_________________________________________________________________________
Data Source Date Code Remarks
Yakima Herald March 3, 1892 E Wenatchee Republic December 13, 1906 - (Christmas Edition) Wenatchee Daily World June 15, 1922 E Wenatchee Daily World August 8, 1925 D The Wenatchee Daily March 25, 1931 D World Wenatchee Daily World June 7, 1932 D Wenatchee Daily World August 16, 1932 - Wenatchee Daily World August 6, 1959 - Wenatchee Daily World July 13, 1960 D Wenatchee Daily World December 19, 1965 - Wenatchee World February 17, 1972 N/A Wenatchee World February 24, 1972 - Wenatchee World December 7, 1973 - Smith, John H.D. D account Beninger, Patricia - interview Palmer, Lucille E The Night the Mountain Fell -
A. Period Account: Primary source for evaluation of intensity or felt report.
B. Period Account: Insufficient data to evaluate intensity.
C. Period Account: Item appearing as dispatch, summary or brief des- cription or duplicate data with more complete data available in other sources.
D. Later descriptive account identified with period sources.
E. Later descriptive account not confirmed in period documentary sources. *Designates duplicate data not included in compilation.
"All Nature Like an Earthquake, Trembling Round" -- Yakima Gets a Taste of It-- The Upheaval of 1874.
The earthquake of Tuesday morning was felt all along the coast, according to dispatches, from Santa Anna, California to North Yakima. Here it shook the houses and awakened the sleepers at about three o'clock. They felt vibrations distinctly from east to west. The Heg and Howlett families on the hill reported it in town, and Mr. Ross, who lives in the smaller of the brick Cadwell buildings, felt it distinctly. At Fort Simcoe, it is reported as so violent as to have shaken some of the little Indians out of bed in the dormitory of the school buildings. At the Dalles and at Portland it was distinctly felt, and most accounts mention three distinct shocks.
Clerk Charles Lombard of the Yakima Indian Agency writes as follows: "Three earthquake shocks occurred here on Thursday the 26th ult., a very light one at 2:45 a.m. and two heavy ones at 3 and 3:20. The latter frightened the inhabitants, made the houses rock, and shook down a portion of the plastering in the new boarding house. It also wrenched the office sufficient to tear away the light wire fencing attached to the front. Mrs. George L. Mattoon was frightened into sickness; and has not as yet been able to recover from the dizziness with which she was attacked."
Central Washington has experienced several lively shakes, but the only ones
of any importance were those of 1874, which H.H. Allen, B.E. Snipes
and other old-timers recall with some feeling of awe. Their effect
in Yakima was not so severe as in the country to the north of us,
where they changed thr face of nature to a considerable extent.
There were no less than sixty-four distinct shocks occurring at
night in midsummer, and all along the upper Columbia could be
heard the falling of rocks as mountains were torn down and hurled upon
plain or into the river. Not since Washington has been known to white men
has there been so great an earthquake
within its confines. The indications of its destructiveness are still seen in
great crevices and broken trails.
A great mountain at Chief Wapato John's ranch, near the mouth of the
Chelan river, was rocked into the Columbia, damming that huge stream,
flooding the chief's ranch, carrying away his house, and
forcing him to fly for his life. It was a number of days before the
waters washed away a portion of the rocks and receded to anywhere
near their original level. Chief John was so thoroughly scared
that he never returned to his ranch.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Christmas Edition of the Wenatchee Republic
December 13, 1906
Wenatchee, Washington
"Reminiscences of the Olden Times"
The erosion of the hills, constantly going on in this country,
finally culminated when half of Ribbon Mountain fell into the river, damming
it completely. For several days below Orondo the river was completely dry.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
June 15, 1922 page 5
Wenatchee, Washington
WHEN A MOUNTAIN SLIDE ONCE DAMMED THE MIGHTY
COLUMBIA
Earthquake Shock of December, 1872, Accompanied
by Gigantic Rock slide Was Natural Phenomenon Here
Fifty years ago there occurred in this country an earthquake, the like of which has never been experienced before or since within the knowledge of any inhabitants who reside here or who were capable of submitting their story to posterity. This quake shook off the big mountain north of Entiat and sent great rocks crashing down from all of the peaks in the Cascades. One of the most interesting tales of the earthquake is told by Henry Livingstone, the Tonasket centenarian. He says:
The big shake came with an awful smash. Great rocks rolled down the mountainside in all parts of the Cascades. Along the south fork of the Skagit was dammed up. In the Cascades west of the lake one whole peak was shaken off. Dis- turbance deep in the earth could be heard in its dull deep grinding which was terrifying to all who heard it.
