Moses Splawn or "Mose" Splawn as he called him- self, the Yakima pioneer who discovered gold in the Boise basin in 1861, came over the Wenatchee mountains on horseback when he was 85 years of age. Evidences of oil had been found in the basement of one of the Wells & Wade buildings and the old prospector headed hitherward and this is the story he told me of the earthquake:
"I was in the Moxee when that occurred but shortly afterwards I came over the mountains and headed north. When I got to Entiat I found the Indians were all excited. The mountain north of Entiat had slid down and damned the Columbia for a short time but there was some- thing strange and wonderful which had occurred up the hogback east of the Columbia.
"I climbed the mountain with the Indians and there near the summit were two cracks in the earth. Deep down in the earth every five minutes there was an explosion like the shot of a cannon and out of the cracks in the earth a dark fluid was oozing which hardened as it ran down the mountain side and cooled.
"I took some of that dark material and had it analyzed and the analysis showed that it was oil."
So much for the story by Mose Splawn. He
described to me where the crack in the earth
was located and said it would be found on the
ridge across the canyon from where the old tram
was located. I have been to this place several
times and the marks are still there and down
below in the canyon can still be found evidences
of this oil which seeped out although 60 years
have passed.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
June 7, 1932 - pages 1, 11.
Wenatchee, W.T.
The story as Told By the Wapatos
Sylvester and Peter Wapato, now of Wapato Point, Lake Chelan, have related to me the story of the earthquake as follows: "We were living with our parents at the mouth of the canyon just a short distance from where the mountain broke off. We were in our log cabin when the shake occurred. It shook so hard that we were afraid to go back in our cabin and spent the rest of the night in the open.
"Another thing which happened was a crack which occurred down in the vicinity of what- is now Chelan Landing. A great body of water shot high into the air like a geyser. Indians came to see it for months but as time went on the water decreased in height until eventually just the springs were left and continued to flow at this point."
Others Tell the Story
From others I got the story second hand that
when the Indian women at the mouth of The
Wenatchee went down to the Columbia to get
water for the Miller & Freer trading post, they
came back all excited saying that there was no
water in the river. All those living round
about went down on the river bed which was
virtually dry. While there they saw in the
distance coming for them a rush of water. They
ran for their lives and escaped. The big natural
dam which was two miles north of Entiat, had
broken through.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
Aug. 16, 1932 - pages 1, 9.
Wenatchee, W. T.
Mose Splawn had come over to Wenatchee at the time we had our first interesting oil pos- sibilities of this region. For 68 years prior he had been a miner and prospector and when he read in the papers that oil seepage had been found in the Wells & Wade basement he got on his horse and came across the Wenatchee mountains.
"That old horse just about broke me in two," he related to me. "When the earthquake of- 1872 occurred I was in the Moxee valley and I came on shortly afterwards up to Wenatchee and on north. The Indians on the Entiat were all excited. The mountain north of Entiat had cracked off and dammed the Columbia river one night a short time before. But the Indians were particularly excited about what was going on up the mountain side east of the river.
"I climbed the hog-back and found the earth had been cracked open. Deep down in the earth a noise like the shot of a cannon was occurring every five minutes and out of the cracks a dark fluid was coming which hardened as it cooled and flowed down the canyon. I took some of this material and had it analyzed and it was oil. When I read about that oil excitement over here I though". I would come over and look it up."
Mr. Splawn told me where the cracks were located near the summit on the first hog-back across the canyon from where the tram was formerly located. One can still see where the cracks occurred and some of this black hardened material still can be found down below. It is another of the evidences that some day oil will be developed in this section.
Splawn was killed as the result of being hit
by a truck on the streets of Wenatchee a short
time after his visit here. His trip here was
in June, 1920.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
Aug. 6, 1959 - P. 12
Wenatchee, W.T.
AWAY BACK IN 1872
The Biggest Earthquake Dammed Columbia River
North Central Washington has been "Shook up" by earthquakes a number of times over the years with little damage but lots of back-fence re- action, a check of Daily World files shows.
The earliest quake on record occurred in 1972 (many years before the Daily World came into being). It felt a lasting impression--the great scar on Ribboncliff on the west side of the Columbia, north of Entiat.
