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NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
(Rev. 8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet

Section number 8 Page 15

St. Francis Dam (Site of), Los Angeles County, California — Narrative Statement of Significance
[continued]
The impact of the St. Francis Dam disaster was felt keenly outside of California as well. Most notably, the construction of Boulder
(Hoover) Dam, then under consideration by Congress, was called into question by those who had been opposing its construction
since it was first proposed in 1922. Seizing upon the tragedy, Arizona Governor George Hunt, one of the leading opponents of the
entire Colorado River project, commissioned a state investigation of the failure of the St. Francis Dam, which concluded, “the
utmost care must be exercised in ascertaining the safety of a damsite before selecting it for water storage. This Congress has thus far
failed to do [sic] in the case of the Boulder Dam.” [Jones, 1928: 31]

Congressional approval of the authorizing legislation, the Swing-Johnson bill, stalled. Editorials citing the St. Francis Dam disaster
as cause for abandoning the Boulder Dam and the Colorado River Aqueduct project were published in newspapers as distant from the
region as the Wall Street Journal. The project ultimately overcame this opposition and was approved by Congress in December 1928.
The St. Francis Dam failure would once again slow the development of the Colorado River Aqueduct, however, when in 1929 Los
Angeles voters, the disaster still fresh in their minds, failed to approve a bond measure to fund its construction. The bond
authorization passed overwhelmingly two years later. [Mulholland, 2000: 325; Karl, 1982: 313-4, 341; Hoffman, 1981: 260]

Impact on the Career of William Mulholland

It is unlikely that any other individual can be credited for having made a greater contribution to the transformation of Los Angeles
from dusty pueblo to modern metropolis than William Mulholland. It was through his offices, and his personal determination, that
the Owens Valley Aqueduct, as well as numerous ancillary water facilities which made this growth possible, were envisioned,
designed and constructed. More notably, no individual within this context can be seen to have fallen so abruptly from the great
heights of widespread admiration, respect and influence, to virtual ignominy. It was a fall precipitated by a single event, the collapse
of the St. Francis Dam.

William Mulholland’s final years, until his death in 1935, were spent uncharacteristically out of public view, and he would enjoy
little recognition of his life in service to the City of Los Angeles. He also forfeited the opportunity to participate in the design and
construction of the next major feat of Southern California water engineering, the Colorado River aqueduct, a project for which he’d
lobbied actively for many years. Instead, his name and vast accomplishments would be forever linked to, and overshadowed by, the
St. Francis Dam disaster. In a very real sense, William Mulholland became the tragedy’s final victim. [Mulholland, 2000: 328-31]