The Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society’s annual tour of the St. Francis Dam site that was scheduled for Saturday has been rescheduled to Saturday, April 26, due to soggy ground at the dam site caused by the recent rains.
According to Carol Rock, the Historical Society’s marketing director, a tour of the dam site would present safety concerns due to all the mud.
“We emailed everybody, and we did get someone saying, ‘But it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow,’” Rock said. “But it’s been raining for the last three days, and it changes the ground.”
Rock added that the original event that was planned for Saturday had been sold out. Event organizers emailed everyone who’d purchased tickets, explaining that their reservation was still good for the April 26 event. However, some people have and might still ask for refunds. As such, space might be available for the rescheduled event.
Rock suggested that those interested in attending the event check the event’s Eventbrite page at bit.ly/4bxhqgS or go to the Historical Society’s website at SCVHS.org.
According to Historical Society president Alan Pollack, the April 26 rescheduled date can still change due to speaker availability. Should the date not work, the Eventbrite website and Historical Society website will reflect the change.
The St. Francis Dam Disaster Lecture and Bus Tour is to include talks from four historians who will speak about Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland’s quest to bring water to the arid land of 1920s L.A. and how his attempt to make it happen turned into the second worst disaster in California’s history.
The failure of the St. Francis Dam at midnight, March 12, 1928, killed more than 400 people, leveled farms and homesteads, destroyed property and livestock and changed the way dam safety is addressed across the nation.
The event is rescheduled to take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 26, starting at College of the Canyons on Rockwell Canyon Road in Valencia. Tickets for the lecture and tour of the dam site, if available, are $75 and may be purchased on Eventbrite at bit.ly/4bxhqgS.
