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No Known Injuries; Buildings Damaged
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP)--A sharp earthquake shook parts of five states early today.
It apparently centered in the Cache Valley 80 miles north of here where considerable damage was reported. It was felt as far away as Pocatello, Idaho, and Evanston in southwest Wyoming.
No injuries were reported.
Only minor property damage was reported in the Ogden area.
The temblor cracked some walls and swayed trees. Most of all, residents were frightened, fearing other temblors that might come.
At Lewiston, Utah, a drugstore collapsed onto a cafe, demolishing both buildings.
One wall of the Crystal Furniture Co. building in Logan, a city of 18,000, fell onto a used car lot.
The Utah Highway Patrol reported a slide across US 89 in Logan Canyon.
Several schools in the Cache Valley area were closed because of damage. They included schools in Logan and Richmond.
Electric power, which was knocked out throughout much of Logan City, was restored about three hours later. There was widespread damage throughout Logan. Police kept pedestrians away from older buildings in the city business district, many of which were damaged.
There also were reports of damage to buildings at Utah State University.
In Salt Lake City, Dr. Kenneth Cook, head of the geophysics department at the University of Utah, said the quake knocked the instruments off the scale at the school's seismograph. Because of this he was unable to measure the full force of the quake. He said this was the first time this has happened since the Hebgen-Yellowstone earthquake of 1959.
No damage was reported in any of these three states, however.
A building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Logan was damaged.
The first tremor was felt at 6:36 a.m. and lasted about 30 seconds. It was followed by two smaller shocks.
Ogden residents reported a number of accidents connected with the earthquake.
Immediately after the quake the Southern Pacific Co., sent engineers to check the 13-mile long earth dike by which its trains cross the Great Salt Lake.
Howard E. Watts, chief clerk of the Salt Lake division, said there was no evidence the tremor shook the fill. "There had been no slippage and the tracks were not out of line," Mr. Watts said. "Trains are moving on schedule."
He also said tremors were reported by railroad workers as far west as Wells, Nev., but no damage resulted.
The Bureau of Reclamation said the shake caused no damage at their construction projects at Causey Creek, Willard Bay or the two Willard Canal pumping plants.
Layton residents were shaken by the quake but no damage was reported.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
This morning's tremor was the first to shake Ogden since several hit the area on March 12, 1934.
One death was attributed to the 1934 tremors. A 21-year-old mother just home from the hospital with a new baby died of a heart attack as the walls and floors of her house shook.
The first of the 1934 tremors also was felt in the early morning--at 8:07. Similar shocks were felt later in the day. Damage was negligible, confined mostly to cracks in walls, broken windows and dishes.
Like today's tremor, the 1934 shaking was felt throughout the area. In the vicinity of Kelton in western Box Elder County, cracks eight miles long appeared in the earth.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
By Cliff Thompson
A seismological expert says Northern Utah can expect follow up tremors to today's earthquake for "several days or even weeks."
Dr. Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, said however the tremors will be of decreasing intensity and should be "no cause for alarm."
He told the Ogden Standard-Examiner, few if any of the follow up tremors probably will be felt in the Ogden area.
Largest of the expected follow up tremors should have a magnitude of about 5, Dr. Richer said, which would have considerable less force than this morning's 6.1 magnitude.
Dr. Richter is head of Caltech's seismological laboratory and inventor of the Richter magnitude scale for measuring the intensity of earthquakes.
He said in a telephone interview that an earthquake of the size that hit Utah and parts of Idaho usually has follow up tremors.
"There should be another one with a magnitude of about 5," Dr. Richter reported. He could not predict when it might occur. "It could be the same day or several days later. Earthquakes are not predictable."
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
LOGAN (AP)--Mrs. Thelma Olsen had a short grand opening day for her new Stork Shop Maternity store. Police ordered the building closed after cracks were found and the brick front at the top of the building sagged toward the street. She had a grand opening sign in the window and police put a rope barricade in front.
