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The folklore of the Great Plains touches on
many insects, including buffalo gnats and
Mormon crickets, but no creature so permeates
the culture of this region as the grasshopper–
and the Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus
spretus) in particular (a locust is a type of
grasshopper capable of forming immense, migratory
swarms). During periods of favorable
weather, these insects erupted from their "permanent
breeding zones" in the fertile river valleys
and spread over an area of nearly two
million square miles. For half a century, outbreaks
of this locust devastated farms in every
state and province of the Great Plains, and this
species was declared the single greatest impediment
to the settlement of the region.
Glacial deposits containing frozen locusts in the Rocky Mountains reveal that outbreaks have occurred for at least 1,000 years, but European settlers first reported seeing swarms in 1818. Major outbreaks developed in 1855–57 and 1864–67, but the folklore of this locust was established with the swarms of 1873–78 (1874 was called the "Grasshopper Year" in Kansas). Laura Ingalls Wilder's description, from
In fruitless efforts to fight the swarms that stripped the land of all vegetation, shredded laundry, and infested larders, people used smoky fires, burning trenches, and various contraptions, such as a horse-drawn device to scoop and smash the insects. Governments offered bounties for locust eggs ($5 per bushel), and the eggs were even used as a form of local currency. Kansas attempted to assemble a "grasshopper army," requiring every ablebodied male from age twelve to sixty-five to fight the locusts. Townspeople reported that "heavy freight trains were delayed for hours by their [the locusts'] gathering on the track in large numbers, the wheels crushing their bodies and forming an oily, soapy substance, which caused the wheels to spin around and around, with no power to go forward." Some interpreted the swarms as a punishment sent by Providence. This notion was disputed by a state entomologist who headed a section of his report "Not a Divine Visitation."
The catastrophe became the material of tall tales, like the one about a man who, when plowing his field, hung his work jacket on a post, leaving his watch in the pocket. When he came back to get his jacket, all that was left was the watch–because the grasshoppers had eaten his jacket. Another humorous bit of folklore recounted the man who left his team in the field while he went to his well for a drink of water. When he came back the grasshoppers had eaten up the team and harness and were playing horseshoes with the iron shoes the horses had worn.
When the outbreak of the 1870s abated, the Rocky Mountain locust once again concentrated in the fertile river valleys. At the same time, settlers were converging into these regions, converting them into farmland and effectively destroying the habitat needed by the locust during its recession periods. In doing so, farmers managed to inadvertently drive their most severe competitor to extinction, leaving North America without a locust species. The Rocky Mountain locust lives on only in folklore; the last living specimen was collected in 1902.
See also PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT: Grasshoppers.