"The St. Francis Dam Revisited"

The California Oil Museum presents “The St. Francis Dam Disaster Revisited” at 2 PM on Sunday, May 15.

The California Oil Museum presents “The St. Francis Dam Disaster Revisited” at 2 PM on Sunday, May 15. Howard Level, retired professor of geology at Ventura College, will talk about the greatest manmade disaster in California history, the 1928 failure of the St. Francis Dam. This is the Museum’s fourth Discovery Series Presentation of 2005. The Museum is operated by the City of Santa Paula and is located at 1001 E. Main St in Santa Paula (805-933-0076; 10 AM - 4 PM, Wed - Sun; $4 Adult, $3 Seniors, $1 Children).Minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, the 200-foot high concrete wall of the St. Francis Dam crumpled and collapsed, sending raging flood waters down San Francisquito Canyon (about five miles northeast of what is now the city of Santa Clarita). The avalanche of water swept 54 miles down the Santa Clara River through Piru, Fillmore, and Santa Paula to the Pacific Ocean. No one knows the exact death toll but more than 450 people perished in the disaster. Professor Level will present slide images of the dam disaster, drawing on a wide selection of historic photos. He will show rock samples from the dam site and explain how the geology of the area contributed to the failure of the dam.