APPENDIX C

ACCOUNTS RELATING TO LANDSLIDES AND SOILS EFFECTS

It appears that our earthquake experience, on the 14th ult., although it awakened con- siderable- interest in the future state, was insignificant compared to that of our neigh- bors east of the mountains, who were forced to believe at t-he time that the end of all things sublunary had indeed come. The fol- lowing account is furnished The Portlano' Herald, by Mr. McBride, an "eye-witnessil of the tumult:

The informant, Mr. McBride, and another man owned a ranch some three miles back from the mouth of the Wenatches river, which is about 170 miles from Wallula. On the night of the 14th of last December he and his partner had retired and were asleep, ..when they were suddenly awakened by noise as if the stove had been upset. They im mediately sprang from their couch, and were about donning their clothes, when they were thrown to the floor in rather a sudden manner. Mr. McBride, who had experienced the shocks of earthquakes in Valparaiso, June 2, 1851, and in San Francisco in 1859, now realized the fact that there was an earthquake as- serting itself. He turned to his partner and hastily informed him of his opinions, advising that they should leave. They made for the store on the river, some six miles distant, the ground undulating in a disorderly manner as they rode along. Arrived at he store they found everything in confusion. Messrs. Freer Bros. and one of their partners, named Milller, also been awakened by the shocks and started from their beds. Mr. Miller ran down stairs and found the door blocked. He then imagined that the store had been at- tacked by Indians, and shouted to his partners, who came to his aid with shotguns and pistols. In the morning an examination was made, when it was discovered that in the store sacks of flour which had been piled in four feet. deep were thrown around in confusion. The two upper logs of the cabin and the roof were misplaced, and the kitchen separated from the main building. The effect outside, Mr. McBride says, was terrible. He declares that the shocks, which lasted until five o'clockk Sunday morning, December 15th, were sixty- four in number, eight being very severe. He also says that the peaks of several old the hills an the Kitittas and Columbia range of mountains were hurled over and broken. Trees were crushed to pieces and the river became very muddy, raising three feet inside of ten minutes. Great masses of earth, as if from a tremendous land- slide, rushed down the mountain side, mixed with stone and wood, and the gulches lost their identity by being filled with debris. The third shock, which occurred about eleven o' clock P.M., was proceeded by an explosion-- apparently on the mountain--sounding like the discharge of several pieces of artillery simultaneously. The people thought that the entire Grand Tule country was sinking, and were making preparations to leave. To add to the general confusion, the Spokane Indians, old and young, male and female, gathered around the settlers, alarmed and exclaiming that the world was coming to an end. They asked for advice and counsel from the whites, interspersing their sentences with fragments of prayer. Mr. McBride says the shocks continued at intervals until the 16th ult. The entire country was still alarmed and unsettled when he left there, fifteen days ago, to come to Portland.



COLVILLE (VICINITY) WASHINGTON TERRITORY
Oregonian
Portland, Oregon
March 15, 1873

"It was reported by Indians that two houses north of Colville were shaken down, and that the mountains had sunk away out of site."

FORT SHEPHERD, BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vicinity)
Walla Walla Union
Walla Walla, Washington
March 15, 1873

"It is also reported that the earthquake made a bridge across the Columbia river, at or near Fort Shepherd."



LAKE CHELAN, WASHINGTON
Spirit Of The West
Walla Walla, Washington
October 27, 1874

"Twelve miles up on the West shore may be seen the sheared and seamed with slides a sharp__________________mountain... (This was the immediate center of the earthquake of 1872.)

"...at one time there was an issue of salt water from a fissure in the earth, that covered the ground knee deep which, too, was charged with a most horrid smell."

"Some places the earth was sunk, other places lakes have formed where there was no sign formerly of water, and along the banks of the Columbia River large masses of rock have become detached from the banks and tumbled into the river, causing it to cut new channels."

"Formerly, there was a stream or outlet to Lake Chelan about a quarter of a mile long, by which the waters of that lake were emptied into the Columbia -- Now, however, the river has changed its course so that it runs right to the lower end of the lake, and the two bodies of water unite. "

"... in some places has sunk the ground, in others has piled it up greatly, and in others has broken the sides of the mountains."

"At one place he saw a crack in the surface of the earth which is now open for about one hundred and fifty yards in length, and is from two to three feet wide at the top, and is from two to six feet deep."

"...Indians tell him that about thirty miles below White Stone a high cliff or mountain which formerly stood on the right bank of the Columbia river, now stands on the left, and that they can now easily ford the river at that point."

"At another place he saw where the banks of the Columbia river had caved off and settled down for two or three hundred yards in length and for a width of about fifty yards."