Doyce B Nunis, Jr. (2002)
St. Francis Dam Disaster Revisited
Historical Society of Southern California, Pasadena, California.
75 years ago, just before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed after its first full filling. A monstrous wall of churning liquid mud came roaring down on unsuspecting people asleep in their homes along the Santa Clara River Valley. At least 450 people were killed, almost as many as died in San Francisco's earthquake and fire of 1906. The St. Francis Dam Disaster Revisited features the detailed modern geological assesments of J. David Rogers, the foremost forensic authority on the dam's collapse. It also contains important articles by Catherine Mulholland, Abraham Hoffman, and Charles Johnson--the latter a 26-page photo essay on the aftermath of the disaster.