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by Jon Wilkman


  14Frank Rieber’s handwritten notes, California Division of Dam Safety Files.

  15Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 675.

  16J. David Rogers, “The 1928 St. Francis Dam Failure and Its Impact on American Civil Engineering,” 35.

  17Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 689.

  18Ibid., 729.

  19Ibid., 739.

  20Ibid., 743.

  21Letter from William Mulholland to Z. Cushing, April 16, 1928.

  22Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 770.

  23Ibid., 40.

  24Ibid., 219–39.

  25Ibid., 319.

  26Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 817–18.

  27Ibid., 819.

  28Ibid., 4.

  29Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 826.

  30California Governor’s Report, 16.

  31Ibid., 11.

  32D.C. Henny, “Important Lessons of Construction Taught by the Failure of the St. Francis Dam,” Hydraulic Engineer (December 1928).

  Chapter 12: Hasty Conclusions and High Dams

  1J. David Rogers, “The Impact of the St. Francis Dam on American Civil Engineering,” 99.

  2C.E. Grunsky Company, “Report of the Water Resources of the Santa Clara River Valley.”

  3C.E. Grunsky and E.L. Grunsky, “Report on the Failure March 12th to 13th 1928 of the St. Francis Dam, Accompanied by a Report on the Failure with Special Reference to the Geology of the Damsite,” April 1928: 13.

  4Bailey Willis, “Report on the Geology of the St. Francis Damsite, Los Angeles County, California,” Western Construction News, June 25, 1928, 409.

  5Ibid., 412.

  6Santa Paula Chronicle, March 12, 1928.

  7New York Times, March 19, 1928.

  8Bailey Willis, “Report on the Geology of the St. Francis Damsite, Los Angeles County, California,” 412.

  9Ibid., 413.

  10Charles H. Lee, “Theories of the Cause and Sequence of Failure of the St. Francis Dam,” Western Construction News, June 25, 1928.

  11Halbert P. Gillette, “Three Unreliable Reports on the St. Francis Dam Failure,” Engineering and Contracting, April 1928.

  12Ibid., 171.

  13Nathan Bowers, “St Francis Dam Catastrophe—A Review Six Weeks After,” Engineering News-Record, May 10, 1928.

  14Nathan Bowers, “The Human Factor,” Engineering News-Record (May 10, 1928): 725.

  15Ibid., 725.

  16San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 1928.

  17Quoted in Michael Hiltzik, Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century (New York: Free Press, 2010): 103.

  18Letter from U.S. Senator Philip Swing to California State Engineer Edward Hyatt, March 28, 1928.

  19Guy L. Jones, “San Francisquito Canyon Dam Disaster (California) Report to His Excellency Arizona Gov. George W.P. Hunt,” 1928.

  20Correspondence from Mulford Winsor, secretary of the Colorado River Commission of Arizona, to Guy L. Jones, July 15, 1928.

  21Los Angeles Examiner, October 19, 1928.

  22Thomas M. McMullen, “The St. Francis Dam Collapse and Its Impact on the Construction of Hoover Dam” (Master’s thesis, University of Maryland, 2004).

  23U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/History/essays/fatal.html.

  Chapter 13: Paying the Price and Moving On

  1George Travis, “St. Francis Dam Disaster and Subsequent Restoration Program,” 32.

  2Ruth Waldo Newhall, A California Legend, The Newhall Land and Farming Company (Valencia, CA: Newhall Land and Farming Company, 1992): 99–103.

  3Ann Stansell, “Memorialization and Memory of Southern California’s St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928,” University of California Northridge (master’s thesis, August 2014): 1.

  4These totals come from the report submitted by the law offices of Stephens and Green to DWP engineer J.E. Phillips, July 19, 1929.

  5Letter to Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners from Assistant Right of Way and Land Division Agent A.J. Ford, July 20, 1928.

  6For this and following death and injury claims, see “Citizens’ Restoration Committee Death and Injury Claims,” July 15, 1929.

