I’d heard of New Madrid many occasions however it took an American Queen riverboat cease within the Missouri city to listen to the entire story.
The river city’s title is tied ceaselessly to tragedy. New Madrid was on the epicenter of a seismic shift 200 years in the past so violent that the Mississippi River appeared to run upstream.
To study extra about earthquakes, the New Madrid Historical Museum is a superb place to start out. An enchanting merchandise on show from the earthquake is Alfred the petrified snake. The snake was dug up from the Lilbourn Indian mound greater than half a century in the past. Since the snake was coiled and able to strike, it’s thought the snake might have been there for the reason that earthquake.
Alfred the petrified snake.
Be certain to stroll throughout the road from the museum and get your image taken on the New Madrid Fault Line.
Popular photograph spot.
Founded in 1789 and named for Madrid, Spain, the city was simply an outpost when greater than 1,000 earthquakes struck the area throughout the winter of 1811-1812. The strongest quake measured 8.0 on the Richter Scale and reportedly rang church bells as far-off as Boston and Toronto.
The earthquake continues to be essentially the most highly effective ever to strike the United States exterior of the West Coast.
8 Night – Memphis to St. Louis – American Queen
The first Mississippi River steamboat, the New Orleans, simply occurred to be within the space throughout her maiden voyage from Pittsburgh to her namesake metropolis. Passengers onboard reported an odd roar, boiling white waters, geysers of mud capturing out of fields, collapsing riverbanks and whole timber floating down the river.
The floor shifted so violently that parts of the Mississippi River itself close to New Madrid truly flowed north briefly because the slabs of earth gyrated and settled.
The earthquake that struck on Feb. 7, 1812, not solely utterly destroyed New Madrid, it additionally badly broken homes and collapsed chimneys as far-off as St. Louis. In Kentucky Bend, a phenomenon often called uplift created momentary waterfalls.
Some good did come from the earthquakes, nevertheless. Blocked streams backed up and finally created the fishing paradise of Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee.
The quake additionally helped solved an area crime. Lilburn and Isham Lewis murdered a person named George Lewis on Dec. 15, 1811. The two murderers hid the physique in a chimney.
Without a physique, there could possibly be no prices. Six weeks later, the tremors precipitated the chimney to crumble, revealing the grotesque proof.
Mississippi River in New Madrid at document low however American Queen nonetheless in a position to dock.
Photos by Jackie Sheckler Finch
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8 Night – Memphis to St. Louis – American Queen (cruisecompete.com)
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