At approximately 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, Northern California was rocked with an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale (more recent research measures it at 7.7-7.9 on the Mercalli Intensity scale). San Francisco took significant damage during this event, but damage was documented along the San Andreas fault from San Juan Bautista to the Cape of Mendocino. Many buildings along the Mendocino coast suffered, especially brick buildings and chimneys.
At the Mendocino Lumber Mill, the 100-foot chimney had stood for 42 years and survived other earthquakes but could not withstand one of this magnitude. An iron chimney was ordered to replace it, likely to avoid reconstructing it in the event of another quake. This damage wasn’t the worst incurred at the mill; the 15-ton fly wheel was broken apart, and the basement supports split and shifted out of place.
Repairs at the Caspar Lumber Company cost approximately $25,000, and the mill suffered less damage than others on the coast. The most significant loss in Caspar was the company’s railroad bridge that spanned Jughandle Creek, which stood at 145 feet high and cost $15,000 to replace.
Across the town of Mendocino, houses were thrown from their redwood foundations, glass windows shattered, and there was “scarcely a chimney in town with a top remaining” reported the Mendocino Beacon. At the Jarvis and Nichols’ store on Main Street, the entire glass front was broken. The Occidental Hotel’s dining room and kitchen was thrust upward from its foundation and moved five feet south.
Repairs began immediately, and C.R. Johnson, the president of Union Lumber Company, opened the lumber yard to the public to collect material needed for repairs. Johnson let people make payments whenever it was convenient.
The Kelley family and their relatives suffered damage to their homes. Daisy (Kelley) MacCallum and her family lived in San Francisco on California Street. Their home sustained little damage, but the Blairs and Drexlers lost their homes in the fire. One story passed down reports that Daisy’s Mendocino home, which had sat closer to Ukiah Street, shook so violently from the earthquake that the entire home shifted down the incline towards Albion Street. Daisy reportedly liked this location better and had the foundation rebuilt in the new spot.
While it is a fun story, there’s no mention of the MacCallum’s house in the Mendocino Beacon’s reports on the earthquake, and a 1908 newspaper article reports construction on the house, including “work of moving the vacated house down into the center of the lot.”
Averee McNear is the curator at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino, Calif.