  7Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=miyagi&GSfn=motoye&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=74399800&df=all&.

  8Los Angeles Herald Examiner, March 10, 1963.

  9Author interview with Carol Rising Longo, 2013.

  10Letter to Los Angeles City Attorney Jess Stephens from Laurence Edwards, September 8, 1930.

  11Calculations based on the Final Report of the Joint Committee on Personal Damage, January 31, 1929, and Final Death and Injury Report, July 15, 1929.

  12Report to DWP engineer J.E. Phillips, from law offices of Stephens and Green, July 29,1929: 4–5.

  13Cost calculations provided by Fred Barker, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 2014.

  14Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1929.

  15William Mulholland, “Water Supply of Los Angeles,” speech, June 13, 1928.

  16William Mulholland, “Twenty-Seventh Annual Report to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, City of Los Angeles,” July 1, 1928.

  17Jules Tygiel, The Great Los Angeles Swindle, Oil, Stocks, and Scandal During the Roaring Twenties (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

  18Charles Collins Teague, Fifty Years a Rancher, 183.

  19Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1928.

  20Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1929.

  Chapter 14: Unfinished Business and Historical Amnesia

  1Los Angeles Times, April 21, 1928.

  2Hollywood Citizen-News, July 23, 1928.

  3Hollywood Dam News, September 22, 1928.

  4Letter to Los Angeles County District Attorney Asa Keyes from John A. Crook, March 16, 1928.

  5Letter to California State Engineer Edward Hyatt Jr. from Frederick Finkle, March 14, 1928.

  6Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1924.

  7Letter from William Mulholland to the Honorable Board of Water and Power Commissioners, May 1, 1928.

  8Hollywood Dam News, October 6, 1928.

  9Ibid.

  10Los Angeles Examiner, July 23, 1928.

  11Report of Engineering Members of Consulting Board on Technical Features of Proposed Modifications of Mulholland Dam, May 21, 1930.

  12Ibid., 90–91.

  13J. David Rogers, “Dams and Disasters, a Brief Overview of Dam Building Triumphs and Tragedies,” presented at the California Colloquium on Water Lectures, 2002, updated with current information, 2012.

  14J. David Rogers, Missouri University of Science and Technology, http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/dams_of_ca/Dam%20Safety%20Legislation%20in%20California.pdf.

  15New York Times, June 12, 1930.

  16Remi Nadeau, The Water Seekers, 110–11.

  17Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 330.

  18Ibid.

  19Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1935.

  20W.A. Chalfant, The Story of Inyo, revised edition (Bishop, CA: Chalfant Press, 1933).

  21New York Times, July 23, 1935.

  22Piru News, July 25, 1935.

  23Citizen-News, October 10, 1936.

  24Robert William Matson, William Mulholland: A Forgotten Forefather (Stockton, CA: Pacific Center for Western Studies, University of the Pacific, 1978).

  25Steven P. Erie, Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District Growth, and the Environment in Southern California (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006): 42.

  26Abraham Hoffman, Vision or Villainy, 208–43.

  27Morrow Mayo, Los Angeles (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1933): 245.

  28Ibid, 246.

  29H.L. Mencken, Prejudices—Sixth Series (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927).

  30Carey McWilliams, Southern California: An Island on the Land (Layton, UT: Peregrine Smith Books, 1983): 375.

  Chapter 15:
Charley’s Obsession and Computer Time Machines

  1Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 16.

  2Quoted in Abraham Hoffman, “Charles F. Outland, Local Historian.” In The St. Francis Dam Disaster Revisited, edited by Doyce B. Nunis Jr. (Spokane, WA: Historical Society of Southern California and Ventura County Museum of History and Art, 1995): 166.

  3Ynez Haase, “A Personal View of Charles Outland,” pamphlet, 1977, 3.

  4Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1931.

  5Author interview with Allan Ayers, March 25, 2008.

  6Ynez Haase, “A Personal View of Charles Outland,” 4.

  7Ibid.

  8Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 12.

