What happened to the Mulholland "King of the Hill" RSR?

[SSB]

This thing has really great legs. It is, however, a Mulholland Thread that happens to be in a Pelican Parts Technical forum. And that's fine. Who's to say where this thing goes? Whatever. I would like to respond to the St. Francis dam failure. My reflections come from Margret Davis's book: Rivers in the Desert" where she claims that all of her info came from Wild Bills own files which had heretofore never been opened since his departure from DWP. While 'Old Bill took responsibility for the entire failure of the St. Francis Dam, the inquiry commission could only find that "no one person should have the authority to oversee a project of such a large magnitude" and did not blame Mulholland directly. That being said, William was in such a state of depression after the inquary that rather than go to the dentist as he was asked to. he simply pulled out all his own teeth himself. It wasn't until 1990 that a geological report, called "The Rogers Report" actually exonerated William Mulholland of any responsibility for the failure as "The was no technology at the time to have made the determination that the dam was actually built against an ancient landslide". The water left the dam went through Newhall turned right went to the ocean and bodies were washed up in San Diego. The water mark in Filmore was said to have been 15' high. No Shistz, Sherlock.

Secondly, years ago I came across the Mulholland racers who used to plot their adventures on their own web site. I responded once and was hailed as "A real Mulholland Racer". As amusing as that was, there was a response from someone who took great pains to defend the honor of William Mulholland. I responded by asking what did he know of William. Turns out this guy was trying to put together a documentary on William Mulholland. However he discounted Margret Davis book as "he has talked to Kathern Mulholland herself" and had yet another view of her father altogether. Disfunctional comes to mind but one must keep the victorian principals of the time in mind. Anyway, I met the guy and we went to the former St. Francis dam and explored. The original look-out points are still there as was parts of the dam itself. It was strange to stand there as I had driven through there many times before in the MGB and never knew I was driving over the reminants of the dam. The most impressive view of the site was looking at the sides of the mountain which had been scoured by the 185' wall of water as it left the dam site. Those who, across the country. read this thread don't know that the name William Mulholland was so villified in 1928 that when my father went to school at Van Nuy High in 1948, he asked a kid named Mulholland why the road up there had his name on it, the kid replied: "I don't know, something my grandfather did I hear." Truely from Hero to zero. Equaly as amazine to me is that Jeff knows he's 31 feet higher than the St. Francis Dam.

[Jeff Hail]

Victor,
We are going to have to discuss this over scrambed eggs and smoked salmon with a bit of onion some time soon. Actually I am 31 feet higher than Castaic Dam. It worries me because technically it is an earthen dam unlike the unsinkable concrete St. Francis Dam. There is also a fault in the area. Better above than below eh?

I liked your response ......open minded and subjective

Ever wonder why they built a skirt around the Hollywood Dam to reinforce the face. It is a clone of the St. Francis Dam except with a more appealing facade. In 2005 a warning was posted. Due to unstable ground following the 2005 rains, the reservoir is partially closed to the public until further notice. Scary!! Imagine downstream L.A hit with a 185 foot wall of water or 2.5 billion gallons of H20?

A few years back I read the book Cadillac Desert and also viewed it's later PBS companion documentary of the same name. Interesting stuff.

Even more enlightening is Catherine Mulholland's "William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles" and "The Owensmouth Baby: The Making of a San Fernando Valley Town". His grandaughter dispels many things about Wild Bill.
I also had the opportunity to meet her and she is fiercely protective of grandad and his good name for good reason. I saw this firsthand as she was doing a Q&A and someone asked the wrong question. (not me!!!) Chris know's something of her also. I guess good advice would be don't "F" with Mulholland.

Quote:
"Mulholland, Los Angeles's tough water superintendent, had built the great aqueduct from the Owens Valley agricultural region down into Los Angeles. With water the city grew, and as it grew it demanded more water. Owens Valley ranchers finally fought back.

