Women washing clothes in a tent laundry after the failure of the Saint Francis Dam and resulting flood, Santa Clara River Valley (Calif.), 1928

Description

Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds., Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam, The St. Francis Dam was a 200-foot high concrete gravity-arch dam built between 1924 and 1926 in St. Francisquito Canyon (near present-day Castaic and Santa Clarita). The dam collapsed on March 12, 1928 at two and a half minutes before midnight. The resulting flood killed more than 600 residents plus an unknown number of itinerant farm workers camped in San Francisquito Canyon, making it the 2nd greatest loss of life in California after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It is considered the worst American civil engineering failure in the 20th century., View of 4 women washing clothes in a relief camp laundry in a tent after the failure of the Saint Francis Dam and resulting flood. They are working with piles of laundry at 4, square concrete sinks and a portable wash tub on wheels. A label on a tent post reads "From [illegible writing] / Company B, 160th Infantry / Armory, Exposition Park / Los Angeles, Calif. / To Supply Officer / 160th Infantry..." The 2 women wearing white headdresses might be Red Cross volunteers.