EISPIRATEN

mattmaxon wrote: ↑Detailed information would be from Police Reports from the Sheriff's dept

Your best bet would be newspaper archives at least as a place to start

Most public libraries have good newspaper online databases

Some of the lesser known newspapers might only be available in microfiche in some local libraries

newspaperarchive.com would have it but that costs $$$

MarkM wrote: ↑ I am not sure which reports to check

mattmaxon wrote: ↑
What are the dates roughly for these events?

MarkM wrote: I just found your informative site and have not had a chance to read all of the content here but hopefully someone who reads this can help me in obtaining some historical information.

I lived for a number of years in Angeles National Forest, next to Mill Creek and was there for the 1977 fire and the subsequent flash flood in 1978 that claimed 12 lives. I am currently writing down some of my memories of the incident, trying to get the details as true as possible. It's a sad story but illustrates the dangers of mountain living.

Link for some history: http://www.explorehistoricalif.com/floods3.html

My trouble is that the event was over thirty years ago and my memory is fuzzy regarding many of the names. Some remains (skulls and bones) were found and identified when the city of Los Angeles dredged the Big Tujunga Reservoir, I believe sometime in the mid to late 80's. The people lost in the massive flow came from the tiny town of Hidden Springs (population around twenty at the time). What is left of the town is just below USFS Station 18 (Mill Creek) which has a Palmdale address, but the dam containing their remains is in LA County. I know one of the men who died was a USFS ranger and I was friends with his teenaged son and daughter, but we lost contact after the tragedy.

My question is- Does anyone know what public records I should search to gather the names of the flood victims in this area, and if such details are even recorded? I am not a journalists and my searching so far has revealed little.

Thanks in advance.

debrtwo wrote: ↑Hidden Springs holds a lot of memories with my family. Spent many of times there back in the day. My father, James Roberts Jr., survived the flood that pretty much wipe out Hidden Springs. He was a resident there living in a cabin. I lived there also in his motor home up on the hill but they would not let me go up the canyon that night because of the mudslides. His story goes, he and his good friend Bill Hodges were hanging in his cabin and keeping an eye on the stream that ran thru Hidden Springs. If the water started to come over towards his cabin they were going to go up to his motor home on higher ground. One time when Bill stepped out to check he looked down and noticed there was a fire in the laundry room. Gabe Hinteberg (the owner) his son Fred and George were already down there. Bill said to my father, I'm going to see if I can help. My father was heading seconds behind him. My father said he heard the freakiest loudest rumbling sound he has ever heard. (And he's been thru Vietnam) He turned around and said a 30 ft. wall of water was coming down. He saw the walk bridge go up in the air breaking into pieces and started running. He got to the chain link fence in front of the pool and grabbed it when the water hit him. He held on as long as he could and got pushed into the empty swimming pool while everything was going over him. It took everything he had to get out of the pool as it was filling with mud. My father heard someone yelling and another friend Victor Smith was buried in mud. Victor was so distraught watching his wife DeeDee and two daughters Amy and Lisa get swept away he tried to drown himself in the mud. A huge boulder stood where my father's cabin was. When we were able to go retrieve the motor home we couldn't believe the devastation that wall of water did going down the canyon. They think this wave started about half a mile upstream where a new county Road Department culvert taking Mill Creek under Angeles Crest Highway washed out and carried everything in it's path. As far as I know they never found a piece of the fire truck which they think Gabe, his son and George jumped in when they saw the water coming. I read somewhere years later that bones were found of two persons in the dam below they thought belonged to Gabe and his son. Never heard anything else about it since then. We lost 10 people that day in Hidden Springs.
Gabe Hinterberg and his 16 yr old son Fred Henteberg
DeeDee Smith, two daughters, Lisa 8 yrs old and Amy 6 yrs old
Jamie Mixon and 1 yr old daughter Bronwyn
Lil Drake
Forest Ranger George Scribner
Bill Hodges

MarkM wrote: ↑I just found your informative site and have not had a chance to read all of the content here but hopefully someone who reads this can help me in obtaining some historical information.

I lived for a number of years in Angeles National Forest, next to Mill Creek and was there for the 1977 fire and the subsequent flash flood in 1978 that claimed 12 lives. I am currently writing down some of my memories of the incident, trying to get the details as true as possible. It's a sad story but illustrates the dangers of mountain living.

Link for some history: http://www.explorehistoricalif.com/floods3.html

My trouble is that the event was over thirty years ago and my memory is fuzzy regarding many of the names. Some remains (skulls and bones) were found and identified when the city of Los Angeles dredged the Big Tujunga Reservoir, I believe sometime in the mid to late 80's. The people lost in the massive flow came from the tiny town of Hidden Springs (population around twenty at the time). What is left of the town is just below USFS Station 18 (Mill Creek) which has a Palmdale address, but the dam containing their remains is in LA County. I know one of the men who died was a USFS ranger and I was friends with his teenaged son and daughter, but we lost contact after the tragedy.

My question is- Does anyone know what public records I should search to gather the names of the flood victims in this area, and if such details are even recorded? I am not a journalists and my searching so far has revealed little.

Thanks in advance.

rickdfierro@aol.com wrote: ↑I have photos I think I even have a photo of Gabe in one of them and I also have a photo of his little dam that we would go swimming in. If you would like I can post the photos I have. But I don't know how.