The morning was foggy yet calm with no chance of rain in the forecast.
Fog or not, the late Eleanor Gremillion needed to hang her wash to dry. So, she picked up her laundry basket, headed out and was hit on the shoulder by something familiar yet unfamiliar.
At least, unfamiliar on dry land, because when looking at the ground, she saw it was a fishΒ β a fish among many in her Marksville yard.Β Β
In fact, they were everywhere, raining down from the sky, ranging from bass to rainbow as small as 2 inches and as long as 9 inches. And they were pouring onto the city of Marksville, the Avoyelles Parish seat.
The peculiarity happened on Oct. 23, 1947, the same year when UFO sightings were rampant in central Louisiana, though no connections have been made between the two.
Still, the story piqued Cynthia Jardon's curiosity.
"I once heard a story about fish raining down on Marksville," the Alexandria reader said. "What was determined to be the source?"
This circa 1600 woodcut illustration from the Library of Congress' Rare Books Division shows fish raining down from the sky.
PROVIDED IMAGE BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Gremillion, president of the Marksville Chamber of Commerce, was the foremost expert on this subject, having been interviewed numerous times about it through the years. She not only kept up with opinions about what caused it but also experienced it.
However, Gremillion passed away in 2019.
"She's not with us anymore, but we still have some of her accounts of the story," said Wilbert Carmouche, executive director of the Avoyelles Tourism Commission. "We still get inquiries about this, and her interviews can still answer this question."
First, to answer Jardon's question, the National Weather Bureau in New Orleans credited a "tornado, dust devil or other updraft of wind" for picking up fish "from some pond, lake or stream and held them in the air until they were over Marksville."
"When the updraft ceased, the fish fell," the bureau told The Times-Picayune days after the incident.
Yet, even then, an air of mystery lingered as the bureau added that none of its workers reported no such tornadoes or updrafts in the Marksville area.
When referencing tornadoes, the weather bureau likely was referring to water spouts, which are rotating, funnel-shaped columns of air and mist connecting clouds to bodies of water. They're similar to tornadoes but often weaker, usually forming over oceans or lakes.
But again, only fog was reported on that October day.
"I'm the one who got the first fish," Gremillion said in an video interview with The Louisiana Brochure.
The interview is posted on YouTube at .
"(The fish) hit me right here on the left shoulder," Gremillion continued. "I was hanging clothes for my mother. It was October 1947."
The Avoyelles Parish Courthouse in Marksville. The courthouse stands on Main Street, where fish rained down from the sky on Oct. 23, 1947.
STAFF PHOTO BY ROBIN MILLER
Gremillion continued, holding her hands about 8 inches apart to show the size of the fish.
"It had to be either a nice sized catfish or a sac-a-lait, because when it hit the ground it flapped for awhile," she said. "So, I called my mother and sister and said, 'The fish are falling, but I don't know from where.' The people were running along Main Street, which was right in front of my house. Several professional men were going to work, and the fish were falling all around them β¦ we were two blocks from the courthouse."
When she looked down, she saw several fish flapping at her feet.Β
"It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced," she said.Β
Gremillion told her interviewer that the fish were raining in a line toward Mansura. She said she didn't feel like it was the "eighth wonder of the world," because she knew nearby Spring Bayou and several lake were filled with fish.
Gremillion remembered talking to people around town who gathered and fried the fish, all saying their finds were fresh. Meanwhile, she added, a film crew from England came to Marksville a month later to re-create the story by throwing fish at residents.
As for explanations, UFOs were never mentioned, though sightings were so prevalent in the area at that time that a national UFO conference was planned for Alexandria's Hotel Bentley. Gremillion told her interviewer that biologists sent to Marksville to study the situation concluded that it was a turbulent day on Spring Bayou and an eddy formed, picked up the fish and dropped them on Marksville.
She didn't say who sent the biologists. Still, their report counters that of the National Weather Bureau's report of no turbulent activity around Marksville that day, but both reports generally credit a waterspout for the phenomenon.
Now, Marksville wasn't the first or only place in the world where raining fish were documented. Tampico, Mexico, reported its own fish rain in 2017, followed by Queensland, Australia, in 1924 and Drumhirk, Ireland, in 1928. A raining fish fall is an annual event in Yoro, Honduras.
The only difference between these locations and Marksville is that each of these incidents were accompanied by rainfall. Marksville had none.Β Β Β
As a footnote to this story, the chamber of commerce, under Gremillion's direction, ordered 1,000 plastic fish that were tossed at revelers on the courthouse square on the 50th anniversary of the day the fish fell on Marksville.