At the time of the big shake, the Indians could
not make out how it all happened. As they said,
it made a rumbling and groaning like wild bulls
and they thought that was what it was. I told
them that they need have no fear as the great
Sah-hah-lee-Tyee was not angry at them. I had
about sixty Indians with me and I did not want
them to get a blue streak so I told them that
they would not be hurt. As near as I can remem-
ber the rumbling and the shake lasted about three
minutes. By the noise you would have thought
the whole world was bursting open. By going up
the north fork of the Skagit today, you can see
where a mountain peak, between eight hundred
and one thousand feet high, broke off. This peak
which was shaken off is perhaps thirty-five or
forty miles from the Great Northern so it cannot
be seen from the railroad.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee World
June 15, 1922
Wenatchee Washington
pg 5
Near Schanno's store stood an old Indian with his blanket wrapped around him, silently gazing at the stars, apparently unmindful of the things happening around him. When I asked him if anything like this had ever occurred here before, he turned his eyes on me, saying" "This land, before the coming of the whites, was only inhabited by the Indians who worshiped the Great Spirit in ceremony and song, and who obeyed the teach- ings of our forefathers and were happy until the paleface came among us with their forked tongue, religion and fire water. Since that time this country has been going to the bad. Look at these white men and women running out of their homes screaming. They have been wicked and are afraid to die. Indians are always ready when the Great Spirit calls. The paleface are a strange people. This is a warning they had better heed."
Soon I saw him light his pipe, mount his horse and ride off in the darkness for his lodge down on the reservation.
There was no damage done -in the Yakima Valley. In the Tieton Basin south of Soda Springs, there were many slides and uprooted trees. Further north and above the Wenatchee, the quake was much harder, especially just above the mouth of the Entiat River. Part of a large mountain broke off and slid into the Columbia River, almost damming it up for a short time. This slide caused what is now known as Entiat Rapids. Wapato John, an Indian who had a small farm and a trading post a few miles above where the mountain slid into the river, had it destroyed by back water. He thought it was a bad Ta-man-na-was, and moved up to Lake Chelan where he and his followers settled and are now residing.
Lighter shocks forming many small fissures
in the earth, were felt for several years
in the surrounding mountains.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
June 15, 1922
Wenatchee, Washington
Another Story of the Big Shake Which
Dammed the Columbia
Another story of the big earthquake-- the biggest shake perhaps that this country ever saw--was told some time ago to the Daily World by Peter Wapato, the well known Indian of Chelan. This was the earthquake which shook down the mountain north of Entiat, now called Ribbon Cliff. The mountain, when it landed, went into the Columbia River and entirely dammed that stream.
It happened in December 1872. Peter says he was then fifteen years old. That winter, according to Wapato, there were many shakes throughout the entire winter. These shakes, when they came, would be within intervals of half hour, an hour and sometimes longer.
Peter relates that he, with the Wapato family, were living at what is now Winesap. During the night there occurred a terrific quake and accompanying it a booming noise, a most awful one, for old Broken Mountain (or Ribbon Cliff) was headed for the river. And they were within a few hundred yards when the crash came.
The great quake was so great, says Peter, that the log house in which they were living was torn apart and they spent the balance of the night in the open, fearing to go inside for fear the logs would tumble and crush them.
The mountain broke off about midnight. The water in the river rose, the river being completely dammed. The water broke through the nature-made dam the next morning. But the dam remained there and it was several days before the water below got back to its normal flow.
The effect of the earthquake was felt at
Chelan. At what is now Chelan Station a
great hole opened in the earth and a veritable
geyser was thrown into the air to a height
of twenty or thirty feet. For weeks the
Indians from all parts of the country came
to see the strange phenomenon and Peter says
they were "awful scared!" The geyser con-
tinued all winter but got weaker and as time
went on it subsided. Springs -in this locality
still remain to show the place where there
occurred this remarkable water spout. The
water now being used to irrigate the Beebe
orchards comes from this same point and comes
through some subterranean channel from Lake
Chelan.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
August 8, 1925
Wenatchee, Washington
WHEN RIBBON CLIFF HAD A MONSTER UNDER IT
ONCE SUCKED DOWN BOATLOAD OF LOGGERS
John B. Wapato Tells of Coming Indian Picnic
By Rufus Woods
John B. Wapato of Manson, who is calling an Indian picnic to which Indians and whites are both invited for August 13th, 14th and 15th at Manson comes from an interesting family. His grandfather was John Wapato, who settled on Wapato Flat in 1880 and who died at the age of 100 years about 15 years ago.