They damaged Mulholland's aqueduct, took over pumping stations, and kidnapped city officials. Los Angeles would need a reservoir to sustain its water supply, so Mulholland chose the San Fransisquito Creek. He'd built many dams in his work. Now this dam would create a reservoir of thirty-thousand acre feet and a year's supply of water.

By now Mulholland's reputation as an engineer was too strong. As the dam went up, certain features weren't checked aggressively enough. This was a gravity-arch dam: heavy enough that the water wouldn't push it aside, but it also arched back into the reservoir where its curvature lent it extra strength.

As work began in 1924, a drought sent people clamoring for even more reservoir capacity. Mulholland raised the dam from 175 to 195 feet without demanding reinforcement. The reservoir began filling in 1926. Water rose to 165 feet in the first three months.

A year later, with water three feet from the top, cracks appeared. Mulholland deemed them the normal result of concrete curing. When leaks appeared, Mulholland pointed out that all dams leak. Then, on March 12, 1928, a strange thing happened. The water level had been standing just three inches from the top for some time. In the early evening, the water-level gage in the center suddenly dropped 3.6 inches. For that to happen, a million cubic feet would have to've been released. It made no sense.

Just before midnight, a chunk broke out of the east side of the dam. The center section moved just enough to break away from the west side, which then swept downstream followed by twelve billion gallons of water. No one who watched the dam burst open lived to tell of it. It was one the great engineering disasters of all time.

They found Mulholland walking on the mud in the shadow of the still-standing center section. It seems he'd built part of the dam on silt without realizing it. The water level hadn't dropped 3.6 inches before the dam broke. Rather, mud had worked in below the center and buoyed that section upward, breaking the sides loose.

The tough Mulholland broke down and wept at the hearing. He took full blame. He lived only seven more years with his nightmare. History has debated his guilt ever since. One thing is clear: The failure owed much to his own expertise. The dam broke because people had trouble questioning his ability. And that's a position that no good engineer should ever want"



About Bill and the dentist thing....When I was supposed to have my first root canal a friend of mine called me up and said "hey lets drive to Perris and go skydiving"..Hum... root canal or jump out of a plane? I took the plane instead. My mistake cost me double in the long run. I can relate to Bill.

[Drew001]

Thanks so much for the post, SSB. Great pictures too!

The knowledge in this thread of the history of this area and all of these roads that I love blows my mind.

I'm truly fortunate to live and drive here!

[SSB]

Lets do breakfast....................and see if you can bring the Rogers report with you. What I am recognizing here is the information sources and the difference in the material contained within. Margret Davis went by Williams own file. There would naturally be a slant ex specially regarding the engineering of the dam. And even my synopsis of the Rogers report came from a DWP employee who worked at the DWP "Camp" in San Franciscito Canyon. However, I think one will find that the Rogers Report post dates everything except the PBS documentary.

A second point here is why the dam was built in San Franciscito. The person who accompanied William in his first search for water up in Owens Valley was a man named Fred Eaton, former Mayor of Los Angeles. Eaton knew where Mulholland planed to route the aqueduct and rushed back up there to purchase all the areas that could be used for a reservoir. Mulholland was so angry about this betrail he refused to purchase any of the land at all thereby necessitating the use of San Franciscito Canyon.

The rest as they say is history

[Banning]

The facts speak for themselves.

William Mulholland had no formal education, and so was ignorant of many facets of engineering and geologic processes.

All engineers and geologists that had the guts to tell Mr. Mulholland that it was too dangerous a place to put a dam, were fired. (The conditions were obvious, even at that time, Faulting and decomposing rock were quite evident).

The dam was a "gravity dam" and only the weight of the concrete was holding it in place against the tremendous weight of the water behind it. The dam was not locked into the surrounding canyon walls at all!


On the night of dam failure, William Mulholland inspected and approved the leaking dam even though it was muddy water that was leaking, a sure sign of danger. It was essential to decrease pressure at that time. He did not order any water released. Keep in mind that he had already ordered the dam to be overfilled due to his own greed for water.

