|
|
Click image to enlarge
| Download archival scan
Southern California Edison's Saugus Substation in the aftermath of the 1928 St. Francis Dam Disaster. The substation was built between August 1923 and August 1924 on the south/west side of today's Magic Mountain Parkway in what is now Valencia. It replaced the smaller 1899 Castaic Substation. The night crew at the Saugus Substation "didn't need a wake-up call," historian John Wilkman writes, when the St. Francis Dam failed just before midnight on March 12. "They were startled into action when an oil switch exploded, setting off a fire. ... Something had gone terribly wrong and no one was sure what caused it" (Wilkman 2016:94). "Less than forty minutes after the collapse," Wilkman writes, "the leading edge of the flood emerged from the confines of San Francisquito Canyon and widened. ... By now, the oil switch fire was under control. Frank Thees was standing outside with other employees:
We heard a roaring noise which at first we thought was a train on the tracks near the highway. We soon realized ... that
a large volume of water was running down the Santa Clara River. ... One of the Big Creek lines flashed over and lit up the entire country, showing us that water was already across the highway (ibid.:97).
Several small buildings at the substation were destroyed, among them some of the Edison workers' cottages, as "a thick layer of sand, gravel and debris ... pushed south over the Santa Clara River channel" (Hundley & Jackson 2015:144). The substation was inundated and the transformer yard was littered with debris — as seen at left in the photograph above.
HS7067: 9600 dpi jpeg from original 8x10 glossy print, SCV Historical Society collection. Stamped imprint on back indicates it was donated by
Thomas E. McNeill of Valencia.
|
After the Flood 1928 (Mult.)
Saugus 1/1974 x3
Heritage Junction Site Plan 1988
Data Sheet 1989
|
The site owner makes no assertions as to ownership of any original copyrights to digitized images. However, these images are intended for Personal or Research use only. Any other kind of use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication in any medium or format, public exhibition, or use online or in a web site, may be subject to additional restrictions including but not limited to the copyrights held by parties other than the site owner. USERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for determining the existence of such rights and for obtaining any permissions and/or paying associated fees necessary for the proposed use.
