Exhibit Looks at 1928 Collapse of St. Francis Dam

Just before midnight on the chilly evening of March 12, 1928, the new St. Francis Dam collapsed, unleashing a monstrous wall of water that roared down the Santa Clara River Valley. At least 450 people died.

Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru and Castaic reeled from the disaster, which took about as many lives as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire but captured far less attention.

That will change soon. On Sunday the Santa Paula Union Oil Museum opens its newest exhibit, “Dam Break: Heroes and Survivors, the 70th Anniversary of the St. Francis Dam Disaster.” A reception is scheduled at 2 p.m.

Not only are there maps, photographs and old newspaper clippings that spell out the events of that night, but visitors can also see a model of a bronze sculpture, which historians hope to erect in Santa Paula.

Called “The Warning,” the sculpture by Eric Richards of Santa Paula depicts two motorcycle officers who frantically raced through the streets of the city that night, sirens wailing, to warn sleeping residents that the wall of water was fast approaching. One of them was Thornton Edwards, nicknamed “Paul Revere,” who later became the city’s police chief.

Ruth Teague, 7 at the time, lived in Santa Paula Canyon. Her father was then-city engineer Harry Reddick, who, she recalls, had visited the dam only two weeks before it burst. “At dinner he told my mother the dam would give, it was going to blow,” she remembers. He, as well as others, were troubled by seepage at the dam. “But they couldn’t get any officials interested.”

Later, when sirens screeched in the night, he knew immediately what had happened, she said. He jumped out of bed and drove his flat-bed truck into town, bringing back loads of flood victims still in their nightclothes. He settled them in the orchard on the family’s property. “My mother found every blanket she could,” Teague said.

The dam had burst in San Francisquito Canyon, about five miles northeast of where Magic Mountain is now located. The exhibit, curated by John Nichols’ Sespe Group in Santa Paula, features a mural-like map showing the disaster’s route. Billions of gallons of water raged 54 miles down the Santa Clara River Valley to the ocean. Along the course shown on the mural, Nichols has positioned photos of the destruction that wiped out 1,200 homes and 10 bridges.

Nichols also plans to display a 3,500-pound concrete chunk of the dam’s remains. It was trucked in from San Francisquito Canyon, where there is little sign today of the horrific events 70 years ago.

BE THERE

Exhibit--”Dam Break: Heroes and Survivors, the 70th Anniversary of the St. Francis Dam Disaster” opens Sunday at Santa Paula Union Oil Museum, 1001 E. Main St. Hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. Free. Call (805) 933-0076.