The original John Wapato was one of the most thrifty Indians of the Northwest. In fact he had 1,000 head of cattle at one time. The writer of this article fifteen years ago visited old John Wapato during the last years of his life and found in him one of those in- tensely interesting characters. He brought the first plow into this section of the country and when he broke the plow he had to take it by canoe to Walla Walla to have it mended. He traded in horses and cattle. In 1881 during the deep snow he lost practically the entire 1000 head and was left with only a few.
Old John Wapato was a member of the Entiat tribe. The present John B. Wapato says: "As far back as we can find out, the first chief of the Entiat tribe that-we know about, was Te-Hus-Keen, which means "mountain." Te-Hus-Keen's mother was a captive from Puget Sound and in that way new blood was injected into the veins of the Entiat tribe. My grand- father, John Wapato was a nephew of old chief Te-Hus-Keen. When the treaty with the govern- ment was made, my grandfather was advised to go to Chelan, where there would be plenty of grazing and it was there that he settled in 1880.
"He sold many cattle to the miners who were heading into the Cariboo country in the Sixties and Seventies. He also operated a store and trading post, but he had a hard time in keeping accounts, as he did not know how to make characters in order to keep track of what the goods cost him. Many of the soldiers who traded with him did not pay. The Chinamen who dug gold along the Columbia were regular customers of my grandfather. However, he had no trouble in dealing with them as they were few compared with the Indians and he had them so scared they had to settle. He lost no money from the Chinese miners.
"His store was located at the mouth of Wells Coulee. Later he moved it to Chelan, where he settled on Wapato Flat. When the big snow came in 1881 it found him ill prepared. In those days it was necessary to cut hay with a cycle and in order to get a quantity of hay for the winter's supply, large numbers of men would have to be employed. But eight feet of snow was too much.
"He didn't make the money he should have made on the fur traders. He took in fur from the Indians in exchange for goods, but it was necessary for him to carry these furs until the fur traders came along and he did not charge enough, so that he always handled furs at a loss. He should have made a big profit on this line.
"The Wapato family lived at the mouth of Wells coulee at the time of the big earth- quake in 1872. Prior to this earthquake there was a great undercurrent and swirl of water underneath the edge of the mountain now known as Ribbon Cliff. In the earlier days, white loggers came up the Columbia river, cut the logs and rolled them into the Columbia. As they went back they would drive the logs. One party of eight or ten white men had come up along in the 60's. The Indians were always afraid to go anywhere near this great undertow along the side of the mountain. The Indians believed there was a great monster there ready to swallow them, so they always stayed clear and went on the east side of the river. The loggers were in a big bateau. They started down the river and did not know of this under- current. They were sucked under, bateau and all. Their provisions were in the boat together with axes, saws and other materials. While they were all carried down into the water, they hung-on to the boat and floated down the Columbia to the mouth of the Entiat where they were rescued by the Indians.
"That was at the time of the first big Indian spree in this part of the country, for the miners had on board two kegs of whiskey. These kegs were rescued from the water and given to the Indians and the whole 200 or 300 of them went on a big spree. They didn't like the liquor at first, but they all tasted of it and kept on tasting it. The loggers exchanged this whiskey for what food they could get in the way of dried salmon, for they wanted to get down to the mill near Portland.
"When the big earthquake occurred in 1872, the whole side of the mountain fell into the water and since that there has been no "monster" underneath the Ribbon Cliff Mountain. The Wapato family were living at the mouth of Wells Coulee two miles above. The quake was so great that all the dirt on their log cabin was shaken down and the logs from one side caved in. The members of the family were afraid to go under the cabin any more, so they spent that night out in the open, although there was a light snow on the ground.
"The earthquake opened a seam in the earth at Chelan about a quarter of a mile from where the Campbell hotel now is. This seam opened up right in the middle of an Indian camp and soaked their provisions with foul smelling water. This was a real catastrophe in those days, as all the food they had stored for winter was destroyed. Another opening occurred down near what is now Chelan Station. A great gusher threw water into the air 20 or 30 feet. It was several feet across."
