How Gome Rumbling Bald
Is Called Rumbling Bald
By WILLIAM S. POWELL
North Carolina once almost had a
volcano which showed promising signs
of rivaling the famed Mount Etna
and Vesuvius. But it never quite ma¬
terialized. First word of strange goings-
on within Bald Mountain on the Mc-
Dowell-Rutherford county line reached
the outside world early in February,
1874. One Major Bender, locally
famous as a moonshiner, abandoned
his still in a cave on the mountain
when he detected internal rumblings
like nothing he had ever heard before.
His face was livid with terror, a
witness reported, when he rushed into
the nearest community seeking a reve¬
nue officer so that he could confess
his transgressions against the govern¬
ment. He fully expected to be blown
to bits by the volcano, and he must
make peace with the world before fac¬
ing his Maker.
For weeks following the first tremors
of February 10. there were numerous
wild stories passed along from neighbor
to neighbor. Doubtless many of them
took on added horror in the repeating.
But there was no doubt that the earth
was rumbling with a sound like artil¬
lery. window shutters rattled, crockery
was shaken off shelves, ladders lean¬
ing against buildings fell to the ground.
A rock on Bald Mountain weighing
over thirty tons was split in two, and
there were witnesses who saw vapor
issuing from its sides. Cattle abandoned
their usual ranges on the slopes of the
mountain.
So certain were the residents of the
area that a volcano was about to blow
that they must have let their imagina¬
tions run wild. Those who were bold
enough to venture near the peak re¬
ported seeing an area of more than
an acre which was sunken in. Smoke
was rising from this ground.
One frightened farmer sold his horse
and two cows for S50 so that he could
pay off his debts. It would never do
to have to face St. Peter while any
debts on earth remained unpaid.
In the first anxious days George Lo¬
gan, a Negro preacher, responded to
the picas of numerous worldly men
and women. He preached and prayed
for them, and more than fifty terror-
stricken whites were converted on the
spot. On March 3 a Rev. Mr. Lumly,
Bold Mountoin in McDowell County wos reeled
by a series ol corthquoles in the spring of 1874.
Rumors thot
о
volcano wos obout to erupt focused
the ottention of the world on this remote spot.
This drawing by A. Wordswoth Thompson op-
peered in the April II, 1874, issue of "Horper's
Weekly."
Methodist minister in charge of the
Broad River Mission, arrived to hold
services. Men, women, and children,
in a "most terrible state of fear,
despair, and penitence” flocked to
hear the comforting words of the
preacher. So great were the crowds
that the minister barely had room to
stand. Men climbed the walls and sat
on the rafters above the crowd. For
nearly three weeks, a witness related,
“no attention was given to labor or
property."
Newspapers all over the country
printed lengthy accounts of the events
in this remote area. The New York
Herald sent a correspondent down and
his dispatches not only recorded the
plight of the hapless citizens of the
Bald Mountain area, but they also sug¬
gest the difficulties of a newspaper
reporter in those days. Horses were
hard to come by, and guides were non¬
existent. The New York reporter was
forced to make his way alone along the
trembling ground in his attempts to
learn the truth.
Professor Warren Du Pre of Wof¬
ford College. Spartanburg, S. C.. and
McKcnn Johnstone, a civil engineer,
went into the vicinity on March 18.
It is not clear whether Thomas L.
1 5
From this cobin on Ihc side of 8ald Mountoin
о
terrified fomily rushes out to sec whether the
•oleono hos erupted. Since the ortist neglected to drew on overflow to the wotcr trough we ossume
thot he didn't linger long enough to gothcr oil the focts ond to learn thot the disturbance wo» only
о
series of mild earthquakes.
THE STATE. October 14. 1961
