THE WORLD DISCOVERED THRE REGION IN 1811

The instinct inborn in animals told them something serious was about to happen, and all that day of Dec. 15, 1811, they reacted in a strange manner. Their owners were at a loss to understand them, and it was only after the Earth started shaking violently early the morning of Dec. 16, that they realized the animals had been forewarned.

The shaking was accompanied with an offensive smell of sulfur and a roaring sound that deafened the ears.

The shocks were felt from New Madrid north and south along the Mississippi River in every town and settlement. People continued to talk about the night the Earth became violent and they thought the world was ending. Many families decided it had not been wise to come to this area, where land was being offered cheap, if the land rose and fell as it did that night.

In New Madrid people rushed from their log houses into the streets and vowed they would move away the next day. Some did begin to pack and move, but wherever they went the land kept moving. The situation did not improve nor did the ground stop shaking until May 1812. Even then, frequent shocks continued for months. It seemed the earthquakes would not stop.

The disturbance was studied. Scientists since 1811 have tried to reason why it all started so suddenly and why it was so far reaching.

The earthquake of New Madrid that was felt throughout the Mississippi Valley with dire consequences has been the subject of hundreds of articles, books and stories.

It awakened the country to the Mississippi River Valley settlements that until then had been a story about small settlements starting along a frontier west of the Big River, where land could be obtained free or comparatively free with the promise given to improve or show improvement within a year's time.

Long after that frightening night of Dec. 16, 1811, when families gathered, their favorite subject was what they experienced when the earthquake occurred.

One account said: "The cats were so nervous all day, and so were the dogs. The cows stood in groups huddled and lowing. Horses ran wildly up and down the field; even birds acted strangely and snakes came out of hibernation and laid on the ground, in such numbers it was frightening."

Every family had a story to tell, and moving about from town to town they spread their tales. A doctor in New Madrid tried to keep his medicine bottles from falling off the shelf because medicine was hard to acquire, and was expensive. But his attempts were useless; the bottles fell and most of them broke.

Trees of great size snapped as though they were twigs. Chasms and fissures were formed and were covered with white sand that was blown from deep within the Earth with a black water that looked like melted coal.

The Mississippi rose and fell in waves and flowed backwards for a distance. Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee was formed. It was thought the base of the river rose and forced the water backwards, forming the lake and turning lowlands into swamps that remain today. Every day, every year brought new stories about the quake.

We can imagine how the residents of Southeast Missouri felt that night because in 1990 Dr. Iben Browning aroused the entire country with his warning that an earthquake was certain to occur Dec. 2 or 30. Residents were forewarned to pack supplies of food, clothing, and medical supplies, and be prepared because the quake might be of greater magnitude than the one that began in 1811. Almost everyone paid attention to the warning, but the quake did not happen. The Browning warning again awakened the world to the New Madrid Fault.

Quakes that occur today are gaged with the earthquake of 1811, but their magnitudes are measured with the Richter scale.

The 1811-1812 quake will never be forgotten. It introduced New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis to the world. They are no longer small frontier spots on a river chart, but places of importance on a world map with an important story to tell about the strange phenomenon of the 1811-1812 earthquake.