[Guest Post by Deborah Isley, MA in History, Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum Volunteer]
On April 29, 1945, Seattle anglers J. F. Little and Les Crawford were spending the day fishing from their boat on Rattlesnake Lake. “We were about convinced there were no fish in that lake, but the earthquake taught us different,” Little told the Seattle Times. At 1:15 pm, the Earth began to shake. For Crawford and Little, the event was dramatic and unforgettable.
The two men were nearly thrown from their boat when suddenly, “there was a terrific rumble, like a thunderbolt, or an explosion…then a giant whirlpool appeared in the lake spewing fish to the surface on all sides of us.”
Carl Edgerly and his daughter in his drugstore in the 1940s.
The chaos continued when, moments later, a tree snapped from a nearby slope and crashed into the lake near another group of anglers. Whether or not it was a true “whirlpool,” the experience captured what made the 1945 quake so memorable–not just its magnitude, but the way it revealed the hidden energy stored beneath the familiar face of Mount Si.
Drug store owner Carl Edgerly was spending the day golfing in North Bend when he heard the sound of thunder, and the earth began to shake. At first, he thought someone had dropped a bomb on the top of Mount Si; after all, this occurred during the waning months of World War II. With a resounding crack, a huge rock shelf broke off the mountain and cascaded down the 4,000-foot cliff. “It was the worst quake I’ve ever experienced since I came to North Bend 22 years ago,” Edgerly said.
Caption: View of Mount Si from the Mount Si Golf Course, where Carl Edgerly was teeing off on the day of the 1945 earthquake.
.Experiences like Edgerly’s and Little’s were panic-inducing, but luckily, damage from this earthquake was minimal. Elsewhere in the Snoqualmie Valley, bottles fell off shelves and bricks fell from chimneys. The only injury reported was a young boy in Cle Elum who was hit by falling masonry. It was felt as far away as Victoria, Spokane, and Portland.
The April 1945 earthquake was not even among the five strongest earthquakes to strike the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s and 1940s. The biggest and most well-known of these was the April 1949 earthquake centered near Olympia. That quake caused eight deaths and over $25 million in damage (in 1949 value).
Lee Brothers’ grocery store in North Bend lost many items from its shelves during the intense shaking of the 1949 earthquake centered near Olympia.
Still, the 1945 5.7-magnitude earthquake was the only one centered in the Snoqualmie Valley. The shallow earthquake occurred on the Mount Si fault line, which runs north-south from North Bend to Sultan, just west of the mountain. Other similarly measured earthquakes along this fault line occurred in 1891 and 1997. A much bigger earthquake along this fault thousands of years ago likely caused the massive crack that runs down the side of the mountain.
Newspaper rendering of the Mount Si Fault printed in the paper after the April 29, 1945, earthquake. “Mount Si Oldest Peak” April-May, 1945. Snoqualmie Valley Museum Archive Number 074.460. Clipping Archived in North Bend Clippings and Notes, Red Binder, located in Aisle 5, Column 1.
Lee Brothers’ grocery in North Bend lost many items off their shelves during the intense shaking of the 1949 earthquake, centered near Olympia.
The Mount Si fault line is a high-angle fault responsible for the formation of Mount Si itself. From bedrock formed in the Mesozoic era, many millennia of earthquakes at the fault gradually pushed the face of Mount Si higher and higher, creating the beautiful rockface we see today. Older residents remember rock falls every time an earthquake hits. “Each time there’s a quake, there’s a slide,” Zara Fritz, a longtime valley resident, told the Snoqualmie Valley Record after a minor quake triggered a slide in 2008. In April 1945, residents had a front row seat on how geology has shaped Mount Si and the Snoqualmie Valley for millennia.
References:
- Lange, Greg. “Earthquake hits Puget Sound area on April 13, 1949.” HistoryLink.org Essay 2063, January 1, 2000. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://www.historylink.org/file/2063.
- Washington State Military Department. Significant Earthquakes Experienced in Washington Since 1872. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://mil.wa.gov/asset/5ba41f67ab6be.
- “Quake Damage in North Bend.” Seattle Times. April 30, 1945. Snoqualmie Valley Museum Archive Number 074.460.Clipping Archived in North Bend Clippings and Notes, Red Binder, located in Aisle 5, Column 1.
- “It was Old Si’s ‘Fault,’ Report Quake Experts.” April-May, 1945. Snoqualmie Valley Museum Archive Number 074.460.Clipping Archived in North Bend Clippings and Notes, Red Binder, located in Aisle 5, Column 1.
- Welch, Doug. “Quake Traced to Old ‘Fault’ at Mount Si.” April-May, 1945. Snoqualmie Valley Museum Archive Number 074.460.Clipping Archived in North Bend Clippings and Notes, Red Binder, located in Aisle 5, Column 1.
- “Mount Si Oldest Peak” April-May, 1945. Snoqualmie Valley Museum Archive Number 074.460. Clipping Archived in North Bend Clippings and Notes, Red Binder, located in Aisle 5, Column 1.
- Images: Carl Edgerly PO.533.0009; Mt. Si Golf Course PO.074.0776; Mt. Si PO.074.0237; Lee Brother’s Grocery after April 1949 earthquake PO.882.0001
[Featured Image: Postcard of Mount Si housed at the Snoqualmie Valley Museum. PO.811.0218]
