Observations placeholder
Fort, Charles - New Lands - Fall of brown ash [with earth tremors]
Identifier
028725
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
New Lands – Charles Fort
Smithson. Miscell. Cols., 37-Appendix, p. 71:
According to L. Tennyson, Quartermaster's Clerk, at Fort Klamath, Oregon, at daylight, Jan. 8, 1867, the garrison was startled from sleep by what he supposed to be an earthquake and a sound like thunder. Then came darkness, and the sky was covered with black smoke or clouds. Then ashes, of a brownish color, fell—"as fast as I ever saw it snow."
Half an hour later there was another shock, described as "frightful." No one was injured, but the sutler's store was thrown a distance of ninety feet, and the vibrations lasted several minutes. Mr. Tennyson thought that somewhere near Fort Klamath, a volcano had broken loose, because, in the direction of the Klamath Marsh, a dark column of smoke was seen. I can find record of no such volcanic eruption.
In a list of quakes, in Oregon, from 1846, to 1916, published in the Bull. Seis. Soc. Amer., September, 1919, not one is attributed to volcanic eruptions. Mr. W. D. Smith, compiler of the list, says, as to the occurrence at Fort Klamath—"If there was an eruption, where was it?" He asks whether possibly it could have been in Lassen Peak. But Lassen Peak is in California,, and the explosion upon Jan. 8, 1867, was so close to Fort Klamath that almost immediately ashes fell from the sky.