Vast quantities of rock were torn from the lofty and perpendicular cliff, with such an up- ward and outward thrust as to be hurled across the Columbia River, completely damming the stream for many hours. To see the big stream at Wenatchee nearly dry startled the few people then living in the area.
On April 13, 1949, Seattle was hit by a devasta- ting quake. It killed eight people and caused $10,000,000 in property damage, Much of it down- town. The same tremor rocked houses, rattled dishes and shook trees and telephone poles in Wenatchee area. The county courthouse suffered minor cracks.
Weatherman-of-the-day Bill Rogers was quoted as saying the quake was of 40 seconds duration, an exceptionally long period for such a mild tremor."
Pearne Smith, Chelan, said it was one of the worst shakes he ever felt. City of Cashmere employees reported similarly. Sixty calls came into the Daily World in a 10-minute period. Omak and Okanogan also were hit, with people gathering in the streets to "watch signs quiver."
At the time University of Washington professors said the Puget Sound Basin was sinking and the Cascade Mountains rising, making the Pacific Northwest as vulnerable to earthquakes as any region in the country. They said all the trouble centered in three fault plains, which were pro- duced by rising and falling movements.
In 1951 a slight earth tremor was felt in the Waterville-Entiat-Winesap areas. No damage was reported. The shake lasted only about three seconds.
A highway engineer was quoted as saying that prior to the big quake in the spring of 1949, the last generally felt tremor in the area was about 1936.
In the spring of 1955, nearly 200 earthquakes, some so severe they visibly shook farm water towers, cracked walls and shifted household pictures, frightened families 10 miles east of Othello over a period of 2-1/2 months. They oc- curred as frequently as 13 in one hour.
The quakes were caused, said geologists, by the shifting of subterranean rock resulting from the weight of the new irrigation water being applied in the Columbia Basin. The quakes were often accompanied by rumbling noise over a 10-to-12-mile square wheat growing area.
On April 14, 1958, a lot of North Central Washington people felt a sharp earthquake at 2:37 p.m. The jolt struck a 75-mile long area from south of Wenatchee to north of Pateros. It tumbled goods from shelves in an Entiat drug store, caused rock slides near Knapps Tunnel (in the vicinity of Chelan) and near Orondo, and rattled dishes in Wenatchee and other towns.
One person said it was a shake followed by tremors for about 20 seconds. Many people didn't feel it at all.
The last reported tremors, prior to Wednesday
night's shakings, was reported in the Coulee
City-Park Lake-Dry Falls area last month. Shifts
in the underlying structures caused several
minor earth tremors, which released ground water
to increase the flow into Deep and Park Lakes.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
July 13, 1960 - p. 4
Wenatchee, W. T.
There Were No Reporters When Ribbon Cliff Caved In
Of all the events of North Central Washington's modern past, probably the most exciting was the day the river ran dry.
It was in December, 1872, and if the daily World had been publishing at 'the time, the story it carried might have read like this:
"The Columbia River was almost dry at Wenatchee this morning.
"The phenomenon was caused when a severe earth- quake toppled thousands of tons of rock from a cliff into the river above Entiat, almost com- pletely damming the river there.
"The earthquake was general over the North- west, and in the Cascade Mountains at least one other stream, the Skagit, was dammed completely when a mountain caved off into it.
"First word that the Columbia was dammed came when Sam Miller went to the river this morning to get water.
"'It was a paralyzing experience,' said Miller, who bought the Ingram-McBride trading post at the mouth of the Wenatchee this year. 'I went to the Columbia for water, as had been my custom, and found it almost dry. I would have given every gray hair on my head to have been out of the country.' (quoted from Hull's History of North Central Washington.)
"The only other white residents of Wenatchee-- Phillip Miller and the Freer Brothers--reported they were awakened by the 'quake some time be- fore midnight. The whole framework of their log houses shook, and some earthen jugs of fruit wine were smashed, they said.
"Engineers estimated the river would remain completely blocked less than 12 hours, although they said it would be several days before the Columbia's flow will return to normal. They said a series of rapids will probably remain in the river above Entiat when the boulders from the failing cliff are rolled downstream.
