29:
193:
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see millions in the air. They looked like snowflakes." Nebraska historian
Addison E. Sheldon described the scene: "In a clear, hot July day a haze came over the sun. The haze deepened into a gray cloud. Suddenly the cloud resolved itself into billions of gray grasshoppers sweeping down upon the earth. The vibration of their wings filled the ear with a roaring sound like a rushing storm. As far as the eye could reach in every direction the air was filled with them. Where they alighted, they covered the ground like a heavy crawling carpet."
260:, when that city had received substantial relief from private citizens, corporations and other cities. In 1874, grasshopper aid organizations cited the national response to the Chicago Fire to justify assisting grasshopper victims, and counties sent representatives east to solicit aid. Farmers unaffected by the plague donated supplies, including barley and corn to Kansas farmers. In the ensuing winter, the Kansas Central Relief Committee received 124 carloads of donations; railroads carried supplies for free. In January 1875 Nebraska Gov.
284:, commander of the Department of the Platte, to say that "The destitution existing here is much greater than I expected. Relief must be given these people or hundreds will starve before the winter is half over." In December 1874, Kansas Agricultural Secretary Alfred Gray reported to Governor Osborn "that as much as 70 percent of the population was impoverished in the worst hit counties."
288:
provide emergency aid and support to western farmers. According to historian Sam S. Kepfield, "To use funds from the public treasury for disaster relief was almost unheard-of. ... Public funds were for public uses only, and allowing farmers to carry on at their normal labors did not qualify as a public use." Steven R. Kinsella, author of
287:
In 1875, the federal government eased residency requirements for homesteaders so that farmers could leave their farms to seek aid, and
Congress supplied $ 30,000 in seeds to the area. Along with food and clothing from the Army, these measures were one of the first efforts by the federal government to
303:
Grasshopper plagues continued on the Great Plains during the next two years. An estimated 3.5 trillion-grasshopper plague occurred in June 1875, but for several springs after the 1874 invasion, farmers turned up millions of grasshopper eggs while plowing their fields, which destroyed the eggs in the
252:
The prevalent attitude of the time toward public assistance was that only the "deserving poor" should receive help. "Deserving" was defined as meaning that their poverty was not the result of immorality, idleness, or individual failure. Farmers themselves shared this perspective, and some refused to
216:
A Kansas pioneer was quoted as saying, "They looked like a great, white glistening cloud, for their wings caught the sunshine on them and made them look like a cloud of white vapor." Another Kansas settler said, "I never saw such a sight before. This morning, as we looked up toward the sun, we could
248:
Local officials were worried that farmers would give up and move away and that western settlement would suffer, so initially the governors of Kansas and
Nebraska established private relief agencies to distribute food and supplies rather than seek state or federal assistance. The Nebraska Relief and
204:
Compared to previous infestations in the region, the 1874 plague was significantly more damaging. The invasion coincided with a record drought in the
Midwest and Great Plains, which induced the grasshoppers (estimated at 120 billion to 12.5 trillion) to not only thrive but also to swarm when local
220:
Farmers tried killing the locusts with fire and exploding gunpowder, but in one case the mass of locusts smothered the flames. Other unsuccessful efforts to stop the plague included covering fields with sheets and smoking grasshoppers away from crops and into water and oil-filled ditches to drown
208:
The locusts would eat for several days from fields and trees and in some instances also ate food inside the farmers' homes before they moved on. Carpets and clothes were damaged by the locusts in the process. The locust excrement and carcasses polluted ponds and streams. Trains tracks "slick with
228:
claimed the locusts were not poisonous, were as nutritious as oysters, and could be used to make a variety of dishes, or fried with honey. But since farmers were furiously scooping grasshoppers out of their wells to avoid contamination of their drinking water, and their cattle and horses were
267:
State officials eventually realized that state coffers would have to be opened to provide aid. In
January 1875, Nebraska Gov. Furnas recommended, and the state legislature approved, the issuing of $ 50,000 in state bonds to purchase seed for grasshopper victims. In Kansas, Gov.
229:
refusing to drink from streams stained brown by grasshoppers, it's not likely many farmers fixed grasshoppers for dinner. Chickens and turkeys became inedible: the birds were happy to eat grasshoppers but the meat and eggs became stained with a reddish brown oil.
304:
process. An early frost in spring 1875 also helped to combat future infestations. The population of Rocky
Mountain locusts continued to decline each year after 1874; development of the West may explain their extinction by the early 1900s.
279:
authorizing the distribution of surplus and condemned army clothing in Kansas and
Nebraska. Reports began to be received that more help was needed to prevent starvation. An Army major sent to inspect southwestern Nebraska wrote General
221:
them. A device called a hopperdozer was invented to fight grasshoppers: its scraper was coated with coal tar and pulled by horses. Dragged against the wind, young locusts would be blown into the tar, but it only worked on flat fields.
183:
wrote in 1880 that the infestation "covered a swath equal to the combined areas of
Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont."
108:. The locusts swarmed over an estimated 2,000,000 square miles (5,200,000 km) and caused millions of dollars' worth of damage. Residents described swarms so thick that they covered the sun for up to six hours.