At the filing systems building across the street big front plate glass windows were knocked out and heavy ceiling beams inside were moved half an inch. Hundreds of bricks from an outside wall crashed down on a parking lot but did not hit any cars.
Lowell Jenkins, manager of the biggest glass store in town, was doing a booming business. He had calls to replace at least 15 large store front windows and was swamped by calls from home owners.
A water main broke in the attic of the Eccles Hotel on Logan's main street and at least 20 rooms were damaged.
There were bricks in the alleys and hunks of tile, and cracks on many Main Street, First North and Center Street buildings.
The ceiling fell in at the Model Billiards building on Center Street, tumbling down on the bar and tables, but there was no apparent extensive damage. Inside, however, it looked like a bomb had hit.
It was reported that Carson's Food Center, at 1209 N. 9th E, received minor damage. The report said that several rows of canned goods were shaken from the shelves and that displays rattled against the walls.
The Provo police department said that they received a few reports of lights rattling, walls rocking, houses shaking, and trees swaying, but no major damage.
The Utah State Highway Patrol reported that there were no problems with the road conditions in this area, and that they had received a few calls because of "bed shaking and window rattling."
Miss Melva Hon, of Provo, said, "I was making the bed and the door behind me started shaking, so I turned and opened it to see if something had fallen down."
The seismograph on the Brigham Young University campus was not operating at the time of the reported earthquake.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
By Robert Agee
Ogden was shaken at 6:36 a.m. today by a sharp earthquake that rattled windows, caused minor property damage and frightened thousands of citizens.
The temblor cracked some concrete walls and swayed trees.
The usual rumbling noise that sounds during a quake was heard in some places in the area, noticeably in Plain City.
The temblor frightened residents and switchboards at the police and fire departments, and at the Ogden Standard-Examiner board lit up like a Christmas tree within minutes.
Porter M. Gooch, state maintenance superintendent for the Utah Highway Department, said some rocks rolled down on area highways.
Ralph Wadley of Mountain States Telephone Co., said the utility poles and lines were not damaged.
Byron Blood, service manager of Utah Power & Light Co., reported no damage and Mountain States Fuel Co. said their gas lines were not affected.
The quake toppled rolls of carpets from racks at the H. D. Sparrow Co., in Roy.
A concrete wall at the home of Roger Spendlove, 1171 41st, was split.
George Parker of 941 23rd, maintenance man in the Municipal Building, was going down in an elevator when the tremor occurred. He said, "The car bucked and jumped and I thought the cable had broken."
The Amalgamated Sugar Co. factory in Lewiston received about $25,000 damages from falling bricks and concrete chunks that crashed into the laboratory, according to Burnall Brown of Ogden, general superintendent.
"The factory will open for treating beets on time, early in October," the superintendent said.
The Preston sugar factory was not damaged, Mr. Brown reported.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
RICHMOND, Cache County--"I was so frightened and startled that it left me frozen and speechless for several minutes."
Carliss Ann Bullen, 18, was in bed at her father's home in Richmond when the earthquake struck with full force.
Carliss told Ogden Standard-Examiner staff photographer Ralph Collins she was in bed when the tremor started.
Her father, L. J. Bullen, was up and when he heard a loud crash, he ran to his daughter's bedroom. He found her bed full of rubble--bricks, plaster and mortar that had crashed from the ceiling.
Carliss was hit and bruised on her left leg, but more shaken up from the experience than anything.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)--Despite the fact little major earthquake damage is reported in Utah, the state is considered one of the leading places in the nation in earthquake potential.
Geologists say that is because the Wasatch Fault--a major point of slippage between rock layers along the Wasatch Mountains.
Since 1850, a total of 261 quakes have been recorded in the West which had their origin within Utah.
Geologists also say the state has had more earthquakes exceeding moderate intensity than any other state in the mountain west.
The Pacific Coast uniform building code rates Utah in earthquake zone 2, second only to California, which is in zone 1.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
SALT LAKE CITY (UPI)--Wednesday, the first day of the new school year, 17-year-old Barr Taylor of suburban Salt Lake City slept through his alarm clock--and was late to high school.