Indians are already referring to the cliff as 'Coxit' meaning 'broken.' The Wenatchee Chamber of Commerce has recommended that to gain full publicity value of the event, it should be called 'Ribbon Cliff' after the mineral veins exposed by the break-off."
There would, of course, have been numerous "sidebars" and "eye-witness accounts."
If a reporter had been on the spot one person he might have interviewed was Peter Wapato. Peter was just 15 at the time, son of Wapato John. The Indian family lived at what is now Winesap, but after the terrifying experience of the 'quake the Wapatos moved to Lake Chelan, settling near Manson.
In the June 15, 1922 issue of the Wenatchee World, Peter described the event.
"There had been many shakes that winter, " Peter related. "When they came they'd be in intervals of half an hour, or an hour, or sometimes longer.
"During that night there was a terrific quake, accompanied by a most awful booming noise. Old Broken Mountain was heading for the river, and the rocks were coming down within a few hundred yards of us.
"The quake was so great that the loghouse we were living in was torn apart and we spent. the rest of the night in the open. The mountain broke off about midnight. It completely dammed the river. The water finally broke through the next morning.
"At what is now Chelan Station a great hole opened in the earth and a geyser was blown into the air 20 or 30 feet high. For weeks Indians came from all over the country to watch this geyser. It continued all winter, but got weaker and weaker until by summer it was just a spring now used to irrigate Beebe orchard."
A "sidebar" is offered in the same issue by Henry Livingstone, who was at Lake Wenatchee with a party of Indians,
"The quake happened about 11 o'clock," said Livingstone. "I know because I looked at my watch. The Indians were terrified. They said 'Meatchee skookum moos-moos mesatchee menoloose Siwash,' meaning 'mad bulls down in the earth, these will kill all the Indians.' The big quake came with an awful smash. Great rocks rolled down the mountainside in all parts of the Cascades. Along the south fork of the Skagit parts of the mountain rolled into the river. The south fork was dammed up. In the Cascades west of the lake one whole peak was shaken off. Go up the north fork of the Skagit today and you can see it--between 800 and 1,000 feet of mountain peak cone."
Not all Indian reaction was terror. Jack Splawn's story of the 'quake contains this passage:
"Near Schanno's store in Yakima stood an old Indian with his blanket wrapped around him, silently gazing at the stars, apparently unmind- ful of the roaring and the shaking of the earth- quake. When I asked him if anything like this had ever happened before, he turned his eyes on me, saying:
"'This land, before the coming of the whites, was only inhabited by the Indians who worshipped the Great Spirit in ceremony and song, and who obeyed the teachings of our fathers and were happy until the paleface came among us with forked tongue, religion, and fire water. Since then 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 pale- face 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."
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
Dec. 19, 1965 - P. 3
Wenatchee, W.T.
YARNS OF YESTERYEAR
1872 Quake Broke Off Par". Of A 'Mountain'
(Editor's Note: Here's another article in the Yarns of "Yesteryear" series. It tells about when the mountain fell and damned the river. The article, written by the late Daily World Publisher Rufus Woods, appeared June 7, 1932, in his series, entitled 'Three Glamorous Decades in the Great Northwest.")
This country with all -its colorful history has nothing which appeals more strongly than the story of the earthquake of 1872. I had heard rumors of this earthquake and of the mountainslide which damned the Columbia and in 1913 the Daily World had an article from a Chelan man who referred to it as a Myth. However, during the years I have met a number who gave me first hand information regarding the shake and mountainslide-
Mose Splawn, the Yakima pioneer who discover- ed gold in the Boise Basin in 1861, came over the Wenatchee Mountains on horseback when he was 85 years of age (1920). Evidence of oil had been found in the basement of one of the Wells and Wade buildings and the old prospector head- ed hitherward and this is the story he told me of the earthquake.
"I was in Moxee when that occurred but shortly afterwards I came over the mountains and headed north. When I got to Entiat I found the Indians were all excited. The mountain north of Entiat had slid down and damned the Columbia for a short time but there was something strange and wonder- ful which had occurred up "the hog-back east of the Columbia.
"I climbed the mountain with the Indians and there near the summit were two cracks in the earth. Deep down in the earth every five minutes was an explosion like the shot of a cannon and out of the cracks in the earth a dark fluid was oozing which hardened as it ran down the mountain side and cooled.
