Notes

In her book On the Banks of Plum Creek, Laura Ingalls Wilder described a plague of grasshoppers. These insects swept over her family’s homestead when she was a child. She watched the insects approaching like a dark cloud. She saw them land on everything in sight. She felt them crawling on her skin. She heard their endless chewing. And she experienced the hard times that followed the loss of her family’s whole wheat crop. What young Laura Ingalls did not know was that those insects (called Rocky Mountain locusts) devoured more than just her own corner of Minnesota. They swarmed across vast portions of North America. This was not the first time it happened, either.

In 1874, the grasshoppers Wilder wrote about arrived during a bad drought. Hot, rainless weather meant farmers were already struggling. Losing their remaining crops was a terrible blow. Many new settlers had not had time to store up food for the winter. Some who had been there longer were expecting to finally produce more than they needed to live. They were counting on selling the extra crops for badly needed cash. The grasshopper plague meant starting all over again.

The story gets worse. The insects polluted water supplies. They gave a bad taste to eggs and meat from chickens that ate them. Worst of all,the grasshoppers laid millions of eggs.The eggs could bring a new plague in the spring.

People worked hard to disrupt the grasshopper attack. They built smoky fires around their fields. They netted bugs by the hundreds. They plowed eggs up to the surface to freeze. None of these strategies worked very well. They had a little success with “hopper dozers.” These wide metal scoops held oil or tar that trapped insects as the dozer was dragged across a field. Burning the fields also helped, but fire brought its own dangers. The only real choice was to wait and hope.

For some settlers, the grasshoppers destroyed their spirits as well as their crops. They gave up and moved away. But many others kept trying. Some, like Pa Ingalls, left to go earn money elsewhere, then returned. Others held on, aided by relief efforts that brought in money, food, seeds, and supplies. Over time, those who stayed planted more fields. They planted different kinds of crops. They also built up reserves of food and grain. These actions gave some protection against getting wiped out again. Still, farmers anxiously watched any odd cloud coming from the west. They feared the return of the ravenous invaders that had wrecked so many lives.