A volcano in Chimney Rock, North Carolina?
That’s what locals feared when thunderous booms and rolling tremors erupted from the previously silent Bald Mountain.
In February 1874, families living near Chimney Rock began hearing deep, rolling booms that echoed throughout the valley. At times, the booms sounded like distant thunder. Other times, sharp, violent cracking sounds rose from the earth. The noises were so bad families fled from their cabins in terror.
“Last night, there was a succession of terrific shocks on the sides of Bald Mountain, accompanied by a sharp thunder storm,” a correspondent from The New York Herald wrote. “Simultaneously with the thunder, quick and loud reports could be heard from the mountain sides.”
As the booming sounds dragged on for days, fear spread throughout the community. Prayer meetings filled churches, schoolhouses, and private homes with preachers warning congregations to prepare their souls for end times.
Soon, news of the phenomenon traveled beyond western North Carolina, with accounts appearing in major newspapers like Harper’s Weekly, The New York Herald, and the New York Tribune.
The intermittent booming when on for months, and the mountain seemed to breathe or shift all the while. Scientists and surveyors searched for cracks, heat, smoke, or any sign of molten rock, but found no signs of a volcano.
“The shaking of the earth was quite perceptible, and it was almost impossible to sleep. As yet, no one has been able to give any definite account of the source of the convulsion,” The New York Herald’s correspondent reported.
The tremors and booms eventually subsided, but the event left its mark on the community, and Bald Mountain itself. Today, we call it Rumbling Bald.
Sources:
Rumbling Bald Volcano, June 25, 1933, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Is Bald Mountain a Volcano?, Mach 26, 1874, The People’s Press (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