"I took some of that dark material and had it analyzed and the analysis showed that it was oil."
So much for the story by Mose Splawn. He described to me where the crack in the earth was located and said it would be found on the ridge across the canyon from where the old tram was located. I have been to this place several times and the marks are still there and down below in the canyon can still be found evi- dence of this oil which seeped out although 60 years have passed.
Sylvester and Peter Wapato, Wapato Point, Lake Chelan, have related to me the story of the earthquake as follows:
"We were living with our parents at the mouth of the canyon just a short distance from where the mountain broke off. We were in our log cabin when the shake occurred. It shook so hard that we were afraid to go back in our cabin and spent the rest of the night in the open.
"Another thing which happened was a crack which occurred down in the vicinity of what is now Chelan Landing. A great body of water shot high into the air like a geyser. Indians came to see it for months but as time went on the water decreased in height until eventually just the springs were left. and continued to flow at this point."
From others I got the story second hand that
when the Indian women at the mouth of the
Wenatchee went down to the Columbia to get water
for the Miller and Freer trading post, they
came back all excited saving that there was no
water in the river. All those living round about
went down on the river which was virtually dry.
While there they saw in the distance coming for
them a rush of water. They ran for their lives
and escaped. The big natural dam which was two
miles north of Entiat, had broken through.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee World
February 17, 1972 p. 10
Wenatchee, Washington
21. Wapato John or Jack in early years was
born in the Entiat Valley and in 1891 was
about 65 years old, a chief of the Chelan
Entiat branch of the Okanogan Indians and
outstanding Indian for his time in his
desire to learn the white man's ways. When
young he went with his father down the
Columbia to Astoria and was especially faci-
nated with the agriculture around Fort-
Vancouver. He adopted the white man's ways
and throughout-. life always led his branch of
the Indians (which as a result of him, be-
came known as the Wapatos) to side with the
white man, and never took part in any of the
Indian wars against him.
John apparently spent some time on the
lower Columbia, either all at once or on
several occasions. After he returned home,
he developed a large cattle and horse ranch
and did considerable mining along the
Columbia River. When the hundreds of Chinese
placer miners came up the Columbia, and especi-
ally after they established their store across
the Columbia from Chelan Falls, he packed all
their goods from Walla Walla with his own
pack string and sold them beef cattle. He
established his own fur trading post on the
Columbia, situated near the mouth of Navarre
Coulee about twelve miles south of Chelan,
where he traded for furs from the Indians
and re-sold them to the Hudson's Bay Company.
He was one of the first Indians to farm and
raise crops, including potatoes, melons,
grains, and fruits in the vicinity of Lake
Chelan. He raised It-.he first apples in North
Central Washington (even before Hiram--
"Okanagan"--Smith) from seed obtained from
Fort Vancouver which was in turn from seed
direct from England. He was also an eye
witness to the tremendous earthquake in 1872
that threw Ribbon Cliff up and out into the
Columbia a few miles below his trading post,
completely stopping the flow of the Columbia
overnight, and during which time the water
level raised over 50 feet covering his farm
and trading post before breaking through its
obstruction.--Steele & Rose, Illustrated
History of North Washington, p. 743; Judson,
Early Days in Old Oregon, p.106, 1 107, 110-
112; Splawn, Ka-Mi-Akin, Last Hero of the
Yakima's, p. 329; Chelan Falls Leader, Oct.
21, 1891; Chelan Valley Mirror, Sept. '18,
1939; Interview, James Lindston, Dec. 1970.
(to be continued)
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee World
Feb. 24, 1972 page 3
Wenatchee, Washington
52. The footnote writer is still hunt-
ing for early photographs of these Indian
paintings as some are known to have been
taken prior to their present terrible de-
placement and before what is now nearly a
further century of fading,
This, one of the earliest known written accounts of what these paintings then were, raises some interesting questions. First, the lake level then was 21 feet lower than when full now. With that extra distance to look up, could the viewer see them clearly enough to actually describe what he saw, or only what he generally supposed he saw? However, the colors were 80 years fresher and plainer then than now, although they appeared to be fading then too.
