Almost 130 years ago, the impact of a great earthquake shook the state was captured by this Aug. 31, 1886, photo by J.A. Palmer of Aiken, S.C. According to the South Caroliniana Library, a S.C. Railway company train was washed from its track by a four-foot high wall of water that burst a mill dam near Aiken after the earthquake. “The train’s black fireman, a Mr. Ivie, died in the wreck. Another train owned by the same company, was washed from the track near Horse Creek in Aiken County closer to Augusta, GA., when a mill-dam there also fractured because of the earthquake and sent an eight-foot-high wave of water surging against the locomotive, tender, and its train cars.” You can see several other earthquake-related photos through the library’s archives.
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