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Cascadia Historic Earthquake Catalog, 1793-1929
Covering Washington, Oregon and Southern British Columbia
Provided by: The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network
About the Cascadia Historic Earthquake Catalog       One-line catalog format

1793-1849 .... 1850s .... 1860s .... 1870s .... 1880s .... 1890s .... 1900s .... 1910s .... 1920s .... 1930s (not complete) .... Other Cascadia Catalogs

  
Individual Event Report
Event #62 - Summary, and parameter estimates with source IDs                                           
Reported felt to the east as far as Umatilla, but not felt in Portland, this earthquake alarmed many citizens at the Dalles.where "The tinware and stoves in the store of Bunnell & Miller made quite a din" (The Oregoninan). Most earlier catalogs listed this event as occurring in December. The 11/24 date is given in several newspaper accounts and I surmise that only a single event occurred.
TIME LOCATION MAGNITUDE MAX. INTENSITY FELT AREA
YR MO DAY HR MIN AM/PM Time
Type		 LAT(N) LON(W) DEP
(km)		 MAG Mag
Type		 Felt
Plc.		 Felt
St.		 Inten-
sity		 Int.
Type		 Felt
Area		 Felt
Area
Int.		 Felt
Area
Units
1866  11  24  10  10  A  L  45.59  121.17        The Dalles  OR  IV  MM       
N-Ore - 1522 WWC - 1630 - - RAS - 8 -

Underlying Source Material
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
586  Reid, unpub., Scrapbook and Cardfile, on microfilm at USGS in Menlo Park     
Transcription: Dalles December 1866 Smart shock, III -Holden's Cat. pg 71
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1599  Washington Standard  1866  Dec 1, 1866, p. 2, c. 3. 
Transcription: The Dalles. Earthquake at the Dalles

Our Dalles correspondent (Nov. 25th) sends the following intelligence: "Our city has at last become a second San Francisco--that is to say, as far as earthquakes are concerned. Yesterday morning, at 10 minutes past 10 o'clock, (Saturday) we experienced a heavy shock of earthquake, which lasted five or six seconds. The first sensation noticed was a heavy, yet dull rumbling sound and trembling, resembling thunder. This lasted near three seconds, then oscillations followed, oscillating East to West, so severe that lamp fixtures, hanging to ceilings and pictures and mirrors hanging to walls, swayed to and fro frightfully. In several instances, men ran out into the streets dismayed. The sheet iron and stone store of Messers, Bunnell and Miller on Main Street, was shaken so that all the tinware and stoves made such a terrible din that the occupants ran frantically into the street, fearing that they were to be enveloped in a mass of ruins. Had there been any three of four story brick buildings in town they certainly would have been badly damaged, if not thrown down. News from Umatilla as late as 11:50 am yesterday, says a slight shock was felt there at about the same time it was felt here."
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
800  Reid 2, unpub., Scrapbook and Cardfile, on microfilm at USGS in Menlo Park     
Transcription: Dalles December, 1866 III
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
2407  Washington Public Power Supply System, "WPPSS Nuclear Project No. 2, Final Safety Analysis Report, Volume 1, Amendment 18"
September 1981 		 1981  Table 2.5-6 
Transcription: 1866 Dec The Dalles, Ore. Probably Dec. 1 TA
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
9  Rasmussen, Norman, 1967, Washington state earthquakes 1840 through 1965, BSSA V. 57, No. 3, pp. 463-476  1967   
Transcription: 9 1866 Dec.? - The Dalles, Ore. 1,12 felt, probably Dec. 1
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
440  Holden, Edward S., 1887, List of Recorded Earthquakes in California, Lower California, Oregon, and Washington Territory  1887  Printed by Direction of the Regents of the University of California, Sacremento, California, 
Transcription: 1866. December ? A smart shock at the Dalles, Oregon.-Mining and Scientific Press. Vol. 14, p. 46.
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
2012  Leslie M. Scott, Memoranda of the Files of the Oregonian 1850-1910, Oregon Historical Society  1910  Unpublished index to the Oregonian 
Transcription: at The Dalles, Nov. 24, 1866, two shocks
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1941  The Weekly Mountaineer  1866  Friday, Nov. 30, 1866, vol. 7, no. 8, p. 2, c.. 1. 
Transcription: Earthquake._____On Saturday morning last, at about 10 o'clock, the Dalles was visited by one of those institutions known in San Francisco almanac as an earthquake. People living in stone houses along Main Street were so much alarmed that some of them ran into the street. The first shock lasted about three seconds, and then followed oscelations from east to west. The tinware and stoves in the store of Bunnell & Miller made quite a din. The lamps hanging in the stores, pictures, etc., swayed to and fro. A great many of our citizens who never experienced the shock of an earthquake before were much alarmed. Some supposed that they were attacked with a violent headache, while others could not account for the "shock" and sallied forth to obtain information as to "what was up." A band of cattle and horses grazing on the north side of the Columbia, becoming alarmed also, made a grand stampede, and ran until they were completely exhausted. At Umatilla and Celilo, we learn that it was more severe than here. No damage has been done so far as we could learn. Various were the conjectures as to the cause of the earthquake, and as usual, Mount Hood had to stand the blunt of the whole thing, thought some, while others anxiously looked for the San Francisco news by Monday's boat to know whether that city had been swallowed up. This is, we believe, the first earthquake that has occurred in this section since its settlement by the whites, and we are not anxious for a repetition. We will sell out in favor of San Francisco.
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
2406  Washington Public Power Supply System, "WPPSS Nuclear Project No. 2, Final Safety Analysis Report, Volume 1, Amendment 18"
September 1981 		 1981  Table 2.5-6 
Transcription: 1866 Nov 30 The Dalles, Ore. WG-2
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1201  Morning Oregonian  1936  Nov. 25, 1936, page 5 
Transcription: Morning Oregonian, "Dalles Quake Rocked Pioneer Folk Recall", November 25, 1936, p. 5.

