Facing the Great Disaster

How the Men and Women of the U.S. Geological Survey 

Responded to the 1906 “San Francisco Earthquake”

General Information Product 31

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey
Facing the Great Disaster

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

How the Men and Women of the U.S. Geological Survey 

Responded to the 1906 “San Francisco Earthquake”

By Elizabeth M. Colvard and James Rogers

When the powerful April 18, 1906, earthquake struck northern California, staff of the 

U.S. Geological Survey stationed in Sacramento and Berkeley swung into action, bringing 

help to the residents of devastated San Francisco, documenting the effects of the quake, 

and investigating the causes of that major geologic event.

General Information Product 31

Downtown San Francisco (the corner of Taylor and Market Streets) at about 3:00 a.m. on April 19, 1906. 

Fires rage out of control in the ruins from the previous day’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake. (Photograph by USGS 

topographer C.L. Nelson.)
U.S. Department of the Interior

Gale A. Norton, Secretary

U.S. Geological Survey

P. Patrick Leahy, Acting Director

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2006

Available from U.S. Geological Survey Information Services

Box 25286, Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

This report and any updates to it are available online at:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2006/31/

For additional information write to:

U.S. Geological Survey

Box 25046, Mail Stop 421, Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225–0046

Additional USGS publications can be found at:

http://geology.usgs.gov/products.html

For more information about the USGS and its products:

Telephone: 1–888–ASK–USGS (1–888–275–8747)

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Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply 

endorsement of the U.S. Government.

Cataloging-in-publication data are on file with the Library of Congress (URL http://www.loc.gov/).

Produced in the Western Region, Menlo Park, California

Manuscript approved for publication, March 10, 2006

Text edited by Peter H. Stauffer

Layout and design by Susan Mayfield and Judy Weathers

FRONT COVER

San Francisco, California, the day after the catastrophic earthquake of April 18, 1906. This photograph by U.S. 

Geological Survey topographer C.L. Nelson shows the view from Nob Hill down Jones Street at 10:00 a.m. on 

April 19. Dense smoke billows from the burning center of the stricken city.
iii

Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1

USGS topographers swing into action .......................................................................................................1

Staffers worked overtime aiding refugees ................................................................................................7

Mapping the fault ...........................................................................................................................................7

Aftermath.........................................................................................................................................................8

Acknowledgments and sources of information ........................................................................................9

A ferry boat carries refugees fleeing the burning city of San Francisco after the catastrophic earthquake of 

April 18, 1906. (This photograph, from the George R. Davis family collection, was probably taken by USGS 

topographer C.L. Nelson on April 19.)
San Francisco the day after the 1906 earthquake. This photograph, taken by U.S. Geological Survey topographer 

C.L. Nelson, shows the view to the northeast from City Hall at 1:00 p.m. on April 19. Smoke from the spreading fires 

billows over the rubble of buildings destroyed by the quake.
Facing the Great Disaster

How the Men and Women of the U.S. Geological Survey 

Responded to the 1906 “San Francisco Earthquake”

By Elizabeth M. Colvard1 and James Rogers2

1

U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California.

2

Sacramento, California; grandson of USGS topographer George Davis and 

USGS stenographer Adelena Fontaine.

Introduction

It was the most devastating earthquake in California’s history. At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the ground under the San 

Francisco Bay Area shook violently for more than 40 seconds. 

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake created a rupture along nearly 

300 miles of the San Andreas Fault and was felt from southern 

Oregon to Los Angeles. Because the earthquake’s epicenter 

was just offshore from San Francisco, the impact on that city 

was catastrophic. Fragments of broken houses and buildings 

tumbled into the streets. The pipeline carrying water into the 

city was severed; fires triggered by broken gas mains raged 

out of control for 3 days. An area of almost 5 square miles in 

the heart of the city was destroyed by shaking and fire, and 

earthquake damage was widespread elsewhere. At least 3,000 

people were killed, and 225,000 were left homeless. Drinking 

water, food, and supplies quickly became scarce.

