“In August 1841, near Lebanon, Tennessee, two enslaved field hands heard rain on the tobacco leaves and found it red. It was not the only time. This map plots every report I have been able to source of blood or flesh falling from American skies between 1708 and 1902, drawn from newspapers, letters and scientific journals. Click any drop for the account in its own words. The question was never what fell. It was always animal matter. The question was how it got there, and why so many people needed it not to have happened.”

As featured in Popular Science, “In 1841, flesh and blood rained down in Tennessee” (October 30, 2026).