[SSB]

forgot this

[Banning]

Before any more is said about William Mulholland, please keep in mind that the reason that we have water in Los Angeles is largely due to this man.

The aqueduct is an incredible feat and moves water for a long distance.

He really cared about suppying water to the people of L.A.

Many times his devotion to the system was illustrated (that's another reason why the St. Francis Dam failure was so tragic).

[Banning]

In 1887 the city was expanding at a frantic pace. The two railroads, the

Southern Pacific and the Topeka & Santa Fe, transported people from

all over the world to settle down in the land of the sun. Luxury hotels

were built along with theatres, bars and elite clubs. They replaced the

old saloons and brothels, while wineries took the black mission grape

to new heights. Individual new businesses began to pop up everywhere.

Schools, churches, and plazas were built to accommodate the new population

growth. As the population swelled to over 12,000 residents, so did

the demand for more water. The city outgrew the Mother Ditch, and

irrigation and agricultural needs put pressure on the Waterworks and

city planners. New townships began to replace the gigantic rancheros.

The Americanization of Southern California was on. Hundreds of

miles of land were subdivided into individually acres and sold. Railroad

tracks crisscrossed from the desert to the sea.

The growth proved to be a blessing for the Waterworks. The capital of the Waterworks

grew to $1,240,000. It was divided into 2,400 shares. New headquarters

were needed so the Waterworks moved into a new two story

brick building at the corner of Alameda and Marchessault Streets.

William Mulholland moved into the building so he could be on call,

day or night. During the torrential storms of December, 1889 William

saved the main water supply. The Los Angeles River roared, tearing and

cutting a new channel through an alfalfa patch, filling the conduit with

sand, rocks and debris, until only a small opening remained. William

jumped out of bed on Christmas Eve, crawled into

a small opening and got the conduit open by

removing the filthy debris himself. He saved the company $50,000 per

hour. If he had not been there, the water supply would have been cut off,

and the citizens of the sprawling metropolis would have had to go back

to using water carts. William received a gold watch for his outstanding

services to the Waterworks and was appointed Superintendant of Waterworks the next day.

[SSB]

from wikipedia:

The Los Angeles Coroner's Inquest concluded the disaster was primarily caused by the paleomegalandslide on which the eastern abutment of the dam was built, but would have been impossible for the geologists of the 1920s to detect. Indeed, two of the world's leading geologists at the time, John C. Branner of Stanford University and Carl E. Grunsky, had found no fault with the San Francisquito rock. Therefore, the jury determined responsibility for the disaster lay with the governmental organizations which oversaw the dam's construction and the dam's designer and engineer, William Mulholland, but cleared Mulholland of any charges, since neither he nor anyone at the time could have known of the instability of the rock formations on which the dam was built. The hearings also recommended, "the construction and operation of a great dam should never be left to the sole judgment of one man, no matter how

After the disaster, the City of Los Angeles immediately reinforced another dam identical in shape and design—Mulholland Dam (which created Hollywood Reservoir), also designed and built by Mulholland—by piling tons of earth and rock on the face of the dam (ironically, this dam met a nearly identical "cinematic" demise as the St. Francis in the 1974 film Earthquake).

Roman Polanski made numerous references to Mulholland, the California Water Wars, the aqueduct, and the St. Francis Dam disaster in his 1974 film noir classic, Chinatown. Mulholland is split between the characters of Noah Cross (John Huston) and the city's chief engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling)—the name Noah a reference to the flood, and Hollis Mulwray an anagram for "Mulholland"—possibly to suggest the conflict between good and evil in one man. In one scene, Hollis Mulwray makes a specific reference to the St. Francis Dam disaster:
Rock musician Frank Black has made several references to the disaster in his songs, including the tracks "St. Francis Dam Disaster" and "Ole Mulholland".

Recently, a critique of Rogers' historical analysis of the dam's collapse was published in the journal California History (Fall 2004) by historians Norris Hundley Jr. (Professor Emeritus, UCLA) and Donald C. Jackson (Professor, Lafayette College). While accepting the validity of Rogers' geological analysis of the failure, this article makes clear how the structure built under Mulholland's direction in San Francisquito Canyon fell well short of standards for large-scale concrete gravity dams as practiced by other prominent dam engineers in the 1920s.

