Blue John Remembers: The terrific scare that was thrown into the entire country by a very unusually brilliant display of the Aurora Borealis in the spring of 1918. And what is more , I’ll never forget it I was driving my Model T from Lebanon to Abingdon, on what is now Route 19. No words can describe the condition of that road at that time, ledges of rock, with mud holes between, no bridges, all creeks had to be forded, and impassible after a heavy rain. I was pulling the long grade from the river toward Greendale and about half way the old Ford became so hot the pistons stuck in the cylinders. I was stuck, squarely in the middle of the road, for a full hour. I cooled the motor by removing the hood and pouring cool water into the radiator from a nearby creek. But it was “ no soap”, I could not budge the crank, and there was no starter. So I was resigned to spending the night in the middle of the road. It was rapidly growing dark and I decided to twist her tail one more time. By this time she had cooled down and the motor caught and I climbed in and put her in low and reached the top of Walker’s Mountain. As I topped the mountain I was startled to see a bright glow on the horizon in the direction of Saltville. This was about the middle of March 1918 in the midst of World War I. I knew that soldiers were stationed in Saltville to guard the plant of the Mathieson Alkali Works aginst sabotage, and my first thought was that the Germans had succeeded in setting the plant on fire. I hurried into Abingdon, and asked the clerk at the hotel if he had heard anything of a fire at Saltville. He said no and asked the reason for my question. When I told him what I had seen he called Western Union but they had had no such report. Radio was not known then. With this negative report I joined several traveling salesmen I knew in a game of “ Set-Back” and everything went on quietly until about eleven o’clock when there was a cry of “ Fire, fire, fire” on the outside. Cards were scattered as we all rushed to the outside- to find the sky from horizon to zenith was an angry looking red. Several boys jumped into a car and drove to a high place to locate the fire. They soon returned and reported that the whole world was on fire, that the sky was red in every direction as far as the eye could see. There were immediate rumors that the Germans had spread poisonous gas that would destroy the country and others said it was the end of the world, and a good many prayers were said by those who had never prayed before. There was a dance in progress at the Belmont and the report of fire brought all the dancers streaming into the street. When one of the girls looked up and saw that blood-red sky, she was heard to moan, “Oh, Lordy, O Lordy, the world is coming to and end and here I am at a dance”. The world did not come to and end but that Aurora was seen from coast to coast, and many read in it signs of dreadful things to come, which never did.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 12:26:14 +0000
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