John Nichols of Santa Paula, California is a local historian, photographer, and writer. Nichols began writing for local newspapers in 1990 and has written articles for several publications since. He has also been involved in organizing and curating exhibits for several Ventura County museums, as well as organizing events for the annual Ghostwalk in Santa Paula. Much of his work focused on the St. Francis Dam disaster for the California Oil Museum. His research on the 1928 dam break led to the 2002 work for Arcadia publishing titled The St. Francis Dam Disaster.

Nichols is also a gallery owner and dealer in vintage photographs. He and his wife own the John Nichols Gallery in Santa Paula. His photographs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Ventura County, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas Austin, the Santa Paula Art Museum, the City of Ventura, the Community Memorial Hospital of San Buenaventura, and numerous private collections. He has also served on several boards, including the board of directors of the Santa Paula Art Museum, and the board of directors and Fine Arts Committee of the Museum of Ventura County.

The 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster remains the second-greatest loss of life in California, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The concrete gravity dam was built between 1924 and 1926 in order to serve Los Angeles' growing need for water. The dam collapsed shortly before midnight on March 12, 1928, releasing a wave of water that swept from San Francisquito Canyon outside Santa Clarita, through the Santa Clara River Valley, and to the Pacific Ocean in Ventura and Oxnard. The flood swept away homes and bridges and killed at least 431 people. While the official count of 431 is very high, some historians believe the true death toll may be much higher when taking into account undocumented agricultural workers who lived in the area and the number of people who were swept out to sea and never recovered.

Designed by William Mulholland, the dam failure changed much of how civil engineering projects were regulated and led to a licensing system for civil engineers. It also led to concerns over the Hoover Dam, which is the same design as the St. Francis Dam, and reignited debates over Los Angeles' use of other counties' water. The disaster relief took some time and deeply impacted Ventura County. In some cases, victims' remains were still being recovered as late as the mid-1950s and as far away as the Mexican border. In one case remains thought to be a victim of the disaster were found in Newhall in 1992. The disaster was followed by an investigation and survivors filed claims against the city of Los Angeles. While Mulholland did accept full responsibility, he was cleared of any criminal culpability by the Coroner's Inquest. For further details and a history of the disaster refer to Man Made Disaster: The Story of St. Francis Dam by Charles F. Outland, Heavy Ground: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster by Norris Hundley, Jr., and Donald C. Jackson, and Nichols' own book, The St. Francis Dam Disaster.