In the book "Petroglyphs of Central Wash- ington," on page 15 is shown an artist's partial drawing of these paintings in 1931 after the lake was raised, in which there are only lines of figures, and to me at least, they would never appear as "war parties with bows and spears" as none of the draw- ings depict any weapons. There are definitely drawings of goats and mountain sheep all right, and perhaps "of other great animals," if the eight large man-like figures are called "animals," but I see no resemblance to buffalo. Also, any semblance of horses seems to stretch the imagination considerably, too. However, if there were horses, it would be significant in roughly dating these paintings, as the Indians of the Northwest did not have the horse before about 1750.
However, even at this late date '1971' there appears to be one or two higher rows of paintings so completely faded and washed out as (to be indecipherable. Could these rows have been plain enough then to see and be the other figures referred to?
As to how the paintings were ever placed there it seems almost a foredrawn conclusion from their position that they had to have been painted From a canoe or raft when the lake level was much higher--and then at suc- cessively lower levels--and the paintings all in rows of level lines would confirm this.
However, this still does not necessarily mean that they are as old as they would have to be if the outlet of Lake Chelan slowly eroded away over centuries. There is considerable evidence that the lake level could have suc- cessively dropped cataclysmically by earth- quake action over a relatively short period of time.
It is known that the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washing- ton in 1790 violently shook a large section of the Northwest. Chief Spokan Garry's father telling what the eruption was like says,"...there had been a terrible night when there had been a great thundering in the sky and a violent shaking of the ground. In the morning when daylight came everything, trees, rocks, lodges, even the hills were covered with ashes to the depth of a finger." It is not known where they were living then, but if they were as far away as the present Spokane area, then Stehekin would have been about 80 miles, or one third closer to the eruption and hence quite presumably much more violently affected.
The earthquake of December 14, 1872, that threw Ribbon Cliff into the Columbia, stop- ping its flow, also ruined most of the stored winter food supply of the Chelan Indians when stinking sulphur water spewed out all over it from the yawning cracks opened and then closed by the quake. This quake also evidently opened a large crack in the substructure of Lake Chelan, for a tremendous geyser ("Tsillane"--"Chelan") shot up for a long time at Chelan Falls during this period, but gradually stopped itself up leaving only the large springs there.
In 1873 from about mid-February through out most of the rest of the year the whole mountain range between Lake Wenatchee and Lake Chelan was shaken by continuing tremors that scarcely missed a day.
In 1887, James C. Bonar, the second white settler at Entiat recorded in his diary three days of severe earthquake shock and earth temblors. On May 1 he records, "I can hear (the cannonading) and feel the jar of the earthquake nearly every hour."
Earthquake shocks were often repeatedly mentioned during the early years of the settling of Chelan, there being six separate shocks recorded the 12 months following the writing of this article.
And finally, during the 1880s and 1890s, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker and perhaps Glacier Peak are all mentioned as being fairly active.
If this earthquake theory is even partially true, then the level lines of the Stehekin Indian paintings on that perpendicular rock face indirectly records the further under- lying story of the effects of basic earth changes.
(It is also very significant that Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho also has similar Indian paintings high on rock cliffs above the water line.)--Hull, History of Central Washington, p. 417, Jessett, Chief Spokan Garry, p. 61; Dow, Passes To The North, p. 41-49; Splawn, Ka-Mi-Akin, Last Hero of the Yakima's, P. 328, 329; Chelan Falls Leader, De 31,1891.
53. W. V. McCullom was one of the early placer miners and settlers in the area, ar- riving Aug. 15, 1888, from Livingston, Mont., and at first staking a homestead claim along lower Lake Chelan. He prospected and held mining claims mostly in the Bridge Creek area. Frisco Mountain on the boundary of the present North Cascades National Park near Rainy Pass was originally called McCullc Mountain because of the early claims there. It not known exactly where his later Stehekin homestead claim was where he raised the turnips. Hull, History of Central Wash- ington, p. 467; Chelan Falls Leader, March 24, 1892.
54. Either the present Rainbow Creek in the Stehekin Valley was once called Boulder Creek, or else this is simply a confusion in the writers mind over the next creek down-valley which is not called by that name.
55. These little torrents were hard to cross because it was early spring and near flood time, and there were no bridges then. (to be continued)
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Wenatchee World
Dec. 7, 1973 p. 9
Wenatchee, W. T.
