THE EARTHQUAKE RIFT OF 1906 



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Earthquake Rift. Morrill's Orchard, Santa Cruz county. 



roof of the tunnel. On the hill above the tunnel is Morrill's fruit 

 ranch. The earthquake ripped its way through the orchards, shifting 

 the rows of trees six to eight feet and treating roads and fences in the 

 same reckless fashion. The large hospitable Morrill farmhouse stood 

 partlv over the track and was split in two and utterly ruined. Farther 

 on at Skvlands, on the ridge of the 

 mountains, Fern Gulch was rilled 

 with wreckage; redwood trees four 

 and five feet through, two or three 

 hundred years old, were snapped off 

 like whip-lashes. The rift crossed 

 Hinckley's Gulch at right angles. 

 This is a narrow gorge about a 

 hundred feet dee}), in which stood 

 the large Loma Prieta sawmill. 

 The erorge was filled by landslips 

 thrown from both sides. The mill 

 was completely buried, with nine 

 mill hands, and a redwood tree over 

 a hundred feet high was set erect 

 and unhurt over the place where the 

 mill stood. The bodies of six men 

 were recovered. One of these, the 

 foreman, was found erect, smoth- 

 ered in mud, hut standing with ex- 

 tended arms and limbs in the act of running from the mill. With him. 

 equally erect and in the act of running, was the body of a Siberian 

 mastiff. Their position marked the meeting point of the two walls of 



Inverness Road, near Olema, Marin 



COUNTY. 



