1893 Earthquake

On Tuesday April 4, 1893, there was a major earthquake in Pico Canyon. It was estimated by the United States Geological Survey to have a Richter magnitude of 5.75. This estimation was, of course, many years later since the Richter scale was not devised until 1935 by Charles F. Richter, but was based on the amount of damage that was reported.

The following report is from the Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey No. 114, 1894, by Charles D. Perrine of the Lick Observatory. The earthquake was on April 4, but the first report, obviously from Charles Mentry, the oil superintendent, wasn't received until April 8. I have also seen the date of the earthquake stated as May 19, 1893, but that would contradict Bulletin 114.

On April 9, an unnamed individual visited Pico Canyon and wrote another report. That person could have been the author Perrine, who, in Letter of Transmittal part of the bulletin, was given credit for compiling the bulletin, but it could have been someone else. Reynolds (Pico Canyon Chronicles, 1985) called him a geologist, but I am sure that was a guess because all the other information in his publication about the earthquake came from Bulletin 114. Plus there wasn't any true geologic observations in the report, so the guess wasn't particularly good.

According to Worden (The Story of Mentryville, 1996), "many folks in 1893 believed Mentry's drilling works set off the earth's movement. Mentry dismissed the notion." Boston (Daily Signal, 2003) states that the earthquake "caused an angry mob to march from Newhall to Mentryville. Locals blamed the drilling for oil in Pico as the cause of the quake, and some demanded they stop."

Here are the actual scanned pages from Bulletin 114. Note that Mr. Thomas was still holding on to the railing to the Long Bridge after the quake was over. It has been reported that the Long Bridge was destroyed by the quake, but this account (not to mention the picture from a few years later - see the historical photos page) disproves that notion.