Quake conditions ripe
But geologist can't say whether or when
By Dave Kraft
An earthquake that could leave hundreds of Chelan County persons dead and cause millions of dollars in damage is a distinct possibility, Warren Scott, Wenatchee Valley College geology instructor warned today.
Scott contends that there are present today the same conditions that caused the earthquake that did so much land damage on Dec. 14, 1873-- 100 years ago one week from today.
He's not saying it's going to happen or when, just that it could.
"When it's coming is unpredictable because they're not a cyclic thing." he said.
"The only thing I'm saying is that I've found a considerable amount of evidence for it."
What would make a present day quake so much more devastating than the 1873 one is that the county has many more residents and buildings now than it did then.
That earlier quake dropped the Ribbon Cliffs, above Entiat, into the Columbia River, stopping flow for several hours. It caused other slides and cracks in the earth.
A survey crew then at Lake Wenatchee--Scott said the fault zone goes through there this side of Dirty Face Mountain--reported the ground there "was really shaking."
Cracks opened below Chelan Falls and witnesses reported water gushing high into the air.
"The real question is, if one similar to that' comes again, what would be the effect?"' he reported.
"We have a number of buildings here that would go down and I expect there would be many fatalities. No one has built with any severe earthquake in mind.
"As I recall, the new high school is built for a 4.5 (on the Richter scale) earthquake. This one (1873) was a 7."
If the quake came in the spring when soils are wet, it could cause a number of landslides. Houses in their way would go.
"We don't have any idea of the affect of waves on Lake Chelan," he said.
"With that great long thing, it could build up some rather fantastic waves.
Scott said he doesn't see any real problem with the Columbia River dams because they are built for stress.
He listed several fault areas including Warm Springs Canyon on Burch Mountain in the Sunny- slope area which he described as "similar to the San Andreas fault" of California.
Others included cracks below Castlerock, at the west edge of Wenatchee and the spot is just past Rocky Reach Dam where a cyclone fence is hung over the cliff face to prevent rocks from falling on the roadway. There is also an active fault area near Mt. Stuart.
Faults are moving fractures in the earth. When one edge catches under another, it builds up pressure until it springs up, causing the earthquake.
Could those faults by triggered by some phenomenon such as the coming visit of the comet Kohoutek? Not likely, Scott said. It's too far away. If it were as close as the moon, that might be another matter.
Scott admits his theory is "running on a very low probability" but he suggests that people building in the future build with earthquakes in mind. They should structure their houses so they operate as a unit and not come apart.
If Scott's own residence is any barometer of his concern, he's apparently not too worried. He lives in the hill above the Wenatchee Racquet Club.
"If we have a good earthquake, it's going to come down the hill." he said.
He has no immediate plans to move.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
From account of John H. D. Smith, Pioneer Road, Orondo, Wash. 98843
dated July 1976
EARTHQUAKE OF 1872
In 1872, an extra strong earthquake struck the Orondo, Entiat, Chelan and Wenatchee Section of North Central Washington. It was reported that there was a total of over 80 shocks in one night
A Chinese placer miner was carried on the river bank about an 1/8 of a mile. North of the present Orondo School and he told my father, "The river rolled up on the land and the land rolled down to the river." I'll bet he would like to leave here in a hurry.
The Columbia River was dammed at Coukshuk Mountain (Ribbon Cliffs) north of the present town of Entiat on the West side of the river and a large chunk of the mountain fell in the river just --------- Spencer Canyon. On the South side of the canyon about half way up a large chunk slid into the bottom of the canyon forming a lake of about one acre in size. In 1884 the dead trees were still standing in the lake. On the North side of the canyon there was another slide about 40 acres in size. You can. still see in many places in Orondo the Cresent (sic) in the canyon from where the earth slid to form the lake.
It was also reported that an opening was made in the Tram Canyon and steam and then oil came out. I have tried to locate this place but I have never located it. There are several places here where part of the hills have started to break. They were able to hold before any damage.
Up Corbaley Canyon, in the bottom of the Canyon, where the
Highway goes through the first cut, two large rocks came down in the same
time. One used to be known as the "BIG ROCK", it had a sign painted on it,
"Douglas County Bank, as solid as a rock." The rock stayed but the bank didn't.