[Banning]

Originally Posted by SSB

from wikipedia:

The Los Angeles Coroner's Inquest concluded the disaster was primarily caused by the paleomegalandslide on which the eastern abutment of the dam was built, but would have been impossible for the geologists of the 1920s to detect. Indeed, two of the world's leading geologists at the time, John C. Branner of Stanford University and Carl E. Grunsky, had found no fault with the San Francisquito rock. Therefore, the jury determined responsibility for the disaster lay with the governmental organizations which oversaw the dam's construction and the dam's designer and engineer, William Mulholland, but cleared Mulholland of any charges, since neither he nor anyone at the time could have known of the instability of the rock formations on which the dam was built. The hearings also recommended, "the construction and operation of a great dam should never be left to the sole judgment of one man, no matter how
While accepting the validity of Rogers' geological analysis of the failure, this article makes clear how the structure built under Mulholland's direction in San Francisquito Canyon fell well short of standards for large-scale concrete gravity dams as practiced by other prominent dam engineers in the 1920s.

It indeed has been concluded long ago that the paleo or ancient (if you will) landslide caused the failure of the dam and that the old landslide was not detected due to it's elusive nature.

However, due to the dam leaking, being overfilled, and poor engineering, it could not take the surge from the late night landslide. Also, the slide may not have occured if so much water were not present adjacent to it. The resevoir which looked like it was in so favorable an area was doomed for failure before it was started.

[SSB]

I mentioned a guy who I went to the dam site with. His name is Pony Horton & here is his link:

http://www.geocities.com/zeebya/Sfdamstory1.html

[Banning]

Another dam was already under construction in the San Francisquito Canyon. William Mulholland, ignoring the advice of his engineers, decided to make it bigger. The city was generating electric energy off the aqueduct at their two power plants located in the canyon. The power plants were part of the aqueduct construction. The topography of the canyon was the ideal place to put the dam, Mulholland thought. He knew that the unstable Pelona mica-schist would be a problem, but he built the dam anyway. The Pelona Schist is a metamorphic rock that loses cohesion and falls apart when water soaked. He patterned his dam after the one he built in the Hollywood Hills. He increased the height by twenty feet, but he did not widen the base to compensate for the difference. He wanted to have as much water capacity as possible, and he didn’t want any more Owens Valley water to go to waste. The dam was completed in 1926, and as soon as it started to fill there were leaks. All new dams leak at first, but this one was different because it was leaking brown water. Two years to the day after the dam was first filled, William Mulholland inspected the dam and said, “All dams leak, besides it’s the driest dam I ever saw.” He pronounced the dam safe then went home, and went to sleep.

Just before midnight, a small earthquake tremor was felt. The ground gave way on the eastside of the dam, releasing a landslide into the now full reservoir. The force of the water collapsed the dam abutment. A moment later, the west abutment gave way and a mountain of water, 11.4 billion gallons, 200 feet high, came crashing down the canyon. One thousand ton blocks rode on the crest of the wave as the mountain of water obliterated everything in its path all the way to the sea. Over 400 people died, and it was one of the worst man made accidents in America’s history. No charges were brought, but the coroner’s jury did blame William Mulholland for the disaster. He took full responsibility and bent his head, broke down in sobs and murmured, “I envy the dead.” His career was now in ashes. He resigned in disgrace.

[Jeff Hail]

Check this out:

http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~sitar/ce281/Introduction.pdf




On a broader level the St. Francis Dam Disaster poses serious questions about the writing of history. Why is the greatest American civil engineering failure of the 20th Century so little known?


Strange twists to add is Harvey Van Norman who was Mulhollands assistant also has had a "legacy" of trouble that followed him even after death. Maybe it's just karma?

