In the early hours of December 16, 1811, the residents of New Madrid, a Mississippi River town once part of the Louisiana Territory, rushed from their homes as the ground rolled beneath their feet. Trees were uprooted and thrown to the ground. Huge chasms opened in the earth, and the Mississippi River ran backward! Somewhere deep beneath what is now New Madrid, Missouri, a fault slipped resulting in a series of powerful earthquakes that killed many dozens of people, destroyed thousands of acres of virgin forest, and was felt across one million square miles.

These earthquakes were so powerful that Church bells rang in Boston 1300 miles away.  In the White House, over 800 miles away, President James Madison claimed he felt the earth quiver several times during the winter of 1811-1812.   He wrote to Thomas Jefferson: “The re-iteration of earthquakes continues … There was one here this morning at 5 or 6 minutes after 4 o’clock. It was rather stronger than any preceding one, and lasted several minutes …” 

Madison had a reason to be concerned. From December 16, 1811 through March of 1812, thousands of earthquakes and aftershocks hit the recently acquired Louisiana Territory.  These are among the largest tremors ever recorded in the United States coming in at an estimated 8.8 on the not yet developed Richter Scale. Each of the three largest quakes lasted over three minutes, and the tremors continued for decades.

On February 7, 1812, after a huge earthquake, boatmen reported that the Mississippi actually ran backwards for several hours. The force of the land upheaval 15 miles south of New Madrid created Reelfoot Lake, drowned the inhabitants of an Indian village; turned the river against itself to flow backwards; devastated thousands of acres of virgin forest; and created two temporary waterfalls in the Mississippi.   All around the territory (from Pittsburg to the Missouri River and as far south as New Orlean), people discovered huge crevices that would open up during an earthquake and swallow trees, buildings, and even people.  Some earthquake fissures were as long as five miles.  Just south of New Madrid at Hayti, sand dunes and sand bars in the river seemed to boil as the earth shook.  Golf ball sized tar balls erupted from theses “sand boils” and left the ground covered with tar.  Lights flashed from the ground, caused by quartz crystals being squeezed. The skies turned so dark during earthquakes that lighted lamps didn’t help. Sounds of distant thunder and loud explosions accompanied the earthquakes.  People were genuinely concerned that the world was about to end.

it wasn’t until January of 1814 that territorial governor William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, had an opportunity to address the cumulative damage from the earthquakes and he found that the quake virtually destroyed New Madrid and the spring floods finished the job.  The devastation was not limited to the epicenter.  Devastation and ruin spread from central Illinois all the way south to Arkansas Post.  Between 1811 and 1814 an estimated 6000 earthquakes shook the region with varying severity.  The culmination of these quakes had a devastating impact on agriculture, trade and settlement in the entire Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi valleys. 

Clark, George Bullitt and Samuel Hammond, implored Congress to send aid.  Eventually, on February 17, 1815, Congress approved $50,000 for the New Madrid Relief Act—making it the first disaster relief of its kind in the United States. The act provided that anyone who lost land during the earthquake could receive a land certificate redeemable for between 160 and 640 ‘like acres’ of public land elsewhere in Missouri.  At the time, passage of this bill was an unprecedented move for the federal government. Prior to New Madrid, the government had only lent a hand once before, temporarily suspending duties owed to the federal government by merchants after a fire in 1802 destroyed the town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Congress knew, however, that they must act for the local Indians were on the warpath.

The earthquakes at New Madrid were preceded by the appearance of a great comet.  This comet was reported to have been brightest during the earthquakes and Tecumseh, the Shawnee Indian leader whose name meant “Shooting Star,” was busy organizing a confederation of Indian tribes to oppose the takeover of the Northwest and Louisiana Territories.  His brother, a religious leader called “The Prophet,” had gained fame when he foretold the total eclipse of the sun on June 16, 1806 and now they were calling for war following the appearance of the comet and the great earthquakes (that they argued were a consequence).

William Henry Harrison was worried about The Prophet’s popularity and met Tecumseh’s warriors at the junction of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers in northern Indiana with a small army. Governor Harrison launched a pre-emptive attack on the Indians on November 6, 1811, initiating what will be known as “Tecumseh’s War” then the earthquakes began.  Tecumseh’s followers lost the Battle of Tippecanoe, but they continued to fight as allies of the British during the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. Tecumseh was killed in battle in Canada in 1813. 

In the entire history of the United States, no other earthquakes have lasted so long or produced so much evidence of damage as the New Madrid earthquakes.

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