The Great Charleston Earthquake, 1886
Most people think of the West Coast when they think of earthquakes in the United States. But a new exhibit points out that the second biggest quake in U.S. history occurred right here in South Carolina.
The Great Charleston Earthquake, 1886 tells the story of the monster temblor that hit Charleston at 9:51 p.m. Aug. 31, 1886.
More than 100 people were killed, and almost every building in Charleston was damaged. The effects of the quake were felt as far north as Maine (where a ship’s captain saw a “black wall” rising on the water that lifted the schooner to a “fantastic height” and broke its mast), as far west as Iowa (where the audience in a Dubuque opera house stampeded, thinking the building was about to fall), and south to Louisiana.
The reaction caused by such an extraordinary event was predictable. A man running out of a bar was crushed by a block of sandstone. People ran through the streets naked or in their nightclothes, bare feet cut by broken glass and brick shards. Fires raged across the city.
In the exhibit, co-produced with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, museum guests will see photographs of the destruction and simulate quakes of various strengths with the museum’s large shake table. A curious South Carolina-made machine known as the “Ray Charged Copper Battery,” —advertised as being capable of capturing and storing earthquake rays for healing energy—also is on display.
The Great Charleston Earthquake 1886 can be seen in the museum’s 401 Gallery through late April.