Charleston: "Of ghosts and earthquakes..."

(click on pics to enlarge)

Think 'earthquake' and you think California, the San Andreas Fault, maybe the Pacific "Ring of Fire". But you don't think Charleston, SC in the sleepy, flat Southeast coast well away from mountains and geologic/tectonic plate boundaries.

Just short of 10pm on August 31, 1886, a rare and significant quake struck the bustling harbor city, estimated to have been between 6.6 and 7.3 on the Richter scale. Damage was extensive, and worsened by the sandy soil which underwent liquefaction, making some areas instant quicksand.

Isoseismal map of 1886 Charleston earthquake
(basically how far out tremors reached and at what intensity)

I've included some post-quake images I ran across...interesting to note that some buildings withstood well the tremors, while others crumbled from inferior masonry techniques. The epicenter was very close to Charleston, with effects felt far and wide in the eastern U.S.

Medical College of SC

Hayne Street

Goose Creek church

Market Street

St. Michael's church (note cracks on side)

Police station, Broad and Meeting Streets

Today, you can see examples of how some buildings were saved from demolition by employing gargantuan bolts...metal rods extended through a house and literally bolted on the outside, as seen below:

And what would Charleston be without talking about its 'haints', as country folks call 'em. Ghosts. More hauntings and sightings around Charleston than flies on a Serengeti Wildebeest (how's that for random?).

First, do you know the difference between a 'cemetery' and a 'graveyard'?

If a church yard was used for burial, it became a 'graveyard'. If bodies were interred on property not attached to a church property, it was considered a 'cemetery'. I suppose some consider this a dead issue...

Circular Congregational Church and graveyard
(est. 1681, rebuilt in 1891 )

Oldest graves date back to 1695 at 'above' church
(repositioned graves made for packed headstones)

The older headstones used skulls with angel wings
(known as 'Death Angels')

Slightly more contemporary designs
made them more alien-like...

From the skull motif, they evolved
into cartoonish human forms...

Slowly the figures became more 'truthful'...

Story has it that this headstone of a former church minister was one of the first to have a realistically carved version of the deceased..note the hourglass (left) representing our human life, and the skull (right) still representing the Death Angel....

Even though I took part in a 10pm 'ghost walk' tour one night, no apparition appeared in front of the 20 or so tour groups walking around trying to find a quiet space to parlay ghostly tales...and wouldn't you know it the very next morning I was walking down a local street and just happened to snap a quick picture, barely capturing the fleeting banshee as it appeared...!

BOO!!!!

Now, go enjoy a BOO-tiful spring day!