American Experience

Flood in the Desert

Explore the 1928 dam collapse, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, who had ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing water to the city via aqueduct.

Flood in the Desert

52m 45s

Explore the 1928 dam collapse, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, who had ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing water to the city via aqueduct.

Previews + Extras

  • Trailer | Flood in the Desert: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Trailer | Flood in the Desert

    S34 E3 - 1m 51s

    Flood in the Desert explores the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam and its aftermath, the second deadliest disaster in California history.

  • William Mulholland: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    William Mulholland

    S34 E3 - 52s

    In 1922, to meet the growing water needs of Los Angeles, William Mulholland began building the St. Francis Dam to create a reservoir for the Los Angeles–Owens River aqueduct.

  • Owens Valley Paiute: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Owens Valley Paiute

    S34 E3 - 55s

    The Native inhabitants—the Paiute people of the Owens Valley territory in what is now the State of California built sophisticated irrigation canals to channel water runoff from the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

  • Big Dams of the American West: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Big Dams of the American West

    S34 E3 - 1m 48s

    After the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, engineers applied lessons learned to expansive dam projects in the American West.

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