1855 earthquake rattled nerves and mission bells
By Joe Blackstock, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Posted: 04/21/14
"Earthquakes are no big deal," I calmly brag to my friends and relatives in other parts of the country where they face floods, blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes on a regular basis.
I really do feel that way — especially when the shaking stops and I bravely step out of the protective doorway in my house.
Like our most recent shaker in La Habra, earthquakes are just part of life in the Inland Valley and Southern California.
So it wasn't a real surprise to read historian Dr. Frank Brackett's description of an earthquake of long ago saying, "Los Angeles and all of the (Pomona) Valley were rocked to their foundations."
On July 11, 1855, the Southland was badly shaken by a quake that modern-day experts have estimated at a magnitude of 6 — significantly stronger than the recent La Habra temblor at a mere 5.1. Of course, 158 years ago there were no water mains to be cracked, cans of beans to fall off supermarket shelves, or reporters and TV crews to be mobilized.
Brackett, in his 1920 "History of the Pomona Valley," collected recollections and writings from that 1855 event, which he said was "the most vigorous and terrifying" of the quakes to strike the region in the early years of California's statehood.
It's said that quake knocked the bells at San Gabriel Mission out of their bell tower, a structure rebuilt after collapsing during a December 1812 quake. Good-sized "sea waves," presumably tsunamis, were reported off the coast, while two dozen buildings in Los Angeles were cracked or collapsed.
In the Inland Valley, other than people's nerves, there just wasn't a whole lot to damage in those days. We were still three decades from the first cities of Pomona and Ontario, with only scattered ranches dotting the landscape.
"When a heavy shock was felt people would rush out into the open, there to find the cattle bawling with legs asprawl, and tree trunks swaying from side to side like drunken men," wrote Brackett, one of Pomona College's first professors. "Water in the ditches was rocked and spilled, or even quite emptied out for weeks at a time."
From Brackett's description, the main quake was frequently followed by aftershocks and people's nerves were on edge for some time.
"As the older residents narrate, the earth was never quiet, dishes were always rattling," he said, describing some local buildings.
"Those who lived in old adobe buildings like the store, whose massive walls supported the great square-hewn pine timbers hauled from the San Bernardino Mountains, were in constant fear of being buried under those great roof timbers."
* * * http://www.dailybulletin.com/general-news/20140421/1855-earthquake-rattled-nerves-and-mission-bells
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