Winters Earthquake Festival  August 23, 2013 -- It's Our Fault and We're Proud of It!

The Winters Earthquake Festival is a family event commemorating the rise of the City of Winters from a devastating local earthquake in 1892.

This August will be the 21st Winters Earthquake Festival. Come for great food and wares, rocking music and dance and a general hullabaloo on Main Street. There is entertainment all evening, beginning with children’s performances and continuing with a live band and street dancing. There are many wonderful food booths and street vendors as well as bounce houses and other fun things for kids to do. “It’s our fault and we’re proud of it!” Location: Downtown Winters – On Main Street between Railroad Avenue and First Street Contact: Winters Visitors Center/Chamber of Commerce – 530-795-2329 Website: visitwinters.com

Vacaville's night watchman, S. N. Bettis, was walking down Main Street at 2:50 a.m., lantern in hand, when "his attention was attracted by a rumbling sound coming from the hills west of town. The noise resembled distant thunder or the roaring of water which had suddenly been let loose by the bursting of huge dam gates. Bettis stood still and listened a few seconds, while the noise increased to a roar and the ground beneath his feet seemed to heave up . . . 'I felt as if I was on the deck of a vessel during a heavy storm, and I put my hands to the ground to prevent myself from falling on my face . . . After that brick walls and chimneys began to fall all around and the noise for a minute or so was deafening' " (Perrine, 1893, p. 20).