FAILED DAM RECALLED MARCH 1928 DELUGE TOOK HUNDREDS OF VICTIMS OUT TO THE SEA.

Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - In an age of national terror alerts, chemical weapons and duct tape, older generations yearn for the simpler days when people could shut out the dangers of the world when they shut their front doors.

But history is riddled with events that shattered the notion that the walls of one's home kept peril at bay.

Seventy-five years ago a midnight disaster in quiet San Francisquito Canyon in Saugus stole entire families from their beds and swept them to their deaths.

The March 12, 1928, collapse of the St. Francis Dam, which claimed an estimated 450 lives, remains the second worst tragedy in California history, behind the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

Despite this dubious distinction, however, few people know about the deadly wave that carried homes, cattle, trees and humans out to the Pacific in a matter of hours.

``When it happened it was well known and on the front pages of papers across the country and the world,'' said Frank Rock, a Canyon Country resident and expert on the disaster. ``But then it wasn't talked about that much.''

Completed in 1926 and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the massive structure stretched 700 feet across the canyon and held back an astounding 12.5 billion gallons of water. When the concrete buckled three minutes before midnight, the explosion tore through the valley below and cut a path more than a mile wide at its peak.

The failure of the dam represented death on many levels: Innocent lives were lost, water stored for an arid and thirsty Los Angeles was lost, and the celebrated William Mulholland, the dam's designer, was never the same.

``He was a broken man after that, no question,'' Rock said. ``He had personally inspected the dam that morning and found nothing wrong. After it happened he accepted the blame.''

Before Mulholland's death in 1935, he was quoted as saying ``I envy the dead.'' It would be be decades before geological studies absolved him of guilt when scientists discovered the dam was built on an ancient landslide that could not have been detected with 1920s technology.

The actual death toll was likely much higher than 450 but was impossible to count because a large part of the area was populated by migrant workers.

Rock said 350 bodies of the 450 that were reported missing were recovered, but he places the actual death toll at closer to 600.

One week after the ocean swallowed the onslaught of water and debris, Rock said bodies from the disaster were found in the sea off San Diego.

A 2002 exhibit called ``Water and Power and the History of L.A.'' at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage included a small, jade-colored Chinese pot found after the collapse, as well as rusty tools and black-and-white photos of the dam before and after it failed.

But the most chilling item in the collection was a 1928 publication called ``The Intake'' that brought the reality of the tragedy to life.

Under the heading ``Roll of the Identified and Missing,'' and the quote ``Come, bare the head! For these are heroes, too!'' is a glimpse of the disaster's deadly enormity: William W. Neilson, Jr.; Mrs. William W. (Helen) Neilson, Jr. (missing); William W. Neilson, Sr. (father); Bertha T. Neilson (daughter); Frank A. Neilson; Baby Neilson (missing).

HISTORICAL LECTURE, TOUR

A free lecture commemorating the 75th anniversary of the St. Francis Dam disaster will begin at 1 p.m. today at the Saugus Train Station in Heritage Junction, followed by a guided tour of the dam's remains.

The bus tour, a fund-raiser for the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society, will depart after the one-hour lecture. Tickets are $30 per person and include bottled water and a snack.

The lecture will be conducted by historian Frank Rock and includes a video and still photos of the disaster and its aftermath. Recently published books about the disaster can be purchased at the event.

The tour, which Rock estimated would last about three hours, will include a moderate hike on the ruins.

For information on purchasing tickets, call [phone].

Daily News

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Above, a 1928 photograph in a published collection of news photos shows the collapsed St. Francis Dam near Saugus. At top, the body of a flooding victim is carried across the subsiding waters. Several hundred people died and thousands were injured during the night when, within a few hours, towering waters swept through several communities.

(3 -- ran in SAC edition only) The St. Francis Dam collapsed overnight on March 12, 1928, causing a huge wave of water - carrying homes, cattle, trees and people - to rush to the sea.

(4 -- ran in SAC edition only) At left, a 1928 photograph shows Los Angeles County Coroner Frank Nance and an assistant examining victims' bodies after the St. Francis Dam's overnight collapse, when a wall of water as high as 125 feet swept through Castaic, Saugus, Piru, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Saticoy and Montalvo.

Delmar Watson/from 'Quick Watson, the Camera'

(5 -- ran in SAC edition only) Sculptor Eric Richards' bronze at Santa Paula. Union Oil Museum depicts a motorcyclist who warned towns when the dam burst.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Box:

(ran in SAC edition only) HISTORICAL LECTURE, TOUR (see text)

Map:

DAM COLLAPSE