Tennessee’s strangest lake was born in an earthquake and now ancient cypress trees grow out of it

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Samburg’s 200 residents share it all

Samburg, Tennessee, sits in the far northwest corner of the state, right on the eastern shore of Reelfoot Lake. About 200 people live here on just 445 acres.

It is the only town directly on the lake, and the lake itself is the only large naturally formed body of water in the whole state. Reelfoot stretches across 15,000 acres and holds a National Natural Landmark designation.

The town is small, but what sits at its edge is anything but.

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The earthquakes that made the Mississippi flow backward

In the winter of 1811 to 1812, the New Madrid earthquakes tore through this corner of Tennessee with magnitudes above 7. People felt the shaking as far away as Quebec, Canada…

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