Part I:

Grasshoppers, also known as Rocky Mountain locusts, swept down upon Lyon County and southwest Minnesota in the millions beginning in 1873 and continued to do so for the next two years. They devoured the crops and brought disaster to most residents. The country became bankrupt; immigration ceased; migration began.

The June 17, 1970, issue of the Marshall Messenger sums it up this way: “All who could mortgage their property and many left the county. Some got into such straitened circumstances that they were literally without the means to pay their railway fare out of the county. It was impossible to make a living from the farm, and many sought work during the summer seasons in their old homes in the East; others attempted to earn a livelihood by trapping. In time land became valueless; it could not be sold or mortgaged. After the first or second year, eastern capitalists refused to consider loans in the grasshopper infested country.” People, who had come to the area in previous years, came with the knowledge that SW MN had rich farm land under that prairie sod. They came with their single bottom plow and the determination to make a better life for themselves and their families. Expectations were great in 1873 for the first crop of any size that had been planted in the county. “The acreage sown to grain in 1873 was 1,983, nearly three times as large as that of the year before. Of the total acreage, 1,139 were in wheat, 330 in oats, 319 in corn, 54 in barley, 36 in buckwheat, 85 in potatoes, 10 in beans, 2 in sorghum, and 8 in other products.” These grains grew wonderfully during the Spring. Everyone was looking forward to a wonderful crop. Then came the plague.

The grasshoppers arrived in Lyon County about the 17th of June, 1873, and stayed and feasted on the crops for the rest of the summer season. “Their arrival was first made known by the appearance of the sky; the sun seemed to have lost some of its brilliance, as though darkened by clouds of fine specks floating high in the air. Some believed that the specks were the fluff from cottonwood seeds. They kept increasing in number, and after awhile a few scattering ones began falling to the earth, where they were found to be grasshoppers, or Rocky Mountain locusts — forerunners of an army that devastated this part of the country and resulted in the retardation of its settlement for many years.”

A small group of picnickers at Watson’s grove in Lynd Township were the first to notice that the bright sunny day became cloudy when “there appeared to be a great cloud that was described as resembling a sheet of dull silver moved about in circular form and gradually neared the earth. As it came closer its animation was observed and before long the whole cloud settled upon the earth.” Interestingly, these first grasshoppers did not go any further than the Lynd area, so that other residents of the county did not really believe the report of a grasshopper invasion, so some people from Marshall were deputized to investigate this report.

(continued next week)

When these Marshall people reached the Redwood River, at the farm place known as the Muzzy flat, the horses refused to approach the usual fording place, due to the fact that the ground before them, of about twenty rods wide and a large distance long, was covered with locusts that were piled up two inches deep – a moving mass of animation. They were piled up by the millions, covering the ground, stumps and brush – appearing to be several feet deep.

Obviously, the grasshoppers did a great deal of damage to crops and gardens alike. In the Saratoga settlement along the Cottonwood River in southeastern Lyon County they were particularly bad and left practically no grain. long the Redwood River, they also brought destruction to crops, but surprisingly there were some parts of the county that were not affected. Most of the grasshoppers left after a few weeks, but enough were left and deposited their eggs during the months of August and September to make certain that the county would be infest the following year. The 1873 harvest was light, but good yields were reported in the few communities that had not been visited by the locusts.