Santa Clara River

The Santa Clara River is one of two rivers in Ventura. It marks Ventura's southeastern boundary; across the river is Oxnard. The Santa Clara stretches from the McGrath State Beach through Saticoy all of the way up the Santa Paula Valley and into the San Gabriel Mountains.

The Santa Clara is the is one of only two rivers in Southern California to avoid being channelized in concrete (the other is the Ventura River), and the only river in SoCal to avoid the fate of being dammed along its entire length. As a result, the river provides a majority of all sand for the entire California coastline south of Point Conception.

That is not to say that the Santa Clara has avoided being dammed: The St. Francis Dam was built in the San Francisquito Canyon between 1924 and 1926 as part of the effort to slake L.A.'s thirst. However, the dam collapsed on March 12, 1928, sending a flood two miles wide down the Santa Clara Valley. The flood killed approximately 600 people from Castaic, Bardsdale, Fillmore, Santa Paula, and Montalvo. The sides of the dam gave way, but the center remains today, as if a giant tombstone was placed in memory of those drowned.

While not as impressive as the giant flood, the natural flood cycle of the Santa Clara has led to the rich agriculture of the Oxnard Plain, as we have nearly six feet of natural topsoil to grow crops.

The Santa Clara riverbed near Saticoy was also the site of a Japanese attack during World War II, by way of a lone balloon bomb.