Hi Todd,

Parkfield is visited I am certain by thousands per year. Often there are no rooms at the Inn because there are only 6, so you need reservations early or a lot of luck. Boar hunting is very big in that area and people come all the way from Canada to hunt down there.

The residents of Parkfield got a lesson from the USGS when they started the seismic monitoring project. Everyone was taught preparedness, they were told about the alerts, how they would be delivered and what to expect. The residents have no real obvious fear of earthquakes. No one has ever died from a quake there and there has only been one injury, a broken ankle when the resident stepped in a squirrel hole.

On Feb 26th, 1999 they had a 4.2 in Parkfield and I thought it might be a precursor to a bigger quake so I took my kids on an adventure. Yep, hoping for all of us to catch the EQ experience. They loved it. Now we didn't get a quake on that trip, but what I did get was the account of what happened to three Canadians when they experienced the quake the morning before.

I've been there three times and Don numerous times as he's a lot closer. But both of us feel the calling to go back time and again. Its very, very peaceful and when you want to get away from it all, sleep like never before and eat terrifically good food, to Parkfield you should go.

The sad news is that the school teacher who used to do the nightly laser readings, Duane Hamann has retired and moved. He was the only person who gave seismic tours of the area and in his absense they are no more. Two years ago, Don and I and 11 others had the tour and at long last we message board friends met, had the tour and had lunch at the Parkfield Cafe. It was a terrific day.

I hope one day you'll be able to go and experience Parkfield and its charisma yourself.

Petra & Don

The wife of one of the men was in bed at the inn asleep and she said she thought she heard a freight train coming through and said the inn shook like crazy.

The men were out in a jeep in the riverbed hunting for boar and said at first they saw the trees shaking and then they said the ground was shaking so intently they thought it was going to overturn, so they jumped out. All of these people have been through EQ's before, but said none of them were as intense as this 4.2 event.