Morris Tribune
July 10, 1975

Earthquake Shock Felt In Area

An earthquake, reportedly the worst ever in this area, occurred at 9:54 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The quake measured approximately 5.0 on the Richter Scale at the National Earthquake Center at Golden, Colorado.

Damage in the Morris area was confined basically to some cracked plaster, items falling off shelves and pictures leaving walls and dropping to the floor.

The quake also cracked the foundation of a house owned by George Pelewa at 102 East Fifth St., and another owned by Meta Thompson at 104 East Fifth St.

The quake was strong enough, however, to cause damage in heavily populated area, according to the center at Golden.

A spokesman at the center said the quake was centered 10 miles west of Morris, and covered a 60,000 square mile area.

No earthquake of this size has ever been recorded for this area at the National Earthquake Center, according to the spokesman, although lesser quakes in Minnesota occurred in 1909, 1917, 1925, 1935 and 1950.

Ed Windom, a farmer who lives 11 miles northsest of Morris in Pepperton township said the quake sounded like a big charge of dynamite exploded.

Employees at the West Central Experiment Station, and many other establishments in the Morris area, said they thought something was wrong with their furnaces or other equipment. The station has no instruments capable of measuring earthquakes.

Immediately after the quake many people could be seen out on the sidewalks discussing the situation.

To give an idea of how this quake compared to some others in the United States, in 1971 a quake occurred in the San Fernando Valley in California that measured 6.5 on the Richter Scale at Golden, Colorado. It did millions of dollars worth of damages and killed 54 people.

June 30 of this year a quake of 6.0 damaged some roads in Yellow Stone National Park.

Reports of the quake have come from Alexandria, Wheaton, Beardsley, Montevideo, Willmar and Fargo.

Dennis Myers of Morris said he has a Richter Scale built by the Kenner Toy Co. that recorded a reading of 4.7. He said he used the machine while in the U.S. Navy in California and its readings were almost identical to the official readings.