The Tour Of Ravaged San Francisco

Monday the group set out for San Francisco. At Palo Alto they saw the wreckage of Stanford University. When they arrived at San Francisco they hired a horse-drawn cab to spend an hour and a half touring the ruined city. With Ellen White was her son, W. C., and two women, May Walling and Minnie Crisler, wife of Clarence Crisler, her chief secretary (31 WCW, p. 293).WV 497.3

As they rode together, they recounted a good many things. Exactly what was said we do not know, but various and sundry reports give us a composite picture of what took place:WV 497.4

The quake came at 5:31 Wednesday morning, April 18. The first casualty was the Point Arena Lighthouse, 90 miles (144 kilometers) to the north. The huge lenses and lantern exploded in a shower of glass. Earth waves two and three feet (one meter) high were seen plunging south at an incredible rate. Giant redwoods were mowed down. Beaches were raised and lowered. Trains were derailed. At one ranch the earth opened directly beneath an unsuspecting cow. With a bellow of terror the animal plunged into the gaping hole, its cry cut short as the crevice clamped shut, leaving only a twitching tail visible (G. Thomas and M. Witts, The San Francisco Earthquake, pp. 66, 67).WV 497.5

The city was largely asleep as the wave of earth upheavals struck San Francisco in a 28-second tremor just at dawn. ^{*The description of the earthquake is fully supported by documents in DF 76, “The San Francisco Earthquake.”} First there was a terrifying roar, and then stone and bricks began to fall like rain from taller buildings; chimneys toppled from almost every home. The streets heaved, and in places dropped as much as 30 feet (nine meters).WV 497.6