791:
The Locust Plague in the United States: Being More
Particularly a Treatise on the Rocky Mountain Locust Or So-called Grasshopper, as it Occurs East of the Rocky Mountains, with Practical Recommendations for Its
205:
vegetation was decimated. The arriving locusts would pile up to over a foot high and ate crops, trees, leaves, grass, wool off sheep, harnesses on horses, paint from wagons, and pitchfork handles.
272:
convinced the legislature to approve $ 73,000 in aid bonds. In both
Nebraska and Kansas, farmers had to prove they were destitute and had nothing left to sell in order to receive assistance.
237:
Crop damage caused by the locusts was estimated at more than $ 200 million. Losses from the combination of the plague and the drought were hard to recoup as the country was still in the
762:
292:
writes the grasshopper plagues of the 1870s "started a relationship between agricultural producers and the government that continues to this day." Riley wrote in his 1877 book
1129:
1363:
434:
249:
Aid Association, organized in September 1874, collected "money, provisions, clothing, fuel, seeds and other necessary supplies" from private sources.
1348:
1073:
1189:
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1343:
1266:
28:
488:
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wrote about the locust devastation of her family’s Minnesota farm in one of her memoir books for children,
944:
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1179:
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The federal government's response was initially limited to an executive order in November 1874 by
1338:
1124:
1061:
1005:
261:
225:
379:"A probe into the different fates of locust swarms in the plains of North America and East Asia"
1323:
1256:
34:
849:
695:
539:
435:"Insect herbivore outbreaks views through a physiological framework: insights from Orthoptera"
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97:
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312:
352:
8:
257:
129:
1279:
855:
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579:
545:
518:
125:
121:
884:"Laura Ingalls Wilder and One of The Greatest Natural Disasters in American History"
1235:
1210:
1184:
731:
An Insect View of Its Plain: Insects, Nature and God in Thoreau, Dickinson and Muir
389:
276:
269:
153:
117:
417:
1205:
1029:
789:
573:
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238:
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Notes on the locust invasion of 1874: in Manitoba and the North-West Territories
1230:
1220:
1045:
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reported more than $ 68,000 had been received in cash and in-kind donations.
625:"Grasshoppered: America's Response to the 1874 Rocky Mountain Locust Invasion"
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242:
59:
1215:
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grasshopper guts" caused trains to lose traction, according to the book
973:
904:
281:
137:
165:
145:
141:
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America, History and Life: Article abstracts and citations. Part A
169:
694:
Sorensen, W. Conner; Smith, Edward H.; Smith, Janet R. (2019).
458:
297:
149:
105:
63:
575:
West of Wichita: Settling the High Plains of Kansas, 1865–1890
157:
634:(89): 154–167 – via Nebraska State Historical Society.
133:
439:
Konza Prairie Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program
253:
accept any help except in the form of temporary loans.
377:
Yu, G.; Johnson, D; Ke, X.; Li, Y. (August 20, 2012).
697:
Charles Valentine Riley: Founder of Modern Entomology
37:
depicting Kansas farmers battling giant grasshoppers.
172:
timber prevented them from overtaking some parts of
16:
Infestation of the Great Plains in the US and Canada
693:
300:in the affected regions were averted by the aid.
1315:
1180:Laura Ingalls Wilder House (Mansfield, Missouri)
96:, occurred in the summer of 1874 when hordes of
482:
480:
168:; one 1877 observer theorized that a range of
920:
376:
795:. Rand, McNally & Company. p. 39-40
700:. University of Alabama Press. p. 108.
256:But an exception had been made for the 1871
1364:1874 natural disasters in the United States
477:
432:
927:
913:
578:. University Press of Kansas. p. 52.
27:
820:. University of Texas Press. p. 91.
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459:American Bibliographical Center (1979).
200:(1877), showing extent of damage in 1874
191:
1160:Little House Wayside (Pepin, Wisconsin)
512:
506:
486:
1349:Natural disasters in the United States
1316:
881:
847:
841:
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622:
599:
517:. Morris Book Publishing. p. 45.
415:
331:
294:The Locust Plague in the United States
198:The locust plague in the United States
181:United States Entomological Commission
1170:Ingalls House (De Smet, South Dakota)
908:
882:Fraser, Caroline (December 5, 2017).
851:A History of the World in 100 Animals
787:
571:
350:
160:. The locust plague also reached the
1334:1874 disasters in the United States
854:. Simon and Schuster. p. 343.
487:Bristow, David L. (July 15, 2022).
13:
650:. R. Palmer. 1915. p. 11-PA54
638:
307:
116:The locust plague encompassed the
14:
1375:
788:Riley, Charles Valentine (1877).
728:McTier, Rosemary Scanlon (2013).
351:Lyons, Chuck (February 5, 2012).
232:
669:Froggatt, Walter Wilson (1900).
489:"Clouds of Grasshoppers in 1874"
875:
807:
781:
755:
721:
687:
662:
1175:Masters Hotel (Burr Oak, Iowa)
565:
531:
452:
426:
416:Dawson, George Mercer (1876).
