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 falling 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 log house 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 "sidegar" 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 gone."

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."




Chelan area . W. T.
Wenatchee Daily World
Dec. 19, 1965 - p. 3
Wenatchee, W.T.

YARNS OF YESTERYEAR

1872 Quake Broke Off Part 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.

Henry Livingstone, the Tonasket centenarian, told me that he had a party of 32 Indians along the shores of Lake Wenatchee when this occurred along in the night in November, 1872. A rail- road survey was being put through for Jay Cook of New York City and Mr. Livingstone with 32 Indians was packing in supplies. When the shake occurred the big rocks rolled down the face of Dirty Face Mountain and a piece of the mountain slid down in the Cascades near the summit.

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 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 saying 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.



Chelan area. 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 an 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 the 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 for 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, 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. 28, 1939; Interview, James Lindston, Dec. 1970. (to be continued)



Chelan area. 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- facement 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 sulfur 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 I 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, Dec. 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 McCullom 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- ingot, 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)



Chelan area. 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, 1872-- 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.

(Cont. "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 fact 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.

by: Dr. Howard Coombs
September 1976.

Cracks and Springs at Lake Chelan

Various accounts (Spirit of the West 1874, Wenatchee Daily World 1922 and 1925) mention the opening of cracks and the spurting out of water with sulfurous fumes near Lake Chelan.

Descriptions are given for cracks 2 to 3 feet -wide opening up and spurting water 2 to 3 feet into the air. Some confusion exists as to the location. They could have been at the site of the present springs near Chelan Station although mention is made of water soaking the food supply at Chelan. The former site is given preference since the method of storing food, in pits, at Lake Chelan would lend itself to wetting by any disturbance of the water table.

Other accounts mention slumping of the earth near the lake edge with that portion toward the lake dropping approximately 5 feet. Apparently no springs were associated with this crack (Spirit of the West, December 4, 1874).

The geology of the Chelan area is much better known now than in 1872 (Waters 1930 and 1933, Whetten, J.T. 1969, Beck, R.W. 1973) and the "cracks" developed in 1872 can be explained on the basis of distribution and permeability of the various rock types near the- southern end of Lake Chelan.

During the Pleistocene the area was covered, intermittently, by both continental and alpine glaciers. Both left debris in the form of outwash aprons, terraces, and moraines. Since the time of ice withdrawal both locustrine and alluvial sediments have been deposited.

Lake Chelan is unusual in that it is 1500 feet deep-obviously scoured by alpine glaciers. However, at the southern end of the lake, in the Wapato Basin, the lake bottom sediments deposited by glacial, or immediately post- glacial outwash, reach thicknesses in excess of 400 feet. The sulfurous fumes mentioned in early reports could come from these lake bottom sediments, disturbed during the earthquake. In addition to decomposition products, such as methane, in the lake bottom sediments there is an ample source of sulfur.

The granodiorites in which Lake Chelan is carved contain an abundance of pyrite and chalcopyrite. The Holden copper mine on the west side of the lake operated for many years in a sulfide mineral deposit.

Drilling for the original Chelan Dam and for a newly proposed project downstream from the present dam, indicates a thickness of sediments up to 350 feet between the town of Chelan and Chelan Station on the Columbia River. River. An 80 foot vertical exposure of the permeable gravels in this area can be seen in the east-west section of the Chelan River below the dam.

Bedrock under the glacial and later sediments varies between a aranodio- rite and migmatite with massive jointing typical of a granite. Exposures of bedrock are excellent between the dam and the Columbia River.

It should be expected that water soaked sediments trapped in a steep and glaciated bedrock channel might crack and spout during a major earthquake. The same may be true of the great thickness of bottom sediments at the south end of Lake Chelan. They might well contribute to the fouling of the waters in this part of the lake and perhaps in groundwater around Chelan.

The slumping and dropping 5 feet of an edge of the lake shore is to be expected as a normal process of shoreline erosion at a place notorious for high winds and vigorous wave action.

In summary the effects of a major earthquake in water soaked sediments confined in a relatively narrow bedrock canyon might well crack and produce the fountains described in historical accounts. The wetting of the Indian's winter food supply may be attributed more to their storage methods, in covered pits, than to fountains of surface water.

REFERENCES
1874 Spirit of the West, November 27th, Walla Walla
1874 Spirit of the West, December 4th, Walla Walla
1922 Wenatchee (Daily) World, June 15th
1925 Wenatchee (Daily) World, August 8th
1930 Waters, A.C. The Geology of the Southern Half of the Chelan Quadrangle, Washington. Ph.D. thesis Yale University. New Haven p. 1-256.
1933 Waters, A.C. Terraces and Coulees along the Columbia River near Lake Chelan. Bull. Geol- Soc. of Am., v. 44, p. 783-820
1967 Whetten, J.T. Lake Chelan, Washington, Bottom and Sub-Bottom :Topography. Limnology and Oceanography, v. 12, no. 2, p. 253-259
1973 Beck, R.W. Report to Chelan Public Utility District No. 1 on Lake Chelan Project Expansion. Preliminary Reservoir- Investigations. Seattle, Washington.