The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-04-22
Colonel Whipple's Account of the Inyo
Earthquake.


Colonel Whipple, of Inyo county, has Civ
en- the San Francisco Bulletin the subjoined
account of the earthquake in Inyo county and
his experiences therein:
COLONEL wHIPPLE's NARRATIVE.
Colonel Whipple said: was sleeping in the
second story of my house, which was a
strongly built adobe one, two stories high. 1
was not frightened, not because an earth
quake could not frighten me, but it gave me
no time to be afraid. I had just time to
spring from my bed, catch my pantaloons,
and get into the hall at the head of the stairs,
when the house went. thought of my wife
and children who were in Vallejo, and said
to myself, ''This is death.' 1 knew nothing
more for some time; l know not how long,
but when recovered my senses lay on my
face, and could feel rubbish, timbers and
adobe on my body. 1 did not feel hurt, and
turned my face upwards. Then 1 could see
the moonshine. Iput my hands out and felt
the ground. With considerable effort 1 ex-
tricated myself from the ruins, and set I'D to
listen for Frank Austin, a young man who
slept in my house. 1 could not hear him.
Then got up on my feet My face was
wounded, and blood was streaming over nv
body. l heard the screams and cries of the
people in the main portion of the town, about
sixty rods from my house. ran there as
fast as l could, and found all who were not
dead or too badly injured, in the streets, and
not brick or adobe house in the place stand
ing. We went to work as well as we could
10 extrlcate the dead and wounded from the
runs OF ther houses. In every corner were
heard groans and agonizing cries for assist
ance. All the harm was done by the first ter
rlple shock, but the earth was almost con-
stantiy vibrating, and shock followed shock in
quick succession.
THE CHARACTER OF THE SHOCKS AND
NOISES. ---.t.-
We could distinguish four distinct species
OF movements, and three kinds of noises or
explosions. One shock seemed to lift us up
gently and shake us as if the earth under our
Ieet were sieve. No noise preceded or ac-
companied this kind of shock. Then there
was slight vibratory shock, CULVER of the
earth. Then we would hear noise as of
mortar discharged at great depth beneath
our feet. Another explosion louder than the
hrst, and then another still louder, with a
vertical bump from below, closing with the
swinging motion. There was another sound
like the beating of the long roll, or, more
properly, like the rumbng OF carriage over
a bridge; and as the noise died away shock
would follow. The last and most terrifying
were the UNDERGROUND PARROTS from the
Slerras; but the reports were as much louder
than that of a UNDERGROUND Parrot as the
discharge of such gun is louder than a pop-
gun. When this sound came we looked to-
ward the Slerras west OF us, and even by the
moonlight could see thousands and thousands
OF rocks shooting, tumbling and crashing
down its sides with laundering noise; and
the great clouds of dust for four or five miles
along the range. and in the foothills which
separated it from the valley.
THE HOUSES AND HOW THEY FELL
All the people killed, so far as known, were
Killed by falling houses, Not frame house
was thrown down, but all were terribly
shaken, built our house, not to sell; but
for our home, and it was built strong The
walls were heavily bolted at the four corners,
and the roof held firm by timbers from the
ratters, spiked to the partition. 1t went to
pieces in twinkling. All that fell seemed to
have been pushed to the northeast. got out
of the ruins of my own house about twenty
five or thirty feet to the northeast of where it
stood. Some of the brick and adobe buildings
were not strong, but the strongest could not
Withstand the shock. The people want lum-
Der. You could not give any man an adobe
or brick house in all that valley now.
sURRIDENCE, SEAMS AND FIssUREs.
Right along the front of my farm and those
belonging to my neighbors Plummer, john
son and others living south of me, for a dis
lance Of several miles to Black Lake and
north OF Lone Pine several miles, the valley
seems to have sunk, or the hills have risen,
leaving an abrupt perpendicular wall six or
seven feet high, all along for distance of /!
four or five miles. Close to Black Lake two |
creeks have taken this crevice for a channel. |
and just above the lake new stream has ap- |
peared, which flows out and is lost in the |
sage brush and alkali plain. This wall runs |
nearly north and south, and all the seams |
and assures take that direction generally, al |
though In some places there are cross-seams |
and assures The valley looks as though an |
immense harrow had a.
surface from northto south. On the day fol- |
lowing, and when we were riding in the stage
near the head of Owens Lake. we were |
opnged several times to stop and look for a |
SAFE road across places where the earth had |
SUNK two or three feet in strips about fifty or |
Sixty feet wlde We had to hunt a road al |
SO In the vicinity of Passamore's ranch. be- |
low the foot of Owens Lake. When riding |
along the west side of the lake we could look |
across to the Inyo mountain side of the val |
ley and there saw another abrupt wall, ap- |
Parsnty six or seven feet higher, but which |
concluded from the distance must be much
hlgher than that. 1t also ran north and
south, with he direction of the lake and val
ley.
RISE OF OWENS LAKE.
AT the north end of Owens Lake there
was spring about two feet above the lakes
surface. After the earthquake it was found
that the spot where the spring had been was
aoubt two feet under water This and other
indications induced the belief that the bed of
the lake had risen about four feet.
ABOUT THE FIREs-AID FROM THE MINES,
l31-tss ETC. a 5
Colonel Whipple said several persons spoke
OF having seen fires during the shocks, and
one man, whom he met at Passamore's
south OF Owens Lake, told him he saw flames
along the eastern or Inyo range. The next
day he went to some of the places, but could
find no fire. 1t was Colonel Whipple's opin
ion that the flames might have been burning
gas, forced through assures in the earth dur
ing the shake. He said: cat Passamores
the stage party stopped for dinner, when a
shock came which drove us out of the house.
finished my dinner outside, ON a log. At
that time we saw streams of immense bowld-
ers shooting down the Sierre, after the par
rott gun was fired. They raised enormous
clouds OF dust in their descent, and the crash
ing is indescribaby awful
he says that all accounts agree that the
tnocks were most severe at Lone Pine. and in
that immediate vicinity. On the morning of
she shock, James Brady, of the Swapsea
mine, sent twenty men to Lone Pine
rnd twenty came also from Cerro Cor
do to assist in taking care of the injured and
burying the dead. Frank Austin, who was
in Colonel Whipple's house, was not killed,
H,rl .,aI I