In 1906, the only permanent U.S. Geological Survey 

(USGS) office in California was the Pacific Division topographic mapping office in Sacramento, 70 miles up the Sacramento River from San Francisco Bay. The office had been 

established just 3 years earlier and was the only USGS office 

ever created for the sole function of topographic mapping. At 

the time of the earthquake, many USGS topographers were in 

Sacramento preparing for a summer of field work.

Although moderate shaking was felt in Sacramento, 

then a town of about 30,000 people, detailed information 

about the earthquake was slow to reach the residents there. 

USGS topographic engineer George R. Davis, not knowing 

the full extent of the damage, was fearful that his 62-year-old 

father Edward Davis in San Francisco was caught up in the 

devastation. George therefore left Sacramento on the first 

train bound for the San Francisco Bay area. “He was very 

worried. The phones were down and he wasn’t sure whether 

or not the hotel his father was living in was damaged,” said 

George Davis’s daughter Anna (Davis) Rogers, then an octogenarian, in a 2005 interview. Recalling the stories she heard 

of these events while growing up, Anna added, “Fortunately 

[the hotel] hadn’t fallen down.”

George Davis, a tall man with a quiet demeanor and a 

dry wit, was accompanied to San Francisco by fellow USGS 

topographer Clarence L. Nelson. Both were 29 years old and 

in excellent physical condition after a year spent mapping the 

Mount Whitney quadrangle, which includes some of the most 

rugged terrain in the conterminous United States.

On their arrival in San Francisco, the pair was fortunate 

to find the elder Davis unharmed at the hotel where he had 

been living. Nelson—handsome, athletic, and artistic—had 

brought his camera in order to get photographs while things 

were still “hot” and began taking what were to become a 

memorable set of images. The three men wandered through 

San Francisco all night and through the following morning, 

moving from one dramatic scene to the next. Nelson captured the horse-mounted “dynamite squad,” soldiers marching on Van Ness Avenue, and a rare scene of two horsedrawn fire engines with one engine drawing water from 

a cistern on Union Street. One ironic photograph shows 

refugees making their way through rubble-filled streets in 

the direction of a wrecked City Hall. Flames from the burning heart of the city shone brightly against the darkness, and 

Nelson captured the surreal glow in several of his photographs, including one of Union Square with the Breuners 

building burning in the background.

USGS Topographers Swing Into Action

While Nelson and the two Davises were witnessing 

events in San Francisco, USGS personnel back in Sacramento 

were beginning to assist the larger community in organizing relief efforts. Because of its proximity to the Bay Area, 

Sacramento—the State Capital—figured prominently in early 

relief efforts. At a mass meeting on the Sacramento Courthouse steps the morning of April 19th, citizens cheered when 

Sacramento’s ad hoc General Relief Committee declared that 

they would not wait to be asked to help and that a riverboat 
2 Facing the Great Disaster

Staff of the U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Division topographic 

mapping office in Sacramento shown at work about 1904-1905. 

Left to right: Geographer in charge Robert B. Marshall (back to 

camera), topographer A.I. Oliver, topographer Albert H. Sylvester, 

topographer Sidney N. Stoner, topographer George R. Davis, 

and topographer A.B. Searle. Marshall, Sylvester, Stoner, Davis, 

and Searle were all part of the USGS group that took the first 

boatload of relief supplies down the Sacramento River to San 

Francisco following the 1906 earthquake. (Photograph from the 

George R. Davis family collection.)

had already been secured to transport supplies to San Francisco at the earliest opportunity.

As authorized in a telegram from USGS Director Charles 

D. Walcott, Robert B. Marshall, the geographer in charge 

of the USGS Pacific Division topographic mapping office, 

announced to the General Relief Committee that the USGS 

stood ready to send a complete outfit of camp property, horses, 

wagons, and men sufficient to take care of 500 people and 

that he could be ready to leave that day. The offer was gratefully accepted, and Marshall was assigned to take charge of 

purchasing additional supplies using the more than $50,000 in 

donations collected that day from the citizens of Sacramento.

