"The state of Washington has experienced 20 damaging earthquake events in the last 125 years. Most of these have been in western Washington. The Seattle-Tacoma earthquake and the recent (2001) Nisqually earthquake-type events seem to reoccur about every 30 to 35 years, while a 1949 Olympia type event occurs about once every 110 years," reports an undated King County Hazard Mitigation Plan.
The April 13, 1949, earthquake greatly affected Lewis County. The probable epicenter of the quake was about 11 miles northwest of Centralia (at Littlerock). It was a 7.1 magnitude quake that killed eight people, including a Centralia man. Property damage in the Olympia-Tacoma-Seattle area amounted to about $25 million in 1949 dollars.
"DEATH OCCURS WHEN QUAKE ROCKS AREA," read the all-capitalized headline across the top of The Daily Chronicle's front page shortly after the quake. "The temblor started at 11:55 a.m. Wednesday. It shook the earth for about 30 seconds in the Twin Cities area and for as long as two minutes in the Seattle area.
"The Centralia resident killed was Mark Cuvric, 69, who died when he was buried under a mass of fallen brick at the corner of Tower Avenue and Main Street downtown. The brick came from the collapsed east wall of the Matz building."
The photo of the Matz building accompanying this story was submitted by Clarence Robbins for "Our Hometowns; A Historical Photo Album of Greater Lewis County" published by The Chronicle in 2003.
Robbins reported, "Centralia's Matz building, shown in this photo, was damaged when an earthquake struck the area in 1949. An elderly gentleman, walking by on Tower Avenue during the quake, was killed when a cornice running the entire length of the building fell on him."
At the time the photo was taken, Robbins recalled, the first floor of the building held the First Guarantee Bank branch. And, in addition to the Dr. W.A. Smith offices on the second floor of the building were said to be the offices of Dr. Matz, owner of the building, and Judge Cameron, a municipal court judge.
Among the 13 injured during the quake were two Adna schoolteachers, a 26-year-old Chehalis man, a 7-year-old Adna grade-schooler, two boys from Green Hill School and two Toledo women. A search of the Lewis County Historical Museum files led to a number of interesting stories.
An April 16, 1949, story from an unidentified source reads, "Wednesday's earthquake won't soon be forgotten by 20 Bucoda grade school students and Principal John Kure, who were - of all places - 1,000 feet down in the Tono coal mine when the earth began to shake.
"The students, seventh and eighth grade children on a field trip studying community resources, were at a point where mining was under way. A large amount of coal fell from the roof of the bore, but it struck no one.
"We went down in the mine at 11:30 a.m.," Kure said, "and had just arrived at the working level when it started. There was a noise like a freight train passing, the ground swelled and swayed and timber cracked all around us. There was no hysteria. We were probably too scared."
The group didn't slow until it got to the top.
Schools in Adna, Napavine and other Lewis County Communities were severely damaged. We read in the April 14, 1949 Chronicle that, "Wednesday's earthquake dealt out a huge amount of damage to the grade school at Adna, where scores of youngsters almost miraculously escaped in a hail of flying bricks and timbers. One seven-year-old is in a Seattle hospital, critically injured."
A photo not available here shows the east entrance to the building. Two teachers were hurt, but not seriously, and portions of the wall continued to fall after the quake.
On April 20, 1949, we learn, "At the Seattle Orthopedic hospital Wednesday little Patricia Ann Tanksley, second grade student at the Adna school, could see past her head bandages with only one eye, but the shaking world that seemed to collapse around her a week ago looked rosy again."
Tanksley had been buried beneath falling bricks at the school during the earthquake and, while her condition was critical for a while, she was, as of this report recovering from a broken leg, a severe head injury and cuts and bruises.
"'How did you break your leg?' a visitor asked the girl. 'I didn't break it,' she replied with tempered indignation, 'The bricks did. The bricks to the door at our room in school fell on me."
On April 18, 1949, an unattributed article reads, "Thirty-three boys from the state training school at Chehalis were sent to their homes throughout the state on Friday to alleviate crowded conditions brought about by Wednesday's earthquake. The boys were sent home 'absent with leave' and would be called back in two months if accommodations are available by that time. The remainder of the 187 boys is (are) being housed in new dormitories recently completed by not yet ready for occupancy.
"James Taylor, state consulting architect, estimated damage at the school at about $2,000,000 following an examination of two dormitories, administration building and the chapel. The two dorms were condemned and the other two buildings were ordered razed."
Ted Dorn, a farmer on Military Road, midway between the Twin Cities, was reported to be "more than amazed just before noon April 13 when that day's earthquake split the field in which he was working," reads a newspaper item found in the Lewis County Historical Museum files.
Clear water spouted 18 inches into the air from one split in Dorn's field followed by what appeared to have be clean ocean sand.
"The Lewis County farmer is not quite sure just what to do with the surplus of sand, but he is thankful it did not cover a larger area. Apparently the phenomena is one of the most unusual in the district, although other earth cracks have been noted."
In a call to Neva Dorn Rosbach, the farmer's daughter, she recalls that her father spread the sand out and worked it back into the ground.
"He didn't haul it away," she said just this past week.
Pat Jones is The Chronicle's lifestyle editor. She may be reached by e-mail at pjones@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8226. The Lewis County Historical Museum's Internet address is www.lewiscountymuseum.org.
