Five Tons of Powder, and an Earthquake Scare
A railroad crew's mammoth Sunday blast north of town shook every building in Newport — and convinced half the town the Spokane Chronicle's predicted earthquake had finally arrived.
During the past two years of railroad work in this vicinity Newport people have become quite well accustomed to the sound of heavy blasting, but Sunday afternoon a blast was exploded on the construction work just this side of the Ashenfelter bay, north of town, that, while it did not make much noise, shook buildings all over town in a manner considerably more strenuous than usual.
Preparations for the big blast had been going on for more than a month. A tunnel was driven 40 feet into the hillside, striking a point on the grade about 45 feet below the top of the hill. From this tunnel 'gopher' holes were run, into which over five tons of powder were placed. The whole was exploded by means of an electric battery, and with a muffled roar over 1,000 yards of granite were thrown into the air. In addition over 3,000 yards were loosened so as to make removal an easy matter. The length of the excavation made by the big blast was 100 feet, and the total cost of the work was in the neighborhood of $1,000.
The blast, coming so soon after the publication of a story in the Spokane Chronicle Friday evening to the effect that an earthquake might be expected in Washington and Oregon, led many people who did not know of the blast, and not hearing the explosion, to believe that the earthquake had arrived.
“Not hearing the explosion, [many] were led to believe that the earthquake had arrived.”
Newport owed its sudden trembling not to nature but to the Idaho & Washington Northern grade being carved through the hillside — the rail boom was literally reshaping the ground under people's feet. It is a reminder that the infrastructure we take for granted arrives with a jolt, and that a stray prediction in the press can turn a controlled explosion into a panic.
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