USGS stenographer Adelena Marie Fontaine described 

the events of April 19th in a letter to USGS historian Richard 

T. Evans dated September 18, 1946: “Men in the Sacramento 

office...hurried to the warehouses and packed blankets, tents, 

cooking stoves and utensils, folding tables, chairs, axes, picks, 

shovels and much other equipment. [They] loaded the big 

camp wagons, buckboards, and hitched teams to water tank 

wagons and brought them all to the wharf in Sacramento.”

In addition to these supplies, Marshall bought large 

quantities of canned goods, milk, baby food, soup, and other 

prepared food. At his request, a factory ran all night producing 

crackers and cookies. According to Fontaine’s letter, Marshall 

and the other USGS topographers soon had an old sternwheeler, the San Joaquin, “loaded to the water’s edge with 

relief supplies.”

At some point during the night of the 19th, the San 

Joaquin began its trip down the Sacramento River toward San 

Francisco. Aboard were Marshall, topographers A. Benson 

Searle, Sidney Stoner, and Albert H. Sylvester, and field 

assistant Jake W. Muller. George Davis and Clarence Nelson 
How the Men and Women of the U.S. Geological Survey Responded to the 1906 “San Francisco Earthquake” 3

Devastation in San Francisco in the wake of the magnitude 

7.8 earthquake that struck at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906. 

Top, view down Geary Street, showing the ruined downtown 

of the city. Bottom, fires in the downtown area raging out of 

control by late evening on April 18. (Photographs by USGS 

topographer C.L. Nelson.)
4 Facing the Great Disaster

Fighting the disaster in San Francisco, April 19, 1906. Top, 

troops from the Presidio of Monterey march down Van Ness 

Avenue after arriving in the city. Bottom, one fire engine draws 

water from a cistern, while another retreats from the spreading 

fires to make a stand at a new position. (Photographs by USGS 

topographer C.L. Nelson.)
How the Men and Women of the U.S. Geological Survey Responded to the 1906 “San Francisco Earthquake” 5

were also on board; they had returned to Sacramento by train 

after relocating the elder Davis in a hotel in Oakland. When 

the pair learned that the San Joaquin was about to depart with 

their USGS colleagues, they decided to embark as well—their 

second trip to the beleaguered city in 48 hours. The boat 

was accompanied by a barge under the direction of Almerin 

Sprague, the father of Sidney Stoner’s fiancée, Marjorie 

Sprague. The barge carried wagons, horses, and water barrels 

(Sacramento Bee, 1906).

At 8:00 a.m. on the morning of April 20th, the San Joaquin with its load of relief supplies and USGS topographers 

landed at the Presidio of San Francisco. Fontaine’s 1946 letter 

states that it was greeted with cheers. The military officer who 

met the boat immediately asked about baby food and milk and 

was overjoyed by Marshall’s reply of “a carload.” Volunteer 

stevedores, soldiers, and citizens assisted the USGS men in 

unloading the shipment. The topographers offered to remain in 

San Francisco to set up camps and teach people how to cook 

in the street, but the army was firmly in control and declined 

their services.

By this time on the morning of April 20th, uncontrolled 

fires and continuous dynamiting (done in an attempt to create firebreaks) had filled the air of San Francisco with heat, 

smoke, and dust, making it unpleasant to breathe. George 

Davis and Clarence Nelson attempted to renew their exploration of the ravaged city before the San Joaquin’s return trip but 

were unable to bear the conditions for long. At one point, they 

were forced to quench their thirst by drinking the liquid from 

cans of tomatoes they found in an abandoned grocery store.

San Francisco scenes on April 19, 1906, taken by USGS 

topographer C.L. Nelson. Left, broken pavement and bent 

streetcar tracks on Mission Street near Seventh. The man on the 

left is USGS topographer George Davis; the other man is probably 

his father, Edward J. Davis. Below, residents fleeing the spreading 

fires, dragging trunks along Van Ness Avenue.
6 Facing the Great Disaster

U.S. Geological Survey 

employees from the Pacific 

Division topographic 

mapping office in 

Sacramento who responded 

to the 1906 earthquake 

disaster. Upper left, Robert 

B. Marshall, geographer 

in charge. Upper right, 

topographer George R. Davis. 

