St Francis Dam location. Links added pics and video

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Old Savage
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St Francis Dam location. Links added pics and video

Post by Old Savage »

March 13 is the anniversary of the tragic failure of the famous St Francis Dam built by Mullholland. Earlier this week El Chivo sent me a message that he would be at A Place to Shoot on Sunday working on some of his loads and invited me to join him. As some may recall he had previously done a thread on the former dam site. After a fine time of shooting I happened to mention the dam and he offered to take me on a tour of what he had found. The shooting range is located on San Francisquito Rd about one mile north of the site. So off we went in his 1986 Volvo 740 GLE with 214,000 miles.

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Here is the mile marker nearest the site and the famous rock formation to the north. The path by the marker leads out over the ridge that was a portion of the dam.

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El Chi is pointing to the rock formation and directly behind him is the site of the dam.

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A few hundred yards to the north is the old San Fancisquito Rd that was taken out in the 1994 earthquake.

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As we go down as far as you could see and around to the right is the area just below what would be the dam. The ridge to the right and the gray portions of rock on the wall to the left are part of the old dam.

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Here El Chi is pointing out from the new portion of San Francisquito road the path of the waters went after the dam failed.

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Fine host for the tour even offered me a much more extensive hiking version. But ill equipped footwear wise and alas recovering from a wedding in Chinatown the previous evening. Actually a Vietmanese/Filipino wedding in a Catholic church in LA with a reception in Chinatown for two Asians who work in Koreatown - parts of all were included - quite the cultural experience.

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a few of the lovely ladies

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And of course the lucky groom in the traditional money dance - all had a fine time.

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I opted for a rain check when the waters recede from the rains.'

I think El Chi will be buying a membership at the range and I will have much more of an opportunity to see his persistence in creating unique loads for his silhouette and hunting endeavors.

Chi even kindly offered me his cheese sandwich - what guy.
Last edited by Old Savage on Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:08 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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PaperPatch
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Re: St Francis Dam location.

Post by PaperPatch »

Old Savage, you are a Babe Magnet....
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Old Savage
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Re: St Francis Dam location. Links added.

Post by Old Savage »

In talking with some locals here I find this disaster is little known by some. Here are some links to the history of the dam and the incident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Dam

http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/stfrancis.htm

http://wikimapia.org/105689/St-Francis-Dam-Site

Video here - dam at about 3:52 in

http://wikimapia.org/105689/St-Francis-Dam-Site\

Interesting pics and illustrations of the dam and course of the flood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MdB_s6KhwA
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jeepnik
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Re: St Francis Dam location. Links added pics and video

Post by jeepnik »

I haven't been out to the dam in maybe 15 years. I wonder if the area has changed much. You really can't hold Mulholland entirely responsible for the failure. While the design might have not been the best, had they built it out of the spec'd materials, it would likely have held. In those days, contractors were just a crooked as some I deal with today.
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cshold
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Re: St Francis Dam location.

Post by cshold »

PaperPatch wrote:Old Savage, you are a Babe Magnet....
"OBM" (Old Babe Magnet) 8)
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El Chivo
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Re: St Francis Dam location. Links added pics and video

Post by El Chivo »

Chi even kindly offered me his cheese sandwich - what guy.
And you know, you could have had a V-8. It was the least I could do after they closed the chuck wagon.

Yes we had a nice visit, and I was glad to share the finding of the exact dam site so more people can visit. OS, you'll have to climb that path one day and get up on the dam, then you can see things a lot better. One thing that hits home is how much water there was on the north side of the dam.
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Old Savage
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Re: St Francis Dam location. Links added pics and video

Post by Old Savage »

El Chi - I think this link gives a few moving illustrations of that - much better understanding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MdB_s6KhwA
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Re: St Francis Dam location. Links added pics and video

Post by Sixgun »

Neat pics with a great story. :D That weather you guys are having does burn me up a bit though. T-shirts :evil: I have not had a T-shirt on in 6 months :twisted:

But..........I did notice Old Savage managed ( :D once again :D ) to get some indentations on his shirts. Lucky guy :D :D
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cshold
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Re: St Francis Dam location. Links added pics and video

Post by cshold »

Sixgun wrote:Neat pics with a great story. :D That weather you guys are having does burn me up a bit though. T-shirts :evil: I have not had a T-shirt on in 6 months :twisted:

But..........I did notice Old Savage managed ( :D once again :D ) to get some indentations on his shirts. Lucky guy :D :D


Hummm!! Reminds me of a song from a few years back...
Something about "Some guys have all the luck"

Seriously, how many of us can say and prove we
were in an impromptu, almost oops picture like OS can?
The guy (OS) is truly dipped in it. :lol: :wink:
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