Crowley's Ridge is a geographical phenomenon probably independent from the New Madrid fault. The New Madrid fault probably lies very deep down in the earth. The famous 1812 eathquake of New Madrid rang church bells in Boston and New York. (Now that's one powerful tremor!) For the rest of you readers who are wondering what Crowley's Ridge is: Most of Eastern Arkansas is pancake flat. If the Mississipi River rose a few inches in height, it would spread out miles wide across Eastern Arkansas. But running roughly North and South in Arkansas is this ridge of high ground, a hill maybe fifty to one-hundred feet high, a mile or two wide, and many many miles long. It's the only hill for miles around. On the crest of the hill lies Jonesboro, Ark., a city famous recently for reasons it would rather forget.

--Charlie Baum, your folkie geographer and mapfreak

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