Lower left, Adelena M. 

Fontaine, stenographer (and 

later Mrs. George Davis). 

Lower right, topographer 

(and accomplished 

photographer) Clarence L. 

Nelson. (Photographs from 

the George R. Davis family 

collection.)
How the Men and Women of the U.S. Geological Survey Responded to the 1906 “San Francisco Earthquake” 7

Staffers Worked Overtime 

Aiding Refugees 

Back in Sacramento, the women of the USGS family were hard at work. Stenographer Adelena Fontaine, 

Marjorie Sprague, and the wives of Robert Marshall and 

Albert H. Sylvester volunteered to assist the Sacramento 

Women’s Council in processing thousands of refugees who 

soon arrived from San Francisco. “I worked on [the] general 

Relief Committee several nights, meeting trains crowded 

to the doors with refugees,” wrote Fontaine. “We fed them, 

clothed them, took them to friends if they had any, and those 

who were destitute we assigned to the homes in the city 

whose doors had kindly been opened to welcome the unfortunates” (Fontaine, 1906).

Fontaine recounted the story of one refugee, a young man 

of about 20, whose brother was mistaken for a looter and shot 

to death. “[He was] endeavoring to extricate his brother and 

their belongings from the hotel where they had lived, [and] 

saw his brother shot down before his eyes by a soldier. The 

soldier had made a mistake, and the boy was not stealing. 

This young refugee was a telegraph operator and volunteered 

his services [until] the building was abandoned; [he then] fled 

before the flames,” wrote Fontaine, “He was in a dreadful state 

from exhaustion, hunger and exposure” (Fontaine, 1906).

Mapping the Fault

The topographers in Sacramento were not the only USGS 

employees working in the vicinity of San Francisco. By great 

coincidence, the eminent USGS geologist Grove Karl (G.K.) 

Gilbert had been in Berkeley (7 miles across the bay from San 

Francisco) since 1905 studying sedimentation and the effect of 

hydraulic gold-mining debris in the Sacramento River. A vigorous 63 years old in 1906, Gilbert was considered one of the 

top field and experimental geologists of his day. He was one 

of the first five principal geologists hired by the USGS when 

it was created in 1879 and served as its first Chief Geologist. 

His scientific reports are considered some of the best geologic 

papers ever written.

Gilbert wrote of his experiences on the morning of April 

18th, “It is the natural and legitimate ambition of a properly 

constituted geologist to see a glacier, witness an eruption 

and feel an earthquake...When, therefore, I was awakened in 

Berkeley on the eighteenth of April last by a tumult of motions 

and noises, it was with unalloyed pleasure that I became aware 

that a vigourous earthquake was in progress... In my immediate vicinity the destructive effects were trivial, and I did 

not learn until two hours later that a great disaster had been 

wrought on the opposite side of the bay and that San Francisco 

was in flames” (Gilbert, 1907). As soon as regular ferry traffic 

to San Francisco was restored, Gilbert traveled across the bay 

to observe the fires and the results of the earthquake firsthand: 

“The flames work with wonderful speed. While I lingered, 

whole squares were consumed. An hour is probably enough to 

raze a square of wooden houses” (quoted in Pyne, 1980).

Gilbert’s assistant in Berkeley was 32-year-old François 

E. Matthes, a native of the Netherlands and a highly accomplished USGS topographer and geomorphologist. The USGS 

had sent Matthes to California in 1905 for the express purpose 

of mapping Yosemite Valley. Matthes had recently garnered 

praise for his topographic map of the upper half of the Grand 

Canyon, which is one of the finest plane-table maps ever 

produced by the USGS. While Matthes was between field seasons in Yosemite, Gilbert employed him to research scientific 

articles that were written in Dutch and French.

