Synaptic Snaps, Crackles & Pops

Nobody's fault [30 DBC entry]

30DBC November 14 Prompt: A Mystery Genre prompt tonight. You are researching your genealogy and find that ancestors from different generations and different countries made visits to the same remote place. Tell us about this remote place. Why were your ancestors going there?


It was remote back then, it's virtually impossible to get to the actual location now. Ancestors from the European Continent—France, mainly—emigrated to the newly-founded United States and, as time went on, some of them migrated westward. They settled just across the Mississippi River, in the settlement of New Madrid in what was then the territory of Spanish Louisiana (although it was later traded back to France). Reluctant to give up their U.S. citizenship—a requirement under Spanish rule—they moved back across the Mississippi to a place about fifteen miles southeast of the settlement.

When the Louisiana Purchase was consummated in 1803, they were thrilled to now find themselves almost in the middle of the country. They were certain America would continue to expand westward, and in this they were entirely correct; sadly, they would not live to see much of it. A series of earthquakes between 1811-1812 along what are now known as the New Madrid and Reelfoot faults devastated the area; indeed, the first major shock in December 1811 woke people in New York City and Washington, D.C. The end came on February 7, 1812, when an area east of the Tiptonville, TN dome subsided, allowing the waters of the Mississippi to rush in, thereby creating Reelfoot Lake. The homestead disappeared under the waters.

The original location now lies about a half-mile off-shore, almost directly east from where Tennessee State Route 21E turns south-southeast to follow the shoreline. Relatives able to visit the area have come to pay their respects for years. The earliest visitors traveled the same river that took the lives of their relatives and ancestors, while more recent visits generally set out from Memphis along US Highway 51.