New Madrid Fault Quake Near Missouri’s Hardest to Pronounce Town

This is one of the hardest earthquakes that Missouri has ever had for me to report on because it's happened near the one town that is the most difficult to spell and even harder to pronounce right.

While performing my duty as an earth sciences watchman (not really, but I love that title), I was checking the USGS earthquake page and noticed a Missouri quake in a non-typical place. Instead of the Missouri boot heel region, it was almost in the exact center of the bottom near the Missouri border. Notice the town that the USGS assigns to this earthquake.

The earthquake isn't that interesting and wasn't even big enough to be felt, but the town it happened near is. Koshkonong, Missouri is located so far south in Missouri it's nearly Arkansas. It's a tiny place with less than 200 residents according to the last census. The big question is how do you pronounce it? I've tried and it sounds like a train wreck of letters leaving my mouth and colliding with a nearby wall. Even the How to Pronounce website isn't quite sure. You say it as it appears, but those K's and N's really don't play well with that "SH".

As far as the New Madrid Fault quake goes, don't sweat it. Just a minor tremor, but in an admittedly unusual place. We get zillions in the Missouri boot heel, but not so much near Koshkonong. Did I even spell that right?