Coroner Frank Nance and engineer H. A. Van Norman at the Coroner's Inquest following the failure of the Saint Francis Dam, Los Angeles, 1928

Description

Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds., Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam, Handwritten on negative: H. A. Van Norman, H. A. Van Norman's testimony was reported in the article "Fear of Dam Told Jury: Alarm Voiced on Eve of Break: Coroner's Inquiry Reveals Workers Saw Menace in Water-Soaked Hill; Others Recall Flood's Roar: Not Like Blast, They Say; Van Norman on Stand." Los Angeles Times, 23 Mar. 1928: 1., H. A. Van Norman, assistant chief engineer of the water bureau, testifying before Los Angeles Coroner Frank Nance at the Coroner's inquest following the failure of the Saint Francis Dam. Three men are visible in the jury box on the right and one man is seated behind a table in the foreground., 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., A similar photograph was published with the caption: "The Location Was Justifiable" H. A. Van Norman, assistant chief engineer of the water bureau, who yesterday underwent an intensive questioning regarding the building and strength of ill-fated structure.