The few reports by those who felt the February 2, 1881 shock indicates that this earthquake had intensity similar to those reported from more recent Parkfield main shocks. A report in the Salinas City Index (dated February 4, 1881) noted that several chimneys in Imusdale, the ancestral town of Parkfield, were knocked down by the 1881 shocks. The account states that "at Mr. Parkinson's place it knocked down his chimney and I counted thirty quite large cracks in the ground running across the road; it also opened several springs of water on Mr. Parkison's ranch, one I noticed between his house and the road boiling up quite strong, and just back of the house, it started sulpher springs and just where those sulpher springs are the ground, about 20 paces square, is sunk about 4 feet." Charles Real of the California Division of Mines and Geology used the records of the Monterey County Assessor's Office to locate Mr. Parkinson's property, a few kilometers northwest of Parkfield, a location that spanned a zone of cracks observed after the 1966 Parkfield earthquake.
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