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Restoration Committee to determine the payout of death claims, have been digitized for this

research and their contents were included in this analysis as a means by which to compile an

accurate list of victims and their burial locations.

Study Area

The floodwaters resulting from the St. Francis Dam failure impacted a 54-mile flood

zone spanning Los Angeles and Ventura counties in Southern California (Figure 1.1). The

dam was erected in rural San Francisquito Canyon; floodwaters traveled down San

Francisquito Canyon to the Santa Clarita Valley and Castaic Junction, and then turned west

following the Santa Clara River south of Piru, Fillmore, and Santa Paula through Ventura

County to the Pacific Ocean. The area devastated by the floodwaters of the St. Francis Dam

disaster is the primary setting for this research.

South of the dam site, past Power Plant No. 2’s small community, ranches dot the

landscape down San Francisquito Canyon until gradually meeting the suburban sprawl of

Santa Clarita Valley. Along State Highway 126, west of Santa Clarita Valley, the Santa Clara

River Valley is largely agricultural, consisting of ranches, orchards, and farms. Some of

larger holdings include those of the Newhall Land and Farming Company and the Limoneira

Ranch. Rancho Camulos, the setting for Helen Hunt Jackson’s 1884 novel Ramona, is also

within the flood zone. Past Piru, Fillmore, Bardsdale, and Santa Paula, floodwaters followed

the Santa Clara River southwest through the valley, emptying into the Pacific Ocean at

Montalvo.

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