Cache Valley Earthquake, 1962
On the morning of August 30, 1962, residents in Cache Valley experienced shattered windows, shaking ground, and collapsing walls when a magnitude 5.7 earthquake occurred in far northern Utah. The earthquake’s epicenter was located seven miles north of Richmond, where up to 75% of homes reported some damage.
Impacts from the earthquake were widespread. The Benson Stake Tabernacle, a brick building in Richmond, was damaged beyond repair and subsequently demolished. Logan businesses 20 miles from the epicenter reported damaged infrastructure and destroyed merchandise. Rockslides impacted roads in local canyons. One valley resident, a teenager at the time, recalled “the school was damaged, so the school year was late to start. This pleased me greatly at the time, but we had to make up the time on Saturdays.” The same resident remembered “houses [in Richmond] that had been abandoned, presumably because the owners didn’t have the money to repair them after the earthquake.” News reports from the time document widespread destruction and recount available federal funding for “individuals, business concerns, and non-profit organizations” from the Small Business Administration. Funds could be used to repair structures or replace broken furnishings and inventory.
The earthquake is a reminder of the ever-present threat of disaster. Contemporary news reports emphasized the continuing risk to Utahns. An August 30, 1962 news article states that “It’s only where there are concentrations of buildings and people that the quakes have any marked effect.”
Several projects have sought to document Utah earthquakes, including the Intermountain Seismic Belt Historical Earthquake Project, which collected personal accounts, photographs, and news media to help quantify disaster risk to Utahns. For the earthquake’s 50th anniversary, the City of Richmond sought materials to document the disaster. Merrill-Cazier Library’s Special Collections and Archives contains photographs that show the damage done to local buildings.
Utah State University
This exhibit debuts on the 60th anniversary of the event. As time passes, personal connections to the earthquake have diminished. USU Libraries welcomes contributions like journal entries, photographs, and oral histories to our archival collections to help document impacts from this (and other) local natural disasters.
The exhibit team chose the 1962 Cache Valley earthquake as the subject for this exhibition because it is a relatively recent example of a disaster and earthquakes continue to pose a threat to valley inhabitants. Projects like the Intermountain Seismic Belt Historical Earthquake Project demonstrate how access to historic materials helps individuals understand the risks posed by earthquakes. The USU portion of the traveling exhibit was a collaboration between Jen Kirk (Government Information Librarian), Dan Davis (Photographs Curator), and Blair Larsen (Senior Lecturer, Department of Geosciences). Copy editing by Nicole Hurst.
USU is the second stop for the exhibit which will be on display until November 2022, with hosting duties followed by University of Montana, Missoula.
