Portageville: The Portage That Survived the Earthquakes

This corner of the Missouri Bootheel sits directly over the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the most dangerous fault system in eastern North America. When the New Madrid earthquakes struck in eighteen eleven and eighteen twelve, the largest quakes in recorded American history east of the Rockies, the early settlements here scattered. A lasting community took hold only later in the nineteenth century.

The town takes its name from Portage Bayou, a natural waterway that gave the place its name. The town that grew here was built on ground that had once been shaken to rubble.