40TH ANNUAL REELFOOT LAKE ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL

40TH ANNUAL REELFOOT LAKE ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL

Sept. 30 to Oct. 2

I will be signing the cookbook “Country Goodness Recipes of Tennessee Celebrities" at the Bi-Centennial Committee’s booth (NO 61) as a fundraiser for them.

Working with the state parks and local authorities, the festival has grown since 1971 to an estimated crowd of over 45,000 people & 300 different vendors in 2010 The festival is always held on the first weekend with an October date in it. There is free entertainment with artists from the area. People come and sit in the shade to enjoy old time string music and singing.

Come enjoy the festival and soak up on the local flavor as well. Great restaurants, great fishing, beautiful scenery with nature walks along the lake; we look forward to sharing it with you.

Celebrating 200 Years of Reelfoot Lake

1811/1812 -- 2011/2012

..."On the 16th of December, 1811, about two o'clock, a.m., we were visited by a violent shock of an earthquake," writes Eliza Bryan, a resident of the area at the time. The quakes continued, almost daily, until February 7, 1812, when the most violent of all occurred. In Eliza's words, "At first the Mississippi seemed to recede from its banks, and its waters gathering up like a mountain...then rising fifteen to twenty feet...and expanding, as it were, at the same moment, the banks were overflowed with the retrograde current, rapid as a torrent...the river falling immediately, as rapid as it had risen...and lately it has been discovered that a lake was formed on the opposite side of the Mississippi, in the Indian country."1

This is how Reelfoot Lake was formed, a natural phenomenon, a cypress forest covered with water from the mighty Mississippi River when it flowed backwards for a time.
The complete eyewitness account by Eliza Bryan can be found on the New Madrid Earthquake website.

1 From "Lorenzo Dow's Journal," Published by Joshua Martin, Printed by John B. Wolff, 1849