This Is The Single Craziest Thing You Never Knew Happened In South Carolina

The South Carolina area known as Tiller’s Ferry was created in the 1760s when Joseph Tiller received a land grant for 100 acres on the Lynches River. By the turn of the century, another Tiller was operating a ferry across the river and by 1830 he’d also built a toll bridge.

By all accounts the little crossroads at Tiller’s Ferry was growing quickly. In 1838 it even got its own post office. Things were moving along and the small community managed to survive the Civil War mostly unscathed.

Then, in 1901 the most unbelievable thing happened in Tiller’s Ferry. And in 1903, that post office…closed. What could cause a small community to stop in its tracks?

Flickr/Kyle Pearson

On Thursday afternoon, June 27, 1901, the most gargantuan storm blew into Tiller's Ferry. (Think normal South Carolina summer afternoon squall and multiply that by 10.)

And then....it happened.

Flickr/Jim Moore

It started raining FISH. They were falling from the sky.

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Flickr/_paVan_

And not just a few here and there. There were a lot.

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Consider the likely mindset of neighboring towns in 1901 and then ask yourself what outsiders REALLY thought about the stories they heard of Tiller's Crossing and the rain of fish. It's not like residents could pull out their cell phones and snap proof of the incident.

Do you think folks who didn't witness the event wondered if the residents of Tiller's Ferry were suddenly "afflicted in the head?" Could that be enough to make people stay away, to stop coming to Tiller's Ferry?

Today, although not a common occurrence, these "skyfalls" do happen. In more recent times, news outlets have published occasional accounts of birds suddenly falling en masse. But how do scientists explain FISH? After all, at least the birds are already UP THERE, right?

Flickr/Keeney

Wikipedia/NOAA

Natural History Magazine has a great article here titled Rains of Fishes, A compilation of the evidence that fishes occasionally fall from the sky. In the article, they theorize that the occasional "skyfall" of fish could have a scientific and plausible explanation.

In a turbulent storm that generates a water spout, the spout could ingest the fish, carry them an unknown distance and then drop them in another location.

We couldn’t find written evidence that in 1901 there were any plausible theories for why it rained fish in Tiller’s Ferry. One can only imagine what outsiders thought when they heard the firsthand accounts of what happened that Thursday in June of 1901.

Do you believe it rained fish in Tiller’s Ferry in 1901 or are you skeptical? We’d love to know what you think in our comments on Facebook.