409:
370:
353:"1874: The Year of the Locust"
224:Missouri's state entomologist
1:
966:Little House in the Big Woods
623:Wagner, Alexandra M. (2008).
433:Behmer, ST; Joern, A (2012).
324:
1054:Old Town in the Green Groves
998:By the Shores of Silver Lake
763:"Grasshopper Plague of 1874"
7:
1354:Natural disasters in Canada
982:Little House on the Prairie
734:. McFarland, Incorporated.
544:. Touchstone. p. 102.
10:
1380:
1291:Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal
1014:Little Town on the Prairie
990:On the Banks of Plum Creek
318:On the Banks of Plum Creek
277:President Ulysses S. Grant
94:Grasshopper Plague of 1874
1244:
1198:
1152:
1100:
1072:
955:
942:
814:McComb, David G. (1989).
538:Stratton, Joanna (2013).
187:
104:in the United States and
78:
70:
50:
42:
26:
1344:1874 disasters in Canada
1022:These Happy Golden Years
465:. Clio Press. p. 83
395:10.5194/bgd-9-11179-2012
1062:A Little House Traveler
817:Texas, a Modern History
515:It Happened in Nebraska
513:Partsch, Tammy (2012).
290:900 Miles from Nowhere,
226:Charles Valentine Riley
211:It Happened in Nebraska
111:
848:Barnes, Simon (2022).
201:
196:Plate II from Riley’s
98:Rocky Mountain locusts
1165:Locust Plague of 1874
1108:Live-action TV series
572:Miner, Craig (1986).
195:
162:Northwest Territories
90:Locust Plague of 1874
22:Locust Plague of 1874
1359:Laura Ingalls Wilder
1038:The First Four Years
936:Laura Ingalls Wilder
313:Laura Ingalls Wilder
23:
1033:(1962, posthumous)
258:Great Chicago Fire
202:
130:Colorado Territory
21:
1311:
1310:
1272:Christmas special
1190:List of Locations
1148:
1147:
861:978-1-64313-916-6
827:978-0-292-74665-7
741:978-0-7864-6493-7
707:978-0-8173-2009-6
585:978-0-7006-0364-0
551:978-1-4767-5359-1
524:978-0-7627-6971-1
422:. Montréal?: s.n.
241:triggered by the
126:Wyoming Territory
122:Montana Territory
86:
85:
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1296:William Anderson
1236:Rose Wilder Lane
1211:Caroline Ingalls
1185:Wilder Homestead
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270:Thomas A. Osborn
262:Robert W. Furnas
154:Indian Territory
118:Dakota Territory
33:1875 cartoon by
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1030:On the Way Home
1006:The Long Winter
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60:United States
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35:Henry Worrall
30:
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1216:Mary Ingalls
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1092:Robert Alden
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945:Little House
943:
891:. Retrieved
888:Literary Hub
887:
877:
867:November 29,
865:. Retrieved
850:
843:
831:. Retrieved
816:
809:
797:. Retrieved
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783:
771:. Retrieved
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745:. Retrieved
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711:. Retrieved
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652:. Retrieved
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589:. Retrieved
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555:. Retrieved
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496:. Retrieved
493:Nebraskaland
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467:. Retrieved
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178:
174:Saskatchewan
115:
102:Great Plains
100:invaded the
93:
89:
87:
55:Great Plains
18:
1082:Mr. Edwards
893:November 9,
833:November 7,
799:November 7,
792:Destruction
773:November 1,
769:. June 2003
747:November 1,
713:November 1,
679:November 1,
675:. p. 7
654:November 1,
591:November 1,
557:November 1,
498:November 6,
469:November 1,
444:November 1,
401:November 9,
362:November 1,
74:Infestation
1318:Categories
1267:miniseries
1074:Characters
974:Farmer Boy
767:Kansapedia
357:HistoryNet
325:References
170:coniferous
1280:Free Land
1153:Locations
138:Minnesota
92:, or the
1130:TV films
1118:episodes
166:Manitoba
146:Nebraska
142:Missouri
51:Location
1286:Highway
1140:Musical
82:Locusts
1199:Family
1065:(2006)
1057:(2002)
1049:(1974)
1041:(1971)
1025:(1943)
1017:(1941)
1009:(1940)
1001:(1939)
993:(1937)
985:(1935)
977:(1933)
969:(1932)
858:
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582:
548:
521:
298:famine
188:Damage
156:, and
152:, the
150:Kansas
128:, the
124:, the
120:, the
106:Canada
64:Canada
1257:novel
1245:Other
1125:Anime
1113:pilot
1101:Other
957:Books
647:Sugar
628:(PDF)
382:(PDF)
158:Texas
79:Cause
1262:film
895:2022
869:2022
856:ISBN
835:2022
822:ISBN
801:2022
775:2022
749:2022
736:ISBN
715:2022
702:ISBN
681:2022
656:2022
593:2022
580:ISBN
559:2022
546:ISBN
519:ISBN
500:2022
471:2022
446:2022
403:2022
364:2022
179:The
164:and
134:Iowa
112:Area
88:The
71:Type
46:1874
43:Date
390:doi
245:.
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