mar 12, 2019
The "tombstone" was left standing when the dam collapsed. Colorization by Pony Horton.

 

President Donald Trump has signed the federal lands package that creates, among other things, a national monument in the Santa Clarita Valley to memorialize the more than 400 victims of the St. Francis Dam Disaster, the Department of the Interior announced Tuesday.

The signing comes on the 91st anniversary of the disaster, which was one of the worst civil engineering failures in U.S. history and California’s second-deadliest disaster after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

The “Saint Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial and National Monument” legislation is part of S.47, a sweeping lands package that received overwhelming bipartisan support in both houses of Congress and will protect millions of acres of land. It expands several national parks and establishes four new national monuments including the first that is wholly within the Santa Clarita Valley – and only the second to touch the SCV after the designation by President Obama of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in 2014.

The dam legislation hit a few bumps in the road, having gone through several rounds in both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate before finally coming to fruition five years after the first draft. A host of local lawmakers from both political parties did not waiver in their ongoing fight for the passage of the bill. They include former Reps. Buck McKeon and Steve Knight and current Rep. Katie Hill, D-Agua Dulce, in the House; and Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein in the Senate.

The official legislative history shows the version of the bill included in S.47 was the version introduced in the previous House session by then-Rep. Knight, R-Palmdale, and coauthored by Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Thousand Oaks; and in the Senate by Harris and co-authored by Feinstein. In February, Hill, who succeeded Knight in office, introduced identical language as a stand-alone bill to keep the effort alive just in case S.47 was defeated. Harris did the same in the Senate.

“The St. Francis Dam Memorial has been a priority for the city of Santa Clarita for years,” Hill said in a statement. “I’m proud that in the 116th Congress we are able to deliver this piece of legislation and amplify the stories of the tragedy.

“Our local partners were critical to getting this done,” she said, “and I’m thankful for the work of my predecessor, Steve Knight, to advance this concept in the 115th Congress. I am also grateful to my neighbor, Congresswoman Julia Brownley, for her leadership on this issue, and Senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein for their leadership in the Senate.”

The St. Francis Dam monument covers 353 acres of federal land in San Francisquito Canyon that is already managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which will retain operational control over it. Initially planned for 440 acres, all leaseholds and mining fee lands were removed from the final bill last year.

Located approximately seven miles north of Copper Hill Drive, a future visitors center will honor the estimated 411 victims who perished when the dam collapsed and unleashed 13 billion gallons of water just before midnight on March 12, 1928. It left behind a 54-mile swath of death and destruction from Saugus to the Pacific Ocean. As a result of its failure, William Mulholland, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works and Supply (now the LADWP) and oversaw the dam’s construction, resigned his post.

The people of the Santa Clarita Valley never benefited from so much as one drop of water from the dam and reservoir; it was piped directly to the city of Los Angeles.

The disaster was of national interest for several reasons. Many of the victims were electric company and phone company workers and tourists who hailed from cities and towns throughout the Western United States – which is known from their many burial places across the country.

The federal government owned the land where the dam was erected. (The City of Los Angeles leased it from the Forest Service – and still does lease the forest land it uses.) Before the dam broke, the federal government had authority over the strategic waterway into which the floodwaters were unleashed. Afterward, the Congress investigated. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed a levee at the west end of the floodplain that still stands.

When the St. Francis failed, the Boulder (Hoover) Dam was in the planning stages. Some of the first federal dam safety measures arose out of the horror of the St. Francis Dam disaster and set a course toward the current dam safety regulations that have saved untold numbers of lives.

The monument legislation calls on the Forest Service to work closely with the two formal proponents of the bill – the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society and the local Community Hiking Club – as well as the city of Santa Clarita, in the design and interpretation of the memorial.

Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel, who, along with Historical Society President Alan Pollack, wrote a first draft of the initial bill that was introduced by McKeon in 2014, expressed gratitude to the lawmakers and other proponents and supporters of the legislation.

“Now, the 400-plus victims of this tragedy can be remembered properly at the dam site. We are looking forward to working with the Forest Service to erect a proper memorial, and honoring the victims,” said Erskine-Hellrigel, who is president of the Community Hiking Club and a Historical Society board member.

The enormity of the bill’s passage was not lost on Pollack.

“What a momentous and historical day for the city of Santa Clarita,” the Historical Society president said. “The St. Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial is officially established and at last the memories of over 400 dead appropriately honored. We now look forward to working with the U.S. Forest Service to build a memorial visitor center and wall with the names of all the victims in the next few years.”