  9Clarence Rowley Van Sant, Water under the Dam (New York: Vantage Press, 1955).

  10Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster.

  11Ibid., 97.

  12Correspondence to Charles Outland from Samuel L. Friedman, assistant to the general manager and director of public relations for the DWP, February 27, 1963 (Outland Collection, Fillmore Historical Museum).

  13Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 97.

  14Ibid., 101.

  15Ibid., 203.

  16Ibid., 230.

  17Correspondence to Charles Outland from Stanley M. Cann, Public Relations Department, Southern California Edison, February 15, 1963.

  18Ibid.

  19Joyce Mathews Scott, “My Memories of the St. Francis Dam” (unpublished manuscript, undated).

  20Lucius P. Green, “Review, ‘Man-Made Disaster: The Story of the St. Francis Dam’ by Charles Outland,” Southern California Quarterly 46, no. 3 (September 1964), 288–92.

  21Correspondence to Charles Outland from Pierson Hall, February 15, 1978.

  22Letter from Pierson Hall to Manuel P. Servin, Editor of the California Historical Society Quarterly, October 19, 1964.

  23Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 217.

  24Los Angeles Record, March 26, 1928.

  25Don Ray, The Dam Keeper’s Daughter, A True Story (unpublished manuscript, 1977).

  26Santa Paula Chronicle, June 6, 1939.

  27J. David Rogers, “Reassessment of the St. Francis Dam Failure.” In Engineering Geology Practice in Southern California, eds. B. Pipkin and R.J. Proctor, Association of Engineering Geologists, Special Science Publications no. 4: 639–66.

  28J. David Rogers, “A Man, a Dam and a Disaster.”

  29Donald C. Jackson and Norris Hundley, Jr. “Privilege and Responsibility: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster,” California History, 82, no. 3 (January 2004).

  30Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 16.

  Chapter 16: After the Fall

  1Henry Petroski, To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design (New York: Vintage Books, 1992).

  2“Banqiao Dam,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam.

  3American Society of State Dam Safety Officials Report, http://www.damsafety.org/news/?p=412f29c8-3fd8-4529-b5c9-8d47364c1f3e.

  4Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2014.

  5Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2011.

  6Karen Piper, Left in the Dust: How Race and Politics Created a Human and Environmental Tragedy in L.A. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).

  7Los Angeles Times, September 17, 1976.

  8Gary D. Libecap, Owens Valley Revisited: A Reassessment of the West’s First Great Water Transfer (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007).

  9New York Times, December 6, 2014.

  10Los Angeles Times, March 13, 2015.

  11Frank Black and the Catholics, “St. Francis Dam Disaster,” Dog in the Sand. Cooking Vinyl FRYCD 099, 2001.

  12American Society of Civil Engineers, 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, www.infrastructurereportcard.org.

  INDEX

  Links in italics denote photographs or figures.

  aerial photography, here, here, here

  African-Americans, here, here

  Alabama Hills and Aqueduct Gates, here, here, here

  alkali aggregate reaction, here

  All-American Canal, here

  Allen, Walter B., here

  Ambassador Hotel, here

  American history, traditional portrayal of West and Los Angeles, here, here

  American Legion, here, here, here

  American Red Cross

  activities on behalf of survivors, here

  letter from Mexican Consulate to, here

  Mayor Cryer and, here

  in Newhall after flood, here

  radio contact with, here

  resentment toward, here

  in Santa Paula after flood, here, here

  American Society of Civil Engineers, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Antelope Valley, here, here, here

  anti-dam movement, here

  aqueducts, here, here, here, here, here, here. See also Owens River Aqueduct

  arched dams, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Arrowrock Dam, here