John Wapato had several children including Charlie, Sylvester, Peter and two daughters, Mary Ustah of Okanogan and Mary Anniz, who is dead. His wife Madaline, is still living. She is now 100 years of age. Charlie Wapato had two boys, Paul and Frank. Sylvester has four children, two sons and two daughters and Peter has three boys and three girls. John B. Wapato and Ed Wapato who is helping his brother in the picnic are sons of Peter Wapato.
Discussing the Indian picnic John B. Wapato
said: "My father, Peter Wapato, is the one
who is very anxious to have a picnic every
year. He wants Indians all over the country
to come and have a good time. We saw them
all during the Fourth of July celebration at,
Okanogan and they tell me they are all coming.
The Indians are going to stage all the games
and sports, but the whites are invited to
come and see the fun.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
August 8, 1925
Wenatchee, Washington
"When the big earthquake occurred in 1872,
the whole side of the mountain fell into the
water and since that there has been no
"monster" underneath the Ribbon Cliff Mountain.
The Wapato family were living at the mouth
of Wells Coulee two miles above. The quake
was so great that all the dirt on their log
cabin was shaken down and the logs from one
side caved in. -The members of the family
were afraid to go under the cabin any more,
so they spent that night out in the open,
although there was a light snow on the ground.
"The earthquake opened a seam in the earth
at Chelan about a quarter of a mile from
where the Campbell hotel now is. This seam
opened up right in the middle of an Indian
camp and soaked their provisions with foul
smelling water. This was a real catastrophe
in those days, as all the food they had
stored for winter was destroyed. Another
opening occurred down near what is now Chelan
Station. A great gusher threw water into
the air 20 or 30 feet. It was several feet
across."
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
The Wenatchee Daily World
March 25, 1931
Wenatchee, Washington
Peter Wapato Tells of Night in 1872 When
Quake Shook Down Mountain and Dammed stream
Peter Wapato of Lake Chelan, has told the Daily World some interesting data reports of the history of this section of the district. His son, Edwin, acted as interpreter.
"Formerly the Indians from Wenatchee and the Okanogan all spoke the same language. This also applied to the Colvilles and Nez Perce. The Flatheads however, spoke an entirely different language. The Yakimas, Nez Perce and Walla Wallas, and Umatillas also spoke a language of their own.
"My father, John Wapato, was born in ---- His mother was a Puget Sound Indian there Indians of Puget Sound also spoke another language from those in this section of the country.
"Chief Moses who was the principal chief in all the country here was a Chelan Indian. He spent most of the time around the Big Bend country and in the Moses Lake and Moses Coulee district. In the summer time with his band he would go into the mountains.
"Long Jim, now living near Brewster was also a Chelan Indian and he was related to Chief Moses. Long Jim's mother was a relative of Chief Moses. The chief in charge of the Indians in Wenatchee was Carmow.
"Chief Moses' brother Quiltenoo wants to fight, but Chief Carmow did not wish to fight, so Chief Carmow let soldiers across and at this time Moses' brother said he would shoot Carmow.
When he was asked about the winter he said: "We never had dry weather like we have now. Every year we would have snow two or three feet deep. It was not necessary to use any water on the land at Chelan.
"When I was 15 years old there was a great shake of the ground and rocks rolled down from the mountainside. That same year there was no snow. That was in 1872. The big shake came all at once but it continued to shake for four or five years.
"The Wapato family was located near what is now known as Ribbon Cliff. We were in a log house with a dirt room, near the cliff, but it shook so much that all the roof shook down. The shake filled up the Columbia river and all one night the Columbia river was dammed. The next morning the river went through.
"While we had no snow that winter on Lake Chelan, the next winter we had a snow this high (as he reached with a stick 8 1/2 feet high). We had another big snow about two years after Chelan was settled as a town.
"At the time of the earthquake the earth cracked open at Chelan station where the springs are now located. The water shot into the air as high as The Daily World build- ing and it continued for a week, then got lower and lower until it was nothing but springs.
"Then when the earthquake occurred the mountain east of the river cracked open. Black water came out of the split in the mountain- side." (Mose Splawn tells about this same incident and he says that he had this fluid examined and his report was that it was oil.),