St. Francis Dam Disaster Site
St. Francis Dam Disaster Site is a dam ruins in California. Dam-collapse landscape in San Francisquito Canyon. The dam collapsed shortly before midnight on March 12, 1928. The historical landmark text gives more than 450 deaths; modern USGS interpretation gives at least 431 and says the exact toll is unknown.
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Is St. Francis Dam Disaster Site haunted?
The record holds 1 claim, 1 legend — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed local folklore. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
The St. Francis Dam collapsed just before midnight on March 12, 1928 — a wall of water through San Francisquito Canyon that killed roughly 431 people, the second-worst disaster in California history. William Mulholland's career ended with it — the man who built the aqueduct that made Los Angeles broken by the dam that failed.
The file's documented spine is the failure's completeness: a dam two years old, a midnight collapse, a flood wave that ran fifty-four miles to the sea, taking the sleeping canyon with it.
The canyon's voices
Local lore describes apparitions and cries in the canyon — the file's haunting being the flood's, the dead of the water reportedly still in the ground the water scoured. The twentieth-century reports are the disaster's residue: the canyon keeping the sounds of the night it drowned.
The 431 dead are the record; the cries in the canyon are the report — a disaster site whose haunting is the flood's echo in the gorge it emptied.
Why this file matters
The St. Francis site is the archive's engineering-disaster file — a dam that killed 431 in a night, a canyon that keeps the cries, Mulholland's broken career the record's human cost. The apparitions are the lore; the midnight collapse is the record that made them.
A dam that failed at midnight, a canyon that drowned, a builder broken — the file's suggestion being that the water's dead are still in the ground it carried them through.
The St. Francis Dam, or the San Francisquito Dam, was a concrete gravity-arch dam located in San Francisquito Canyon in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was built between 1924 and 1926. The dam failed catastrophically in 1928, killing at least 431 people in the subsequent flood, in what is considered to have been one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of the 20th century and the third-greatest loss of life in California history. The dam was built to serve the growing water needs of the city of Los Angeles, creating a large regulating and storage reservoir that was an integral part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It was located in San Francisquito Canyo
St. Francis DamThe long record
- 1928History
The dam failed just before midnight on March 12, 1928, killing ~431 people; William Mulholland’s career ended with the disaster. The documented date is 1928-03-12. St. Francis Dam Disaster Site's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'St. Francis Dam' documents the entry. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.
- 1928Disaster
St. Francis Dam collapse
- 1928Closed
Ceased operation
The record of claims
Local lore describes apparitions and cries in the canyon—retold in regional ghost collections. The account has been recorded since 20th century. The reports at St. Francis Dam Disaster Site are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. 'St. Francis Dam' carries the account. It's the kind of claim that outlives debunkings — too many witnesses, too few explanations.
Local lore describes apparitions and cries in the canyon—retold in regional ghost collections. Reports in the file date to 20th century. St. Francis Dam Disaster Site's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. The report is preserved in sources like 'St. Francis Dam'. Every community keeps one story like this; this is theirs.
Two accounts on file
Dam-collapse landscape in San Francisquito Canyon.
The canyon where St. Francis Dam failed—431 dead in California’s worst civil disaster.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
St. Francis Dam Disaster Site is a dam ruins in California. Dam-collapse landscape in San Francisquito Canyon. The dam collapsed shortly before midnight on March 12, 1928. The historical landmark text gives more than 450 deaths; modern USGS interpretation gives at least 431 and says the exact toll is unknown.
The St. Francis Dam site in San Francisquito Canyon marks the March 12, 1928 collapse that sent a 140-foot wave to the sea, killing ~431—one of the worst civil-engineering disasters in U.S. history. Ruins remain in the canyon.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
HISTORIC_SITE
ACTIVE
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Preserve conflicting death estimates. Marker address 32300 N San Francisquito Canyon Road is 1.5 miles south of former dam; do not assign it as the ruins’ address. Current entry and exact coordinate remain unverified.
Lore enrichment; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
The dam collapsed shortly before midnight on March 12, 1928. The historical landmark text gives more than 450 deaths; modern USGS interpretation gives at least 431 and says the exact toll is unknown. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. 'St. Francis Dam Disaster Site' documents the entry. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyCalifornia Office of Historic PreservationThe dam failed just before midnight on March 12, 1928, killing ~431 people; William Mulholland’s career ended with the disaster. The documented date is 1928-03-12. St. Francis Dam Disaster Site's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'St. Francis Dam' documents the entry. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.
Sources on file
- 01St. Francis Dam Disaster SiteCalifornia Office of Historic Preservation · government · A1
- 02St Francis Dam DisasterU.S. Geological Survey · government · A1
- 03St. Francis DamWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Preserve conflicting death estimates. Marker address 32300 N San Francisquito Canyon Road is 1.5 miles south of former dam; do not assign it as the ruins’ address. Current entry and exact coordinate remain unverified.