Years ago you can still see where this rock made indentations where it hit on the
way down, they were at least 18 inches in places. This is a short ways up
Corbaley Canyon from Indian Trail Canyon .
The pioneers made recorded notes that there were many shocks in the early
days
WE HOPE THAT HISTORY DOES NOT REPEAT.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Interview: Patricia Beninger - Doukhobor Historical Museum,
Castlegar, B.C.
-Natural Bridge (referred to as landslide caused by the 1872 earth-
quake - Walla Walla Union March 15, 1873): (previous page)
According to the geography work she has done, the existing Natural Bridge is an arch, formed at a time when the Columbia River was at a much higher level than at present. As the water cut away at the banks a weak spot was cut through and the water rushed under an arch of more resistant rock. When the river eroded downward and river level lowered, the formation was left behind as a bridge. This was an ancient event, near the glacial events, she thinks. It still exists and is located on or near the Columbia River near Deer Park.
-The museum contains no references to the 1872 earthquake, and
she has never heard of it.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
Lucille Palmer
November, 1974
Washington's Broken Mountain
Ribbon Cliff towers beside the Columbia River in Central Washington near Entiat. Streamers of black lava criss-cross its face like banners.
From deep in the earth, dark lava was squeezed up into fissures in the rock at some prehistoric time. But Ribbon Cliff remained hidden inside the mountain until one night just over 100 years ago. On December 14, 1872, the area from Eugene, Oregon to British Columbia was shaken by a violent earthquake - possibly the strongest ever to strike this region. The mountain was split asunder as tons of earth and rock thundered down a thousand feet, laying bare the beribbonned face of the cliff. The quake hurled debris from the nountain into the Columbia and blocked its flow, building the first dam the river was to know. When the earth's frenzy subsided, astonished Indians walked dry-footed from shore to shore, and women who came to dip water for the morning's cooking found only rock and mud.
There is much disagreement about the length of time the Columbia was stemmed. Some say several days or weeks; but most authorities today think a few hours, for the body of water building up soon would have pushed its way over and through the barrier. Before construction of Rocky Reach Dam and the raising of its reservoir - Lake Entiat - evidence of Ribbon Cliff debris was apparent in the Columbia. Treacherous rapids developed below the clif from detritus lying more than halfway across the river channel. Boats and canoes that failed to keep well to the opposite bank were often upset or lost. The Indians named Ribbon Cliff "Broken Mountain", and they believed its monster spirit lived beneath the rapids snatching up at canoes.
The night the mountain broke was one of terror for the United States Cavalry's Captain Ben Ingalls (for whom Ingalls Creek is named). A few days earlier he had become lost from his scouting party near Mt. Stuart. As he searched for them he came upon a canyon in which nestled a lake. The glittering rocks on its shore were studded with virgin gold. Ingalls spent two days taking samples of the gold and drawing a map before resuming his search for his troops. He followed Ingalls Creek to its mouth, buried the map there, and continued on until dark when he bedded down several miles from the lake.
During the night he was awakened by the earth trembling beneath him. The forest was filled with the rumble and crash of falling boulders, landslides, and splintering timber. Ingalls couldn't know that his shining lake was being buried beneath an untold depth of rubble flung down the canyon sides. At least that is the supposition, for neither the gold nor any such canyon as he described has ever been found. Ingalls later sent his gold samples to John Hansel, but before they could return to the site, Ingalls was killed in a gun accident. John Hansel homesteaded for many years at the mouth of Ingalls Creek, but he never found the map, the lake, or the gold, nor have other prospectors. Perhaps some future cataclysm will uncover the treasure.
In another tragedy of the night, the Chelan Indians lost most of their stores winter food when a gaping crack opened by the quake spewed out sulphurous water over the provisions. And a fountainlike geyser, or "tsillane" (Chelan) shot up at the site of Chelan Falls.
