Talk:St. Francis Dam

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St. Francis Dam is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination failed. For older candidates, please check the archive.
March 1, 2004 Featured article candidate Not promoted



Contents

[edit] Dynamite

In the "Sabotage" section, the first paragraph says the dam was dynamited several times, and the second paragraph says there was one dynamite threat and fortunately the dam was never dynamited. Which is it? Tempshill 05:25, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

The dam was never dynamited while in use. There was one threat to dynamite the dam. On the first paragraph in the Sabotage section, please read again - the Los Angeles Aqueduct was dynamited in 1927, not St. Francis Dam.

I've revised Prelude to failure to reflect that dynamiting was done for the new road on the east side, not to make or improve the dam itself. Hope I've been helpful. Any questions, please ask me at my talk page. Thanks! --avnative 21:24, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Geology

Geology was most certainly not a new science in 1928, it was already very old when Agricola published De Re Metallica in 1556. User:Herdrick Sep 29, 2004.

The text doesn't say the science of geology was new, just that it was not as advanced as it is today, which is certainly plausible. Moreover, this really concerns geologic engineering, which is a distinct though related discipline. I'd like to see much more detail here. Unfortunately, my county library doesn't have any of the cited books. (I think that with some work this article could be a featured article.) --Kbh3rd 14:16, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Right, it doesn't say that now because I fixed it. I guess I should've just fixed it and not commented. Be Bold and all that. User:Herdrick Jan 27, 2005.
The book by the Mulholland daughter is supposed to be great - I've only read the reviews. Regarding developing into a Featured Article: The story of the motorcycle cop is quite compelling. And the Mulholland story could be developed slightly - his admission of guilt and retirement in disgrace. I bet there's a few more PD pictures we could add, and a map of the drainage. Yes, this could be a great little article. -Willmcw 09:01, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Musical reference

FWIW Frank Black has a song titled the st. francis dam disaster which chronicles the events.

[edit] Failure

On the failiure section, is there such a thing as a, "Paleomegalandslide"? I think its a typo, just makin' sure- The Mischief Man 11-1-05

Good question. Anytime I see something like that I wonder too. I did a Google search and found this article, dated 2001, which uses the term. [1]. So if it's a neologism, at least we're not responsible for making it up. Seeing as it is a redlink, we might go put in a request for an article. In fact, I just did so here: Wikipedia:Requested articles/Natural Sciences -Willmcw 02:07, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright?

While searching for the term paleomegalandslide, I came across this page, which seems to be exactly the same: [2] 205.208.239.153 23:16, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it is the same. It even says so: "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." It is one of the Wikipedia:mirrors. Part of being a free encyclopedia is that we allow anyone to copy our info, so long as they give credit. Thanks for caring. Cheers, -Will Beback 23:30, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
I see. I will revert what has been changed. I missed the "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." line below the title. 205.208.239.153 03:28, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Map

Hello. I like this article. I wonder if we can find a map of the dam site and the flooded area. I'm not familiar enough with LA geography to know where are all the places mentioned. Keep up the good work, Wile E. Heresiarch 02:44, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

It should be easy enough to find or produce a PD map of the site and the area. I might do that, though I may not have the time for a week or two. I've seen somewhere on the Internet (maybe by following those links in the article?) some engineering maps that show the extent of the flooded area. Those would not be available for use in Wikipedia unless they're by a government that places its work into the public domain by statute, such as the federal U.S. government. (I don't know about California's government.) Note also that work for a government by an outside contractor, rather than by the government, is not necessarily in the public domain. --Kbh3rdtalk 20:37, 3 April 2006 (UTC)


In the article about William Mulholland Wikipedia states that 450 was the final count of those who died. In this article, 600 is noted. Hmmm?

[edit] "Paleomegalandslide"?

The word "paleomegalandslide" found in this section of the article sounds like something someone made up in school one day. Can anyone confirm the existence of this word? Thanks, 69.108.97.121 (talk) 17:21, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Probably half of the scientific and technical words we use were made up. For a reference on this one, see [3], quoting "Man Made Disaster at an Old Landslide Dam Site: A Day in the Field with Thomas Dibblee and J. David Rogers, St. Francis Dam area, May 17, 1997." Rogers is presumably this geologist: [4]. It all looks proper. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 19:36, 18 April 2008 (UTC)