The list of deceased victims continues to be a work in progress. It currently stands at 411. While historians initially focused on an accurate count of the victims, a graduate student from California State University, Northridge, set out to focus instead on the “humanity” of the disaster. Ann Stansell, under the tutelage of Professor James Snead, took on the monumental task in October 2011 as part of her thesis, while pursuing a master’s degree in anthropology.

To see the current list and learn more about Stansell’s research, click [here].

Recent years have also seen a slew of new books that reexamined the causes of the failure.

Leon Worden, vice president of the Historical Society, lauded the many individuals who laid the groundwork for the legislation.

“This could be the single most significant thing the Historical Society has ever done,” Worden said. “Alan and Dianne had a vision that went beyond what was thought possible. I’m proud of them.

“There were a lot of unsung heroes along the way,” he said. “It was an evolutionary process, and it really goes back almost a decade to a CSUN professor named James Snead who built an entire class project around the idea that the victims of the tragedy weren’t just numbers but real people. Ann Stansell, one of his students, grabbed the ball and ran with it, and she’s still running with it, to identify all of the victims.

“‘Dammies’ like Don Ray, Frank Rock, Philip Scorza, Keith Buttelman and others had carried the torch for decades, and I remember Don and Frank were in that first meeting at SCVTV when Alan and Dianne fleshed out their plans for federal legislation. Mike Murphy at the city and Councilwoman Laurene Weste played important roles, and I apologize to anyone I’m failing to mention.”

The nonprofit St. Francis Dam National Memorial Foundation has been established to raise the funds for the visitors center, and the group is actively seeking monetary donations. To donate to the memorial and monument, or to learn more about the St. Francis Dam Disaster, visit SaintFrancisDam.com.

 

Comment On This Story
COMMENT POLICY: We welcome comments from individuals and businesses. All comments are moderated. Comments are subject to rejection if they are vulgar, combative, or in poor taste.
REAL NAMES ONLY: All posters must use their real individual or business name. This applies equally to Twitter account holders who use a nickname.

6 Comments

  1. Carol Jones says:

    Nice but he’s only commemorating land that is useless for oil, mineral, timber and water rights. Tracts such as this were thrown in as an afterthought. Nonetheless, the more land preserved is less that can be built on – so that’s great.

    • SCVNews.com says:

      We have not worked on the Dam legislation for the last five years (actually a lot longer) as an “afterthought.” Moreover, “he” is not doing anything. It’s not his bill; he had nothing to do with crafting the legislation. It’s pretty much everyone else’s in Congress.

  2. David C Thompson says:

    What is attached to the bill that will do much more harm than good?

    See?

    https://www.cyclenews.com/2019/03/article/s-47-has-been-signed-into-law/

    • SCVNews.com says:

      Not sure what you mean by “attached” … There are 100 bills in the lands package … the text is all online … and you can follow the link in this story to read the text of our own Dam bill. You’ll see that cattle grazing is still allowed in the monument area in San Francisquito Canyon. Not that there has ever been cattle grazing there, but that sort of thing does not change. It was National Forest before, it’s National Forest now. It’s really about building a visitors center there.

  3. jacqueline says:

    Wait a minute… there’s a memorial burial ground somewhere right in San Fran Cyn. Please do not forget to honor all of the American Mexican Indian families who had ranches along the way through Filmore to Santa Barbara!

    • SCVNews.com says:

      It’s not a “memorial” burial ground; it’s a private cemetery on private property. This is a public visitors center on public property.

Leave a Comment


SCV NewsBreak
LOCAL NEWS HEADLINES
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2024
California Launches New Youth Suicide Prevention Campaign
The California Department of Public Health launched the “Never a Bother” campaign, a youth suicide prevention public awareness and outreach campaign for youth, young adults, and their parents, caregivers, and allies.
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2024
April 20: Santa Clarita Master Chorale’s Cabaret, Cabernet Fundraiser
The Santa Clarita Master Chorale invites the community to "Let the Sunshine In," a delightful evening of food, wine and song at the annual Cabaret & Cabernet fundraising benefit.
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2024
Schiavo Introduces Bill to Prohibit ‘Derogatory’ School Mascot Names
California State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo (D-Chatsworth) and Assemblyman James Ramos (D-Highland) have introduced AB 3074 the "School or athletic team names: California Racial Mascots Act."
Keep Up With Our Facebook