The quake did not confine its activity to central Washington, however. Towns and cities all along the Columbia and those bordering Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca were shaken up. In Seattle stores, crockery and glassware were broken. The Seattle POST INTELLIGENCER reported, " Frame buildings swayed to and fro like craft at sea." An Olympia paper, the WEEKLY ECHO of December 19, 1872, wrote the buildings in Olympia shook "until everything rattled and creaked and strained like a ship in a cyclone... while all things human appeared to dwindle into insignificance when compared to the mighty throes of the earth.... This earthquake apears to be exclusively ours at the north, California claiming no interest in it whatever.... A repetition of the experience is not desirable."
The epicenter of the quake has never been determined. Although believed to be in Washington, the shock was so strong in Victoria and other parts of British Columbia that it may have been in Canada, as Canadians insist.
Ribbon Cliff stands majestically beside Highway 97, about two miles north of Entiat. A highway marker giving its official name - "Earthquake Point" - tells the geologic history of the spot.
Entiat - Ribbon Cliffs, W. T.
The Night the Mountain Fell (and other stories of North Central Washington History)(book)
It was a typical, calm, quiet night in December of 1872. A pale, frosty moon cast an eerie, white light across the lanscape through a high, thin haze.
The Wapato family had settled down into peaceful slumber in their cabin near where the town of Entiat would be founded in later yares. The only sounds come from the family dog who had been pacing the floor and whining nervously for the past half hour.
Suddenly, the dog became quiet. Then it started: a low distant rumble, growing in intensity. The dog began to howl as the first tremors hit. The noise rose to a crescendo. The ground rocked and shook as if trying to buck the cabin off the face of the earth. The Wapatos - Mom, Dad, and children Sylvester and Peter - were wide awake now, trying to keep their sparse furnishings from crashing through the walls. The cabin seemed to be trying to tear itself apart. The Wapatos scampered outside as the fury and violent rolling motions of a full-blown earthquake gripped the land. It seemed like a lifetime to the Wapato family.
Just as the noise began to subside and the mighty quake convulsed to an end, the air was split with a deafening roar, as if the very devils of the earth had been set loose. The gournd began to shake again as the mountain just north of their cabin lost its footing, split in half, and millions of tons of rock and earth plunged and tumbled a thousand vertical feet into the mighty Columbia River... to become the first dam to block its flow and it also created Ribbon Cliff.
Members of the Wapato family escaped serious injury and death that night, but like many other people throughout this area, they would wonder how they were so fortunate.
A host of strange things happened the night the mountain fell .... and during the days that followed.
The next morning, Indian woment went to the river to get water for the Miller and Feeer trading post at the north end of Miller Street in Wenatchee, only to find the mighty Columbia had dried up and simply vanished. The word spread like wildfire. Everyone within reach came to see this miracle.
Mose Splawn, a Yakima pioneer, told of oil being found along the hogback, east of the Columbia River, in two large cracks that had opened up. Oil had boiled out of these crackes, and oozed down the mountainside to set and harden.
Near Chelan Landing, a great body of water shot high into the air like a geyser. Indians came to see this wonder for months after the quake, but as time went on, the water pressure lessened until it became nothing more than a spring.
Along the shores of Lake Wenatchee, Henry Livingstone and a party of 32 Indians were camped when the quake struck. They were packing in supplies for a railroad survey party sent in by Jay Cooke of New York City. When the earth began to shake, huge rocks rumbled down the front of Dirty Face Mountain and plunged into Lake Wenatchee.
Several days before the quake, Captain Ben Ingals, U.S. Cavalry, had become separated from his scouting party near Mount Stuart. Dropping down from a ridge, Captain Ingalls discovered a crescent-shaped lake with beaches of crumbling quartz rock, studded thickly with glittering gold. He estimated ten tons of gold in his view, with more buried. Captain Ingalls stayed two days to carefully map the area, then started down the creek that would later bear his name. He was camped several miles from the mouth of Ingalls Creek when the quake hit. Little did he know that his lake of gold had vanished.
According to the stories passed down from one generation to the next, another startling phenomenon oddurred within a couple of days after the quake. The earthen and rock dam that formed when the mountain fell into the Columbia began to weaken and then burst. A group of awestruck Indians and a scattering of white settlers looked up to see a wall of water bearing down on them. The onlookers fled for their lives. Fortunately, all were able to excape.
Many were the stories that came out of this historical event. So many, in fact, historians have had difficulty separating truth from fiction. But all agree, the night the mountain fell, was a time to remember.