"The 9 February 1971 earthquake in the San Fernando Valley damaged the Lower Van Norman Dam which was built between 1915-1920 severely enough to warrant draining the reservoir. In March 1972 the sediment deposited on the reservoir floor was examined to determine whether the 1971 earthquake had induced sediment deformation and, if so, what types. A zone of deformational structures characterized by small-scale loads and slightly recumbent folds associated with the 1971 earthquake was discovered, in addition to two older zones of load structures. Each of the zones has been tentatively correlated with an historic earthquake or slope slip causing foundation displacement".If the dam had been filled to the brim, officials said, it probably would have failed and could have killed more than 100,000 people.



In the 1994 quake the same dam would have surely failed if it was filled with water. In fact a sink hole formed at the base of the old lower Van Norman dam which was previously named the San Fernando dam.


The St. Francis Dam disaster was a major catastrophe for California, but it also had far wider significance. In its aftermath California's first dam safety agency was created. Perhaps most importantly, it was acknowledged internationally that outside consultation -- especially geological consultation -- is essential in the design and construction of any dam.

[lfot]

So Michelle and I used the Easter Sunday open roads to venture out to the "Road to Nowhere." Ridge Route Rd was a lot of fun, and Templin was tons o' fun as well. At the end there were a couple cars there, but nobody in sight. We walked past the barriers a bit and took some more pics. I think we passed a total of 4 cars going out and back. Oh, and one tractor-trailer. Came around a corner at a decent clip, and there was a big rig in my face dead center on the yellow! Yish!!

Really fun drive if you've got the time to get out there.
Sorry for no invites, but it was totally a last minute thing.

[lfot]

[lfot]

[Noah930]

That big tank in your pics: Is that really a tank? Or is that some sort of surge pipe? At the Pyramid Lake visitor's center, it's actually a display regarding the water supply of Southern California and the aqueduct/irrigation systems. I recall reading something about a huge surge pipe built between Pyramid Lake and the Castaic electricity generation station. If, for some reason, the generator station in Castaic shuts down, there will be a huge inflow of water (from upstream, Pyramid Lake) that would overwhelm the station, even before the stream of water could be shut off from above (Pyramid Dam). To prevent that type of disaster, a huge overflow surge pipe/valve was built, which sinks down a couple hundred feet to the water lines below. That way, the stopped flow of water has someplace to go (up the surge pipe). As I've driven along I-5, I've always wondered where that pipe actually was.

Will have to try out the Road to Nowhere sometime. I pass right by it every couple weeks.

[Jeff Hail]

The tank is not a tank. It is a surge chamber (vent). There is a huge pipe that runs from Pyramid lake to the Castaic powerplant. The plant is gravity fed. When Castaic lakes water level gets a bit high instead of dumping into the spillway they pump it backwards back to Pyramid and repeat the process. The piping is 30 feet in diameter and travels 7 miles from lake to lake. From the surge tank it branches off into smaller pipes to speed up the water as it enters the penstocks for the power turbines.





Interesting enough there is another tunnel that is about 2 miles long that runs from the west side of the freeway to the plant. This one is dry. It is off limits and could probably run a train through it if it had tracks. Derek was right on top of it and didnt even know it.

[Jeff Hail]

Derek,
Next time take the Jeep and instead of making a right at Templin continue north on the Ridge Route. You will come to some ranches and then a forestry gate. Go past the gate and enjoy. It is an awesone drive and is the original highway that linked Bakersfield to Gorman and then to LA. The Ridge Route goes all the way to the 138 Highway east of Gorman.

This link will give you an idea of the history of the Ridge Route as it was. Today all that remains is a cool road and some old foundations.

http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/index2.htm

http://www.ridgeroute.com/

[lfot]

Originally Posted by Jeff Hail

Interesting enough there is another tunnel that is about 2 miles long that runs from the west side of the freeway to the plant. This one is dry. It is off limits and could probably run a train through it if it had tracks. Derek was right on top of it and didnt even know it.

Where was this? Down one of those access roads marked "No Trespassing by Order of Count Vlad of the Great State of California"?