Four earthquakes shook Jackson Hole in the early morning hours Wednesday.

The first temblor at 12:57 a.m. measured 5.0 on the Richter scale, the largest recorded in Teton County history, according to the Wyoming State Geological Society. It was followed by four aftershocks, all centered about 7 miles east of Kelly in the Gros Ventre Range.

Seth Clearman, resident manager of the Red Rock Ranch, near the epicenter of the quake, said the flurry of quakes lasted until about 6:30 a.m.

"The first thing I thought was, 'Where's my kid and cover his head,'" Clearman said. "Books fell off the bookshelves, picture frames came off the wall. Was I scared? No. I was nervous."

He said the quake was bigger than usual and lasted longer, but he knew what it was.

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations and the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center reported the quake was centered east of Kelly and about 3 miles southeast of Lower Slide Lake in the Gros Ventre River valley.

Wednesday's earthquakes come after smaller temblors were reported in Jackson on Dec. 30 and near Newcastle on Sunday.

Wednesday's earthquake in Teton County did not occur on the Teton fault, which is capable of generating a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, according to the USGS.

Jackson resident Tat Maxwell said the first earthquake lasted five or six seconds and started her dogs barking. Aftershocks, she said, awoke her younger children.

"It feels like a really big truck just rambled by on the road next to you, although there are no roads next to you. It's weird. It's eerie," she said.

USGS reported a magnitude 3.7 earthquake occurred at 1:27 a.m., a magnitude 4.1 earthquake occurred at 1:44 a.m., and a magnitude 4.0 earthquake occurred at 2:23 a.m. Wednesday.

Earthquakes are common in Teton County, though much less common in northeastern Wyoming.

Wednesday's earthquakes were not noticeable in Yellowstone National Park, 70 miles north of the epicenter, although more sensitive seismic records have not yet been consulted, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said.

Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said many park employees felt the quake, but that no damage to park buildings or property, or of avalanches triggered by the quake, had been reported.

Bob Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah, said people reported feeling Wednesday's quake as far from the epicenter as Cody, Pocatello, Idaho, and southwestern Wyoming. He said earthquakes in the Gros Ventre Range are not uncommon.

As recently as Dec. 30, an earthquake with a magnitude 3.5 occurred in the same area at 11:16 p.m.

In 1925, small earthquakes were reported to have occurred in the same general area as the Wednesday morning quakes and are thought to have played a role in the huge landslide that created Landslide Lake and redirected the Gros Ventre River, according to the Wyoming State Geological Society.

Smith, an expert on seismic activity in Yellowstone, said it is unclear how activity in one area might affect seismic activity on other nearby faults. But he said it does not appear that increased heat and geothermal activity in the Norris Basin this summer is related to tectonic or magma activity, but may instead be due to the drought and dropping water tables.

Newcastle gets a quake, too

On Sunday, residents near Newcastle reported an earthquake that registered 2.1 on the Richter scale just before 8 p.m. Earthquakes are much more unusual in northeastern Wyoming than in northwestern Wyoming, according to state records.

Sharon Fridley said she felt the quake and her husband heard it on their ranch, known locally as the Old Snedecker Place, which has a fenceline on the Wyoming stateline.

"We were just sitting in the living room and I felt the floor start vibrating and rumbling; all the windows started rattling. It lasted for several seconds, and I looked at my husband and we just said, 'What was that?'"

The Fridleys are official weather reporters for western Custer County in South Dakota, so Sharon Fridley called the weather service to report that she thought there'd been an earthquake.

She said the weather service later confirmed the magnitude of the quake and said it was centered 7 miles west of Jewel Cave, near the Wyoming state line.

"We've experienced here on this ranch just about everything now," Sharon Fridley said. "Fires last summer, tornadoes, floods and now an earthquake."

Residents living 15 miles south and west of Newcastle felt the quake as well.

Star-Tribune correspondent Whitney Royster contributed to this report.