[FormerACLUmember]

Typical volcanic plume effects on the atmosphere. The copper colored sky in a dead givaway.

[farmfriend]

ping

[Mr. K]

How about a huge asteroid very close to the earth?

[The Great RJ]

It was Bush's fault, women and minorities were affected most etc.

[BenLurkin]

Hard to see the dark side is . . .

[Eska]

Last summer, we were surrounded by several burns each 30x40 miles across. When you first see that low coal black cloud approaching, blocking out all the sunlight; it does look like the devil himself. Couldn't see 10 feet and was like dusk at mid-day; also could not breath outside.

I can just imagine what went through their heads 200 years back.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Farmfriend.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[auggy]

Interesting!

[Larry Lucido]

"Either the Day of Judgment is at hand or it is not," he said. "If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I wish to be found in the line of my duty. Bring me candles."

Gotta love that Calvinist work ethic. :-)

[WestVirginiaRebel]

A volcano is also believed to have caused a nuclear winter effect which resulted in the infamous "Year Without A Summer" in 1816, aka "Eighteen hundred and froze to death."

[NonValueAdded]

History ping. Note to self: cross reference to gen. database

[JennysCool]

Thanks! I was talking about this with my Dad the other day and he wanted to read more about it!

[Trimegistus]

Halliburton did it! If the Republicans stay in power the country will be enveloped in darkness!

[stevio]

And an enterprising young Harvard student, Nathan Reid, recorded that by 11:00 A.M. a Mr. Wigglesworth couldn't read a Bible when standing by the window.

Mr. Wigglesworth couldn't then, but wouldn't be allowed to now.

[topsail]

I would say that a volcano eruption is the probable cause.

The story is almost the same as the event that I, and tens of thousands of others, experienced in June of 1991 when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines. Even the time of day is similar.

The first eruption, a small one, occurred on Wednesday around noon. It was beautiful, a light colored, mushroom shaped cloud contrasting with a bright blue sky. Everyone came outside to see it. It soon drifted away and was considered to be a good show !

The next eruption, somewhat larger, occurred on Friday afternoon. After work I had gone to the barrio for a little recreation (San Miguel beer & billiards) and noticed that it was getting dark earlier than usual. I went to the door and saw that the sky was overcast and rain had begun to fall. There was a typhoon to the east of us so this weather was somewhat normal for the situation. I did decide that I should get myself home before the weather became worse. When I went outside to my car I found that the rain had become something else, what was falling from the sky, then, was mud. The rain from the typhoon was mixing with the volcanic ash in the air and coming to earth as mud with about the same consistency as wet cement. So heavy that the windshield wipers could not remove it, and I had to drive home with my head and left arm and shoulder out the window in order to see. When I arrived home my wife said that, covered with grey mud, I looked like a statue.

Next morning, Saturday, at work we had scheduled lifting some heavy equipment with a crane but decided to postpone it because of the light covering of slippery wet ash. Around 9am as I headed up the hills toward home I saw a black cloud coming over the small mountains toward our location. I made it home just as the cloud arrived. Once inside the house, I could feel earth quaking and the mud ,again, began to fall from the sky. By noon time everywhere was as dark as midnite, the sky was filled with thunder and balls of fire as the ash cloud created it's own weather system. The frequent earth quakes, accompanied by rumblings in the earth and the thunder and balls of fire in the sky and the rain of mud continued throughout Saturday night and into early Sunday morning.

Sometime before scheduled sunrise the eruption ceased and Sunday morning was relatively bright with no dark clouds, and no rain, and only an occasional tremor. The thing I noticed right away was the silence. No sounds of civilization. No sounds of cars, or machines of any kind, no one talking, no radio or TV, No birds singing. No electricity or water. Only the occasional sound of a breaking tree limb caused by the weight of the heavy mud that had coated everything.

Others who were there, at that time, had to endure much more traumatic circumstances than I and they could tell a much more interesting recap of this event.

Could a volcanic eruption have caused the events in the posted story? Definitely, YES!

[King Prout]

while I tend to agree that volcanic eruption is the likeliest explanation, I think the author is too glibly dismissive of meteorologic possibilities.

the bizarre weather I witnessed in New Orleans on 03 March 1990 comes to mind.

[tortoise]

Reminds me of 1980, living in eastern Washington. We lived in the sticks, and didn't know that the volcano had erupted. You had to experience to believe it; a cloudly of inky blackness slowly crept from the west blotting out every speck of light. Due to the atmospheric effects, the RF reception dropped out and so we lost radio and TV where we were. People were standing in the streets of my small town wondering just what the hell was going on -- it was like watching the end of the world.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Good read, volcano seems apropos.

[U S Army EOD]

Three questions:

1. When was the super earth quake at the head of the Mississippi? It happend around that time didn't it?

2. Didn't those people drink a lot back then.

3. When did the Kennedy's show up in that area?

[ruoflaw]

I am glad that people kept journals back then. Thanks for posting such an interesting mystery.