Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at some devastating natural disasters that hit the United States so long ago that some of them have been nearly forgotten. 

HIGH MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKES IN THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

Dates: December 16th, 1811 … January 23rd, 1812 and February 7th, 1812

Location: Sparsely inhabited sections of Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio

The Events: In New Madrid, MO, residents were literally shaken from their beds by the earthquake at roughly 2:00AM on December 16th. Virtually none of them had ever experienced an earthquake before, but had heard Shawnee legends about one of their gods “stamping their feet hard enough to rend the ground asunder.”

A million-square mile area shook intensely on that day as well as January 23rd and February 7th, 1812. Cincinnati, OH, Louisville, KY and Saint Louis, MO reported falling chimneys and shattered windows. Across multiple states the ground rose and fell, with sinks…