Pioneers recalled that today (November 24th) marked the 60th anniversary of the worst earthquake shock ever recorded here. Cattle stampeded the walls of stone buildings which were cracked and populace thrown into panic.
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
341  Byerly, Perry, 1952, Pacific Coast Earthquakes, Condon Lecture, pp. 33-38  1952  U.W. Library, N979 B991p, Special Collections) 
Transcription: 1866, December III. The Dalles, Wasco County.
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1630  Woodward Clyde Consultants, unpublished  1981  Woodward-Clyde Consultants (1981), Historical Catalog (1841-1980) for the Pacific Northwest Region, unpublished catalog prepared for the Washington Public Power Supply System. Copy provided to UW in 1993. 
Transcription: 18661130 45595-121173W WG 01
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1218  Holden, E.S., 1898, A Catalog of Earthquakes on the Pacific Coast 1769-1897, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 1087  1898   
Transcription: 1866. December; III. Dalles, Oregon.__P.
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1629  Woodward Clyde Consultants, unpublished  1981  Woodward-Clyde Consultants (1981), Historical Catalog (1841-1980) for the Pacific Northwest Region, unpublished catalog prepared for the Washington Public Power Supply System. Copy provided to UW in 1993. 
Transcription: 186611241810000 45595-121173W IV R 4 01
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
482  Townley, S.D. and M.W. Allen, 1939, Descriptive Catalog of earthquakes of the Pacific Coast of the United States 1769 to 1928, Chapter II, Earthquakes in Oregon--1846-1928, BSSA, V. 29, No. 1, pp. 253-258.  1939   
Transcription: 1866 December ? A smart shock at The Dalles.-Mining and Scientific Press, 14, 46.
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
8  Rasmussen, Norman, 1967, Washington state earthquakes 1840 through 1965, BSSA V. 57, No. 3, pp. 463-476  1967   
Transcription: 8 1866 Nov. 24 18:10 The Dalles, Ore. IV 3
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1292  Berg and Baker, 1963, Oregon Earthquakes, 1841 through 1958, BSSA, V. 53, No. 1, pp. 95-108  1963   
Transcription: 1866 - - Nov 24 10:10am (local) The Dalles IV O/Nov 27, 1866, 2:1
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1522  The Oregonian  1866  Nov. 27, 1866; pg 2, c. 1 
Transcription: The Dalles. Earthquake at the Dalles

Our Dalles correspondent (Nov. 25th) sends the following intelligence:
"Our city has at last become a second San Francisco--that is to say, as far as earthquakes are concerned. Yesterday morning, at 10 minutes past 10 o'clock, (Saturday) we experienced a heavy shock of earthquake, which lasted five or six seconds. The first sensation noticed was a heavy, yet dull rumbling sound and trembling, resembling thunder. This lasted near three seconds, then oscillations followed, oscillating East to West, so severe that lamp fixtures, hanging to ceilings and pictures and mirrors hanging to walls, swayed to and fro frightfully. In several instances, men ran out into the streets dismayed. The sheet iron and stone store of Messers, Bunnell and Miller on Main Street, was shaken so that all the tinware and stoves made such a terrible din that the occupants ran frantically into the street, fearing that they were to be enveloped in a mass of ruins. Had there been any three of four story brick buildings in town they certainly would have been badly damaged, if not thrown down.
News from Umatilla as late as 11:50 am yesterday, says a slight shock was felt there at about the same time it was felt here."
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1293  Berg and Baker, 1963, Oregon Earthquakes, 1841 through 1958, BSSA, V. 53, No. 1, pp. 95-108  1963   
Transcription: 1866 - - Dec - The Dalles III* 10 Possibly the same shock as Nov 24.
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
1631  Woodward Clyde Consultants, unpublished  1981  Woodward-Clyde Consultants (1981), Historical Catalog (1841-1980) for the Pacific Northwest Region, unpublished catalog prepared for the Washington Public Power Supply System. Copy provided to UW in 1993. 
Transcription: 186612 45595-121173W R 01
 
Source ID Publication Pub Date Pub Details
481  Townley, S.D. and M.W. Allen, 1939, Descriptive Catalog of earthquakes of the Pacific Coast of the United States 1769 to 1928, Chapter II, Earthquakes in Oregon--1846-1928, BSSA, V. 29, No. 1, pp. 253-258.  1939   
Transcription: 1866 December. III. The Dalles [Wasco Co.].-P.
 


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