ISOSEISMALS: DISTRIBUTION OF APPARENT INTENSITY. 173 
Fort Bragg, Mendocino County. Population 1,600. (F. E. Matthes.) — The town of 
Fort Bragg suffered quite severely, and the indications are that the intensity of the shock 
was considerably greater than in the towns immediately to the south. Several brick 
buildings were completely demolished; others had parts of their walls broken off. Even 
a number of wooden buildings collapsed or were partly wrecked. Fire broke out and 
devastated 14 blocks before it could be controlled. The water mains were disconnected 
and the entire town might have been wiped out but for the timely assistance of the 
steamer Higgins in the harbor. The mill lost its iron smoke-stack, and was temporarily 
crippled. In all, the damage thru fire and earthquake is estimated at $100,000. (See 
plates 668 and 674, B.) 
The following more detailed account of the effects of the shock at Fort Bragg is sup- 
plied by Mr. O. F. Barth, principal of the Fort Bragg Union High School: 
The first shock had an oscillatory motion. A temblor was felt about 2 hours later, and 
from 1 to 3 temblors have been felt at irregular intervals nearly every day since. 
The direction of the wave of the heavy shock appears to have been toward north by east. 
The principal fact that justifies this statement is that the monuments in the cemetery, with 
but two exceptions, fell from their bases south by west. A second reason is that a cylinder 
printing press weighing not less than 5 tons moved about 3 inches south and 2 inches west 
upon a level floor. The part of the building containing the press has been finished only a 
few months, has a strong wooden beam foundation, and was not moved out of position. 
About a block away a safe in such a position that it could not move in the direction of its 
rollers, north to south or the opposite, was thrown off its blocks westward 3 or 4inches. At 
the high-school building (temporary quarters, not moved at all), a large case about 2x 4x7 
feet, full of apparatus and instruments used in physics, moved (rolled out) toward south 
by west, but nothing was upset within. This case stood close to a central partition on the 
north side of a south room on the second floor. Chemicals on open case shelving on the 
outside (south) wall of said room were nearly all thrown to the floor. 
At Noyo, 1.5 miles from the center of Fort Bragg, a store 1-story high, having but a 
floor space of several rooms, perhaps 50 x 60 feet, on underpinning averaging 3 feet high, 
moved about 22 inches west and nearly as much south. This store stands within 100 feet 
of the Noyo River. At Fort Bragg most chimneys were broken off at the roof and most of 
them fell southward, but in a few cases they scattered around the shaft. Those built up 
from the ground, as arule, fared worse. The large smoke stack at the saw-mill fell south by 
west. The brick foundation of a battery of boilers placed north and south was shaken down; 
another battery close by, facing east and west, was not affected. A large engine with a 
well-built brick base did not move, nor did the base, nor did the latter crack. 
In my house and in several others, dishes on east shelves fell to the floor, while those on 
shelves on the other sides were less affected, those on the south hardly at all. The south 
shelves of two jewelry stores fared differently, all the small alarm and other light clocks 
falling out. In a drug store, one block north of said jewelry store, the north and east shelves 
suffered most, the north the more; but this may have been due to the difference in the 
bottles and packages, and to the additional jar of a falling brick building. 
Several 2-story wooden store buildings facing west were thrown to an angle southward, 
the base remaining on the foundation, and the second floor moving from 0 to 20 or more 
inches. The upper story in most of these remained plumb. Eight brick buildings were 
shaken to the ground; two are being taken down. A new brick 1-story bank building is 
badly cracked, and only one brick building, l-story, is intact. Of the eight, three were 
2-story buildings. Many residences were moved, a few as much as 20 inches. Both 
l1-story and 2-story square built wooden buildings held their own well, except for their 
chimneys. The four wooden church buildings facing west, and the one facing south, are 
intact, save chimneys. 
One man walking on the street was thrown down. He is positive the wave traveled south- 
west, the ground undulations being 2 and 3 feet high. Another lookt out of his door toward 
town, facing southwest. He says the wave traveled in that direction and a roar accom- 
panied it, appearing to go farther that way each second. 
At the cemetery, one four-piece monument dropt its top piece to the north by east, and 
the next two pieces as in other cases. The flat or ordinary grave-stones facing east are all 
intact. 