When he finally did get up, his father, Lee Neff Taylor, Salt Lake City attorney, casually told his boy "it practically takes an earthquake to get you out of bed."
Wednesday night, when Barr retired, he set not only his regular clock but borrowed a spare from his parents.
This morning, both clocks went off at precisely the time an earthquake, first in this area in years, rocked Salt Lake Valley.
Barr today got out of bed with no delay.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30 1962]
DRAPER (UPI)--Even the nightcrawlers were disturbed by the earthquake that shook the Intermountain West this morning.
A Draper woman, Mrs. G. R. Savage, was watering her lawn before the heat of the day. She said the ground suddenly started swaying and then "all the fish bait in the world came crawling up out of the ground."
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
Birthday Party--For Me?
By Robert Agee
Mrs. Addie Newcomer of 1525 Childs was 73 today and when she felt the earthquake early this morning, she said, "That's quite a birthday celebration for me."
Severity of the 'quake was shown by a jiggling needle on the artesian well gauge at the Becker Brewing Co., 1900 Lincoln. Robert L. Becker, president and general manager, said the gauge shows the vertical line of the well and is normally at the figure 5. This morning the gauge jumped from 3 to 7, indicating a considerable side slippage of the well, the brewery official said.
The telephone switchboard at the Ogden Standard
Examiner was swamped with calls within seconds after the 'quake.
One woman said breathlessly: "I thought--this is it! I'm ready."
Any number of persons asked, "When is the next earthquake due?"
A man called to say he and a friend had an argument as to whether it was a sonic boom from a jet plane breaking the sound barrier. He said he had won the bet because there was no "boom."
A Plain City man said he was standing by his front window and saw two trees in his front yard sway back and forth.
Glen Kap at Pine View Reservoir said the 'quake shook his house on the north side of the dam and some rocks toppled down on the highway.
Some of the women callers had definite southern drawls. One said, "I didn't know you-all had ea'thquakes up heah."
The typical rumbling noise accompanying an earthquake was heard only in scattered spots. The sound is like that of a fast freight train going across a bridge.
Mrs. Robert Salmon of 4592 S. 950 E., said she was nearly shaken out of bed.
C. O. Bybee, Route 4, Uintah, said his hot water tank shook so violently he thought it would topple
over.
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Brown, 1291 24th, parents of four small children, looked at each other when the 'quake hit and said, "What can the kids be doing in the basement to make all that noise?"
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 30, 1962]
Epicenter Of Shock Placed 10 Miles Outside Of Logan
LOGAN, Utah (AP)--There were still some apprehensive feelings today after Thursday's earthquake shook the buildings and beings of this Northern Utah community.
The tremors at 6:36 a.m. also rumbled through sections of Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, Idaho and Colorado.
No injuries were reported. One grocery clerk at Logan fell, but was not seriously hurt.
Six old brick homes in nearby Richmond were ruined. The Amalgamated Sugar Co. plant north of Logan was badly damaged. Cracks appeared inside and outside at downtown stores in Logan. Four buildings at Utah State University here were damaged.
Logan Junior High School remained closed today because of the possibility of cave-ins at the structure where walls were jarred loose.
But most of the schools in the area planned classes as usual today.
The University of Utah Department of Geophysics placed the epicenter of the quake 10 miles northwest of Logan.
The shock was so strong it sent the needle off the seismograph at the university.
But from other instruments, scientists estimated the shock at about 5.7 on the Richter scale. The San Francisco quake in 1906 was 8.25 on that scale.
The possibility gave rise to some fears of further misfortune.
No overall estimate of damage was available.
But the Henry Miller family in Richmond lost a $10,000 house they had recently bought.
Son Jerry, 17, said, "I was just getting out of bed and the bricks started falling down on me." He wasn't hurt.
His father said he was giving up the house after that. "I wouldn't sleep in there again."
A widow with seven children, Mrs. Florence Halverson, was also left homeless at Richmond.