Matthes too was jolted awake on April 18th by the 

earthquake: “Woke up 5 a.m. by violent earthquake, lasting 

28 seconds. Found on getting up San Francisco enveloped in 

flames. Severe quake 8:15 while eat[ing] breakfast ...Made 

tour of inspection of Berkeley; found brick chimneys demolished by the wholesale; many brick houses badly damaged. All 

day long dynamite blasts are heard from the city... Fire rages 

all night” (Matthes, 1906).

There was no lack of scientific interest in the earthquake; geologists and other scientists quickly flocked to the 

area. Local geologists gravitated around Andrew C. Lawson, 

chairman of the geology department at the University of 

California at Berkeley, and John C. Branner, professor of 

geology at Stanford University, both of whom also worked 

part-time for the USGS.

Three days after the earthquake, the governor of California appointed a California State Earthquake Investigation 

Commission, chaired by Lawson, to oversee and consolidate 

all of the scientific investigations. Gilbert was one of eight 

men assigned to the commission. Only Gilbert and one other 

had any experience with earthquake research. The commission 

ultimately brought together more than 21 scientists, architects, 

and engineers to study the earthquake and its effects. This 

included several members of Japan’s Imperial Earthquake 

Investigating Committee, at that time a leading authority on 

earthquake research. The commission primarily focused on 

studying surface changes caused by the earthquake, earthquake intensity, earthquake arrival times, and the geophysics 

of the earthquake. Gilbert wrote several reports about the 

earthquake, and both he and Matthes took many photographs 

of the earthquake’s effects.

The Earthquake Commission quickly appropriated the 

services of Francois Matthes by sending him into the field to 

examine the effects of the earthquake north of San Francisco. 

He later mapped the trace of the San Andreas Fault through 

the northern part of the State. His maps were included in an 

atlas published by the commission, and his field observations 

were incorporated into the commission’s final report (Lawson 

and others, 1908).

The USGS and the Army Corps of Engineers collaborated on a separate Federal investigation of the earthquake’s 

effects on buildings and construction materials. Richard L. 

Humphrey from the structural materials division was the pri-
8 Facing the Great Disaster

mary USGS representative on this team. He was dispatched to 

San Francisco the day after the earthquake. Gilbert contributed 

an overview of the earthquake to the team’s report.

Aftermath

It is difficult to know what long-term impact the events 

of 1906 may have had on the USGS employees involved with 

it. Robert Marshall was made Chief Geographer of the entire 

USGS just 2 years later. Topographer George Davis eventually took over Marshall’s position as geographer in charge of 

the Pacific Division topographic mapping office. Davis and 

stenographer Adelena Fontaine were married in 1916; their 

only child, Anna Davis Rogers, provided much of the material for this article and their grandson, James Rogers, is one of 

the authors. Topographer Sidney Stoner and Marjorie Sprague 

were also married. Topographer Clarence Nelson continued 

his adventures with the USGS on mapping jobs in Argentina, 

Puerto Rico, Alaska, and other parts of the United States. 

Topographer Albert Sylvester transferred to the Forest Service 

in 1908 and became the highly influential Superintendent of 

Wenatchee National Forest in the Cascades; he is credited with 

officially naming more than 1,000 places and features in Washington State. Topographer François Matthes became a leader 

in the study of the geology and geomorphology of Yosemite 

National Park. Geologist G.K. Gilbert continued his interest 

in earthquake studies by serving as a member of the Scientific 

Committee of the Seismological Society of America, which 

was formed in the fall of 1906. They were all ordinary people 

who responded to a natural disaster in extraordinary ways.

U.S. Geological Survey scientists who made 

important contributions to geologic studies of 

the 1906 earthquake and the San Andreas Fault 

on which it occurred. Left, François Matthes 

in Yosemite, 1906. A topographer who was 

stationed in Berkeley, California, at the time of 

the earthquake, Matthes later mapped the trace 

of the fault north of San Francisco and examined 

the effects of the quake in that part of the State. 

