At Alameda, on the bay opposite San Francisco, a score
of chimneys were shaken down and other injuries done.
Railroad tracks were twisted, and over 600 feet of
track of the Oakland Transit Company’s railway
sank four feet. The total damage done amounted
to probably $200,000, but no lives were lost.
Tomales, a place of 350 inhabitants, was left a pile
of ruins.
At Los Panos several buildings were wrecked, causing
damage to the extent of $75,000, but no lives were
lost.
At Loma Prieta the earthquake caused a mine house
to slip down the side of a mountain, ten men being
buried in the ruins.
Fort Bragg, one of the principal lumbering towns in
Mendocino County, was practically wiped out by fire
following the earthquake, but out of a population
of 5,000 only one was killed, though scores were injured.
The town of Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco,
suffered considerable damage from twisted structures,
fallen walls and broken chimneys, the greatest injury
being in the collapse of the town hall and the ruin
of the deaf and dumb asylum. The University of
California, situated here, was fortunate in escaping
injury, it being reported that not a building was
harmed in the slightest degree. Another public
edifice of importance and interest, in a different
section of the State, the famous Lick Astronomical
Observatory, was equally fortunate, no damage being
done to the buildings or the instruments.
Salinas, a town down the coast near Monterey, suffered
severely, the place being to a large extent destroyed,
with an estimated loss of over $1,000,000. The
Spreckels’ sugar factory and a score of other
buildings were reported ruined and a number of lives
lost. During the succeeding week several other
shocks of some strength were reported from this town.
Thus the ruinous work of the earthquake stretched
over a broad track of prosperous, peaceful and happy
country, embracing one of the best sections of California,
laying waste not only the towns in its path, but doing
much damage to ranch houses and country residences.
Strange manifestations of nature were reported from
the interior, where the ground was opened in many
places like a ploughed field. Great rents in
the earth were reported, and for many miles north from
Los Angeles miniature geysers are said to have spouted
volcano-like streams of hot mud.
Railroad tracks in some localities were badly injured,
sinking or lifting, and being put out of service until
repaired. In fact, the ruinous effects of the
earthquake immensely exceeded those of any similar
catastrophe ever before known in the United States,
and when the destruction done by the succeeding conflagration
in San Francisco is taken into account the California
earthquake of 1906 takes rank with the most destructive
of those recorded in history.
