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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research project would not have been possible without the contributions of many
individuals to whom I am heavily indebted. I am grateful to Dr. James E. Snead for engaging
me in the subject of the St. Francis Dam Disaster and providing support by creating the
Forgotten Casualties Project, arranging access to the St. Francis Dam Disaster Claims Files,
and hosting the Facebook page St. Francis Dam Archaeology. I appreciate the Anthropology
Department at California State University, Northridge, for hosting the Forgotten Casualties
Project, faculty and staff for encouraging me to present at archaeological conferences and
host annual data sharing meetings, and my committee, Dr. James E. Snead, Dr. Sabina
Magliocco, and Dr. Rachel F. Giraudo, for their mentoring throughout the writing of this
thesis. Thanks are due to Krystal Kissinger and Efren Martinez for researching and
presenting on aspects of the disaster, as well as Julee Licon, for conducting and transcribing
interviews and accompanying me to numerous libraries, museums, and cemeteries. The
support of the following individuals was also integral and deserves recognition: Paul Soifer,
consulting historian for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; Angela Tatum,
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Records Center; Charles Johnson, Ventura
County Museum; Joanna Huckabee, David Peebles, Mike McIntyre, Thalia Ryder, and
Darrell Vance, Angeles National Forest; Ellen Jarosz, CSUN Oviatt Special Collections
Library; Martha Gentry, Fillmore Historical Museum; Jeanne Orcutt, California Oil Museum;
Mary Alice Henderson, Santa Paula Historical Society; Alan Pollack, Leon Worden, Frank
Rock “The Dam Man,” Tricia Putnam, Lauren Parker, Tony Newhall, and other members of
the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society; artist Robert Reynolds and curator/art historian
Dr. Charlotte Eyerman, Los Angeles Natural History Museum; Keith and Michelle
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