San Francisquito Canyon | |
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 San Francisquito Canyon is home to low-lying shrubs, dry grasses, and toweringyucca that bloom during the spring. | |
  San Francisquito Canyon  San Francisquito Canyon | |
| Coordinates:34°32′18″N118°31′30″W / 34.53833°N 118.52500°W /34.53833; -118.52500 | |
| Location | Los Angeles County,California, United States |
| Range | Sierra Pelona Mountains |
| Formed by | San Francisquito Creek |
| Dimensions | |
| • Length | 19.5 mi (31.4 km) |
| Highest elevation | 3,655 feet (1,114 m) |
San Francisquito Canyon is acanyon created through erosion of theSierra Pelona Mountains by theSan Francisquito Creek, inLos Angeles County,Southern California.[1]
The canyon cuts through theSierra Pelona Mountains, which are central part of theTransverse Ranges system ofCalifornia. At the San Francisquito Canyon head is theSan Francisquito Pass, which the early routes between Los Angeles and theSan Joaquin Valley crossed. The canyon grows wider as it approaches theSanta Clarita Valley.
The middle and upper portions of this canyon fall within theAngeles National Forest.
San Francisquito Canyon was the site ofplacer mining forgold by Spanish missionaries from theSan Fernando andSan Buenaventura Missions, and later by MexicanCalifornios. Their activity stopped in 1848, when the gold discovery atSutter's Mill started theCalifornia Gold Rush. Placer mining later occurred in the canyon into at least the late 19th century.
Between 1924 and 1926, the canyon was the site of the construction of theSt. Francis Dam. TheLos Angeles Department of Water and Power began filling a reservoir in the San Francisquito Canyon in 1926. At 11:57 pm on March 12, 1928, the dam catastrophically failed, and the resulting flood took the lives of at least 431 people.[2][3] The collapse of the St. Francis Dam is considered to be one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of the 20th century and remains the second-greatest loss of life in California's history, after the1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The ruins of this disaster can still be seen today.
Since 1820, San Francisquito Canyon andSan Francisquito Pass were part of the original route of theEl Camino Viejo, an alternate land route to theEl Camino Real for reaching northern Spanish and Mexican colonialAlta California. From 1854, the wagon route of theStockton - Los Angeles Road followed its course as did theButterfield Overland Mail in California from 1858 to 1861. This Tejon Pass Route and the Tehachapi or Midway Route (first followed by the Southern Pacific Railroad), remained the major north–south wagon and later automobile routes to the San Joaquin Valley until the construction of the more directRidge Route in 1915.[4]
Today, a two-lane road named after the canyon itself connectsSanta Clarita to the mountain communities ofGreen Valley andElizabeth Lake. It roughly parallels the river's course between San Francisquito Pass and its southern terminus in the northernSanta Clarita Valley.
Media related toSan Francisquito Canyon at Wikimedia Commons
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