Latest Additions to SCVNews.com
1934 - Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, replacement for ill-fated St. Francis Dam & reservoir, begins to fill with water [story]
Bouquet Reservoir
The California Department of Public Health launched the “Never a Bother” campaign, a youth suicide prevention public awareness and outreach campaign for youth, young adults, and their parents, caregivers, and allies.
California Launches New Youth Suicide Prevention Campaign
The Santa Clarita Master Chorale invites the community to "Let the Sunshine In," a delightful evening of food, wine and song at the annual Cabaret & Cabernet fundraising benefit.
April 20: Santa Clarita Master Chorale’s Cabaret, Cabernet Fundraiser
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cautions residents who are planning to visit the below Los Angeles County beaches to avoid swimming, surfing, and playing in ocean waters:
March 27 Ocean Water Warning
As an integral ingredient necessary to help the Santa Clarita Valley to flourish, feedback from the business community is the secret sauce for achieving great things.
SCVEDEC Asks For the Business Community’s Opinion on Santa Clarita
Raise your heart rate while raising funds for the Santa Clarita Sister Cities Dollars-for-Desks campaign to provide school desks for students in Sariaya, Santa Clarita's Sister City in the Philippines.
April 13: Sister Cities Zumba-thon Fundraiser
Remo, Inc. is is the world's leading manufacturer and developer of synthetic drumheads and shells. They’ve been in business for 60 years
SCVEDC Company Spotlight: Drumming Up Big Business with Remo, Inc.
California State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo (D-Chatsworth) and Assemblyman James Ramos (D-Highland) have introduced AB 3074 the "School or athletic team names: California Racial Mascots Act."
Schiavo Introduces Bill to Prohibit ‘Derogatory’ School Mascot Names
Los Angeles County’s Justice, Care and Opportunities Department  in collaboration with Local Initiatives Support Corporation Los Angeles is proud to announce the 2nd Annual Pitch Competition for the cohorts of JCOD's Incubation Academy.
March 28: JCOD Incubation Academy Helps Grassroots Non-Profits For the Second Year
Children’s Bureau is seeking foster families and now offers two virtual ways for individuals and/or couples to learn how to help children in foster care while reunifying with birth families or how to provide legal permanency by adoption.
April 18: Children’s Bureau Hosts Virtual Orientation
The Sunburst track was constructed in 1887 by the Southern Pacific Railroad and was a part of the main line running between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Enjoy Spring With a Ride On The Sunburst Track
California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond hosted a Personal Finance Summit today where he announced his support for Assembly Bill 2927 (McCarty), legislation that would require a personal finance education course for California high school graduation.
State Superintendent Announces Support for Personal Finance Graduation Requirement
1847 - Probable birth date of Pico Canyon oil driller Charles Alexander Mentry [story]
C.A. Mentry
The first Music Jam Session at The MAIN was held on Thursday, Feb. 22 and was a hit. Come out and join in for the next one on Thursday, March 28 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
March 28: The MAIN to Host Musicians’ Jam Session
Los Angeles County Inspector General Max Huntsman of the Office of Inspector General has issued a report entitled "Tenth Report Back on Implementing Body-Worn Cameras in Los Angeles County."
Office of Inspector General Issues Latest Report on LASD Body Cams
College of the Canyons women's tennis played to a convincing 7-2 conference win over Ventura College on Moica to strengthen its potential playoff resume.
Canyons Closes Out Ventura 7-2 in Final Home Match
Join the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce with the Latino Business Alliance at the Cinco de Mayo Networking Celebration on Tuesday, May 7.
May 7: Latino Business Alliance Cinco de Mayo Celebration
The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control is hosting March Meowness promotion where all cat adoptions are just $15 from now until April 9.
Adopt a Cat During March Meowness at Castaic Animal Center
California State University, Northridge is partnering with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Tataviam Land Conservancy to battle the impact of climate change in disadvantaged communities throughout the San Fernando Valley by establishing “urban forests.”
CSUN Partners with Fernandeño Tataviam Band to Build Urban Forests
Join the Santa Clarita Artists Association on Monday, April 15, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 23630 Valencia Blvd., Valencia, CA 91355, for the SCAA monthly meeting and guest demonstrator.
April 15: SCAA Presents Debbie Abshear Watercolor Demo
Residents are invited to join members of the Santa Clarita City Council for a special ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the addition of Santa Clarita's 38th park, Skyline Ranch Park, 18355 Skyline Ranch Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91351, to the Santa Clarita parks system on Saturday, April 6, at 10 a.m.
April 6: Grand Opening for Santa Clarita’s 38th Park
The Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center is preparing for the annual fundraising event, Celebrity Waiter, with the theme “California Dreamin’” on Saturday, April 27 at Bella Vida, 27180 Golden Valley Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91351.
Table Sponsorships Still Available for Celebrity Waiter Dinner
Springtime in Santa Clarita brings not only vibrant blooms and opportunities to embrace the outdoors with warmer weather, but also an array of free, family-friendly events and this Saturday is no exception.
Ken Striplin | A Fun, Festive, Egg-Filled Day
SCVNews.com