An old brick building in downtown Logan was hit hard and bricks jarred loose. Police ordered a new women's apparel store closed up for safety sakes. In the window was the sign: "Grand Opening."
Sighed Mrs. Thelma Olsen, the owner: "What a way to start in business."
SALT LAKE CITY (UPI)--Residents of northern Utah were braced today for another earthquake to follow Thursday's damage-dealing temblor in three western states.
Dr. Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology said he expected another quake of a magnitude of "about 5" to follow Thursday's tremor.
Seismologists said they could not predict when the follow-up temblor would occur. It might happen immediately, in days, or in weeks, they said.
The American Red Cross in Salt Lake City announced it had placed all of Cache County under its disaster area designation.
Reports indicated that only one person received injuries from the temblor. A Richmond girl cut her foot on a bottle broken by the shock.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 31, 1962]
Narrow Escape
By Flora Ogan
RICHMOND, Cache County--If Thursday's earthquake had happened a week later circumstances would have been much different for Carliss Ann Bullen.
Carliss Ann is a young 18-year-old bride-to-be who was in bed when the roof collapsed sending a ton of brick and debris onto the bed where she was sleeping.
Luckily, Carliss Ann, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Bullen, was only slightly bruised.
A week later and the young girl would have been honeymooning. She plans to marry Dallas Olsen, serving with the Army, in just a week.
Carliss Ann said she was sleeping when the house began shaking. "I woke up and couldn't seem to realize what was happening when suddenly the roof caved in.
"I was so startled for a minute I couldn't move, then I screamed and ran from the room just as my father came in to see if I was all right," she recalled.
"The chimney of the house came in through my bedroom ceiling. It made a slice about 10 feet by eight feet.
"The rest of the walls are cracked and it looks like the house is ready to tumble. It's a mess . . . we'll have to find another place to live."
Carliss Ann said she spent the remainder of the day helping her grandmother, Mrs. Mary Johnson, clean up the mess at her house.
Dishes fell to the floor in pieces and the water heater burst at Mrs. Johnson's house.
"The temblor, while it only lasted 20 seconds, really played havoc with our town. I was over to the neighbors, the plaster is cracked on all their walls. Things are really in a mess."
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; August 31, 1962]
LOGAN (AP)--Although no one would give an official estimate most guesses in Logan Saturday placed the damage from Thursday's earthquake between $500,000 and $1 million.
The Small Business Administration in Washington has declared the region a disaster area. The agency will set up a disaster relief office here.
Cleanup operations were under way in northern Utah with residents inspecting buildings and walls and trying to determine if they will hold up.
Residents were also concerned about reports that after-jolts may strike the area causing further damage to weakened walls.
The quake, which was centered about 10 miles northwest of Logan, caused the greatest damage in Logan, Richmond and Lewiston, Utah.
School officials were still wondering whether Logan Junior High School should be closed for three weeks for repairs. Logan School Superintendent Sherman Eyre said it is possible the school will be shut down if the crews find the walls unsafe. Damage to the school has been tentatively estimated at $19,000.
Many other schools, churches and homes throughout the area are also undergoing investigation to determine their safety. A number of buildings will have to be demolished, officials said.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; September 2, 1962]
LOGAN (UPI)--It may still be several days before an estimate of dollar damage caused by the earthquake in Cache County last week is available.
Mayor Theral V. Bishop of Logan said the city engineer has been used to compile a damage report.
Speculation has placed the damage at between $500,000 and $1 million.
In Richmond, Mayor Ross Plant said damage to his community was more extensive than realized at first. He said about 75 per cent of the homes received some damage, in many cases just cracks.
[Ogden Standard-Examiner; September 3, 1962]
Click here for Deseret News Newspaper Articles for the 1962 Cache Valley, UT earthquake.
Click here for Herald Journal (Logan, UT) Newspaper Articles for the 1962 Cache Valley, UT earthquake.
Click here for Salt Lake Tribune Newspaper Articles for the 1962 Cache Valley, UT earthquake.
Return to Cache Valley Earthquake Summary.
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