  Ashley Dam, here

  Association of General Contractors (AGC), here

  Association of State Dam Safety Officials, Inc., here

  Austin, Mary, here

  Austin Dam, here, here

  Automobile Club of Southern California, here

  Baker, Stanley, here

  Baldwin Hills Reservoir, here, here

  Banqiao Dam, here

  Bardsdale Bridge, here, here

  Barnard, Pearl, here, here

  Bartlett Dam, here

  Basolo, Charles, here

  Basolo, Ethel, here

  Basolo, George and Leora, here, here, here

  Bayley, Edgar A., here

  Beach, Lansing H., here

  Bear Valley Lake Dam, here

  Bee School, here, here

  Bel Air, Los Angeles neighborhood, here

  Bennett, Ralph, here

  Berry, Harley and Oramae, here, here, here

  Beverly Hills, California, here, here

  Big Pine, California, here

  Big Tujunga Canyon, here

  Biltmore Hotel, here

  Bird, Solomon T., here, here

  Bishop, California, here, here, here, here

  Black, Frank, here

  bleeders, here, here

  Blue Cut (Santa Clara River Valley), here, here, here

  Bonner, F.E., here, here

  Bonneville Dam, here

  Boston College, here

  Boulder Canyon, here, here, here, here, here

  Boulder Canyon Project Act, here

  Bouquet Canyon, here, here, here, here

  Bowen, Oliver, here

  Bowers, Nathan A., here

  Boy Scouts of America, here

  BPL. See Bureau of Power and Light

  Bradley, Mabel, here

  “The Breaking of St. Francis Dam” (Hutchens), here

  bridges destroyed, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Bright, William, here

  Broadway (Los Angeles), here, here, here

  Brodie, Orrin, here

  Buena Vista Reservoir, here

  Bureau of Power and Light (Los Angeles) (BPL)

  after disaster, here, here, here, here, here

  creation of, here

  employees of, here, here, here

  hydroelectric power plants and, here, here

  power lines of, here, here

  Scattergood and, here, here

  Tombstone demolition and, here

  Bureau of Water Works and Supply (Los Angeles) (BWWS)

  aqueduct documentary by, here

  BPL rivalry with, here

  California Governor’s Commission and, here, here

  County Coroner’s Inquest verdict and, here

  creation of, here

  dam crack repairs by, here

  dam plans and, here

  dam responsibility, here

  dynamite theory and, here, here

  employees of, here, here

&n
bsp; Finkle and, here

  Harnischfeger’s call to, here

  intentions for St. Francis Dam, here

  Right of Way and Land Division, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Burns, Lou, here, here, here

  Butterfield Overland Mail Company, here

  buttress dams, here

  BWWS. See Bureau of Water Works and Supply (Los Angeles)

  Byerly, Harry, here

  Calaveras Dam, here

  California (Nordhoff), here, here

  California Alien Land Law, here

  California Division of Highways, here

  California Gold Rush, here, here, here, here

  California Governor’s Commission, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  verdict of, here

  California Historical Society Quarterly, here

  California’s Little Civil War, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  California Workers’ Compensation Insurance, here

  Caltech, (California Institute of Technology) here, here, here, here, here

  Camulos, California, here, here, here

  Carey, Harry and Olive, here, here, here, here, here

  Carnegie Institute Seismological Laboratory, here

  Carrillo, Juan, and family, here, here, here, here

  Casas, Odilon, and family, here

  Cascades, here, here, here, here

  Castaic Junction, California, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Catholics (band), here

  Catskill Aqueduct, here

  Central Park (Pershing Square), here

  Cerrio Gordo mines, here

  Chandler, Harry, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Chandler Boulevard, here

  Chatsworth, California, here, here

  Chatsworth Reservoir, here

  Chicago American, here

  China, (People’s Republic of China), here

  Chinatown (film), here, here, here, here

  Chinese gold prospectors, here, here

  Chinese, killings of in early Los Angeles, here

  Citizens Committees (Los Angeles and Ventura County), here, here, here, here

  Civil Engineers Registration Bill (California), here

  Clark, Walter, here

  Clarke, Bertha, here

  Clemore, Lois, and family, here

  Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Los Angeles, here

  Coe, Homer and Nora, here, here

  cofferdams, (see also: cutoff wall), here

 

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