On March 14, 1928, the collapse of St. Francis Dam, responsible for transporting water to Los Angeles County, was reported worldwide, reporting up-to-date details of the tragedy. Before the dam was built, Los Angeles County got its water from the Los Angeles River by diverting the river water through multiple ditches called zanjas.  While building the aqueduct, William Mulholland, the ...

Just before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, and to this day remains one of the most deadly civil engineering disasters in the country. Filled with water supplied by the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which allowed water to flow south from the Owens Valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the St. Francis Dam provided Los Angeles with ...

On this day in 1930, telephone operator Louise Gipe, a heroine of the St. Francis Dam disaster, attempted suicide. On April 17, 1930, Louise Gipe, a nighttime telephone switchboard operator for the Oxnard and Santa Paula Home Telephone Company, attempted suicide by self-inflicted gunshot. Gipe was found in her bedroom at a boarding house in Santa Paula with a gunshot ...

Hikers took a guided tour of the St. Francis Dam ruins Saturday, a day before the 95th anniversary of the structure’s collapse. On Saturday afternoon, a group of hikers watched a presentation about the St. Francis Dam collapse and took a guided tour held by the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. “We’ve driven past this so many times and thought ...

The St. Francis Dam Disaster’s 93rd anniversary is still remembered to this day by the Santa Clarita Valley, along with other cities affected by the collapse. 93 years ago, the Saint Francis Dam broke and killed more than 400 people in Santa Clarita and the surrounding areas. Filled with water supplied by the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which allowed water to ...

The St. Francis Dam Disaster’s 92nd anniversary is still remembered to this day by the Santa Clarita Valley, along with other cities affected by the collapse. 92 years ago, the Saint Francis Dam broke and killed more than 400 people in Santa Clarita and the surrounding areas. Filled with water supplied by the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which allowed water to ...