(Photograph from the George R. Davis family 

collection.) Above, Grove Karl (G.K.) Gilbert, 

about 1910. Gilbert was the first Chief Geologist 

of the USGS and made numerous contributions 

to science, including incisive studies of the 

geologic background of the 1906 earthquake. 

(Photograph from USGS archives, no. port0129.)
How the Men and Women of the U.S. Geological Survey Responded to the 1906 “San Francisco Earthquake” 9

Acknowledgments and Sources 

of Information

The personal records and photograph collections of the 

Rogers (Davis) family in Sacramento provided much of the 

material for this account. Before she passed away in March 

2006, the memories of Anna (Davis) Rogers added details and 

a human dimension to the story of her parents’ and others’ 

actions. We are also grateful for assistance from librarians at 

the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of California in 

locating and making available relevant documents. In addition, the following publications and written documents were 

consulted and are cited in the text:

Fontaine, Adelena, 1906, A Letter to the editor: Lakeview 

Enterprise, May 5, 1906.

Gilbert, G.K., 1907, The investigation of the California earthquake of 1906, in Jordan, D.S., ed., 1907, The California 

earthquake of 1906: San Francisco, A.M. Robertson, p. 

215-256.

Lawson, A.C., and others, 1908, The California earthquake of 

April 18, 1906: Washington, Carnegie Institution, 2 vols. 

and atlas, 451 p., 192 p., 41 atlas plates [reprinted 1969].

Matthes, François, 1906, Personal diary: Berkeley, California, 

University of California Bancroft Library.

Pyne, S. J., 1980, Grove Karl Gilbert, a great engine of 

research: Austin, University of Texas Press, 306 p.

Sacramento Bee, 1906, Capital city’s boat first: Sacramento 

Bee, issue of April 21.

Sacramento Union, April 20, 1906, Sacramento pours out its 

wealth for sweet charity: Sacramento Union, issue of April 20.

U.S. Geological Survey topographer George R. Davis (standing) at work in the field about 1908. Davis 

worked in the Pacific Division topographic mapping office in Sacramento, California, from 1903 until 

1922 and was geographer in charge of that office from 1917 to 1922. After the earthquake on April 

18, 1906, Davis was one of the USGS people who rushed to respond and help the stricken city of San 

Francisco. (Photograph from the George R. Davis family collection.)
San Francisco residents living in the streets and facing an uncertain future 

after the April 18, 1906, earthquake. This view, taken by U.S. Geological Survey 

topographer C.L. Nelson at about 6:00 a.m. on April 19, is looking northeast from 

the U.S. Treasury Mint on Fifth Street between Mission and Jessie.
The U.S. Army “dynamite squad” in San Francisco after the catastrophic earthquake 

of April 18, 1906. The Army blew up entire blocks of buildings in an attempt to 

create firebreaks and thus contain the raging fires that were spreading through 

the city. This photograph, taken by U.S. Geological Survey topographer C.L. Nelson 

at 10:00 a.m. on April 19, shows Captain Le Vert Coleman and members of the 

dynamite squad on Van Ness Avenue.
Clarence L. Nelson (center) with fellow U.S. Geological Survey topographers in 

the field about 1905. The plane table he is using was an essential instrument 

for mapping at that time, and in rough country sometimes had to be set up in 

strange places, as here up in a tree. Nelson, who was also an accomplished 

photographer, traveled to San Francisco with his colleague George Davis 

immediately after the 1906 earthquake and took many excellent photographs of 

the stricken city, some of which are included in this pamphlet.
San Francisco, California, ravaged by earthquake and fire in 1906. This photograph, taken by USGS 

topographer C.L. Nelson at 5:00 a.m. on April 19, the day after the earthquake, shows the last block to 

burn on Market Street in the city’s center.

Published in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake

G US S Colvard and Rogers—Facing the Great Disaster—U.S. Geological Survey General Information Product 31

Printed on recycled paper

1906 Earthquake Centen

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