Hi Chris. The location of the epicenter of the Fort Tejon earthquake is not known. As the name suggests, one idea is to locate it near the area of strongest reported shaking -- Fort Tejon. However, because there is evidence that foreshocks to the 1857 earthquake may have occurred in the Parkfield area, it is located on this map near the northwestern end of the surface rupture, just southeast of Parkfield, near Cholame.

(Note: locating it near Fort Tejon would also have caused interference on the map between this quake's symbol and that of the 1952 Kern County quake. Hence, for both these reasons, the Cholame location was chosen.)

Locating the exact location of a quake isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do, but so far this is the location being used. Take Care…Don in creepy town

• 1857 Quake