Eureka Earthquake – California – April 16, 1899

This earthquake had a magnitude of 7 and, while extensive damage was done, there was no loss of life because few people lived here in 1899.

On April 16, 1899, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck a coastal area north and south of Eureka, California. It was one of the severest ever experienced in this part of the country. In spite of the unusually long duration of the main shock–fifteen seconds–only a lumber mill in Eureka suffered damage. The reason for the low mortality was simply that few people, other than the native population, were living here at the time. Shocks were experienced along a two-hundred-mile coastal stretch from Crescent City, near the Oregon border, to Albion in the south.