WEBVTT - CLASSIC: California Schoolchildren and the Great Squirrel War 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.560 Fellow Ridiculous Historians, Welcome back to this week's classic episode. 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.800 We are quickly approaching the moment Noel where our pal 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:09.720 Max Williams joins the show. 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.760 That's true, and this is a really fun episode to 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.400 mark the occasion, or you know, at least getting close 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.759 to the occasion, that time California school children participated in 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.079 something called the Great Squirrel War. 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.880 Oh my gosh, this is crazy. We don't even want 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.120 to spoil it. Let's just roll the tape. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.800 Let's do it. 0:00:32.920 --> 0:01:01.880 Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio Friends, Neighbors, Farmers, 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:06.960 city dwellers, rural and urban residents alike. Have you ever 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:12.160 had an infestation of pest, say, roaches or rats or 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.840 bats and so on? Hi, I'm ben. 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.800 No no, but I did once have a pet squirrel 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.560 named mister Muffin Tops. Was this? 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.440 Was it an animal that lived nearby or an animal 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:26.200 in a cage? 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.959 Yes? Both? Okay, I made that up. I just wanted 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.240 to say mister muffin Tops and I would honestly be 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.959 terrified to have a squirrel for a pet. I'm very 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:40.119 skittish around creatures that have unpredictable movements and beady eyes, 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:41.360 which squirrels definitely do. 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:47.000 I've had in my various stages of life, I've lived 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:52.040 in places that were infested with bats, possums, and of 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.960 course squirrels, which are wily creatures. I have a friend 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.480 here in Atlanta, where this podcast is based who raised 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:04.040 a squirrel in his apartment, and the squirrel was very friendly, 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.079 very nice. But eventually, you know, being wild animals, when 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.120 they reach adulthood, it's time to say goodbye. 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:11.480 Right. 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:13.480 It was a rescue squirrel, by the way, he didn't 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:19.480 steal it. But how could I mention infestations without talking 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:23.240 about one of the number one infestations in my heart 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.240 and yours? Null super producer Casey Pegram. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.480 It's just an infestation of joy and kindness, I know, 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:32.200 and goodwill towards humanity. 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.280 Yes, yes, and even squirrels, I would imagine, Casey, did 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.600 you ever have an infestation in your house or your 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:40.639 neighborhood growing up? 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:45.680 Yeah? Actually my parents' house, we had bats in the 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.959 attic and my room was upstairs, and so I was 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.680 the only one kind of in close proximity to said 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.760 bats like throughout the day, and I would just hear 0:02:54.800 --> 0:03:00.079 these like kind of faint chirping sounds, and I, you know, 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.320 I reported this to my parents over and over tried 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.480 to get them to believe me, and they were just like, no, 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:06.880 it's just like a fan that's squeaky up there, you know. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:09.840 And so one day my mom goes into the attic 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:12.560 and what does she see but a bat like feet 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.880 in front of her face, and she screams and freaks out, 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.360 and then they believe me about the bats after that point. 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:20.240 But I had actually gone as far as to like 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.720 take some of my audio recording gear and put it 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:24.720 up to the vent and like record them and then 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.680 boost it and post and you know, amplify the signal 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:32.520 enhanced and sounded like bats to me. But it required 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:33.320 a little more proof. 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.920 You, really, I think you ended up in the wrong field. 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:37.360 You should have become. You should have been like a 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:42.200 like a ghostbuster for pasts exactly, forensic tools, meters and 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:42.640 all that. 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.640 That's right, your Wanda monitor, yeah, exactly, Casey. On the case, 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.320 I had the same I'm bonding with you here, Casey, 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.200 because I had the same situation I was in. I 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.520 lived in a bonus room in our house and we 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:01.800 had we had this unfit thing that was pretty much 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.800 an attic but had a creepy door to it. And 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:10.720 I remember vividly those weird chirping noises, but once you 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.120 see them in your house, it's surprising. The point of 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:20.800 this relatively circuitous introduction is to say that there is 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:25.080 one thing that unifies a lot of homeowners across the world, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:30.320 and that is that we like our outside animals to 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:35.400 stay outside. And we often, in the course of human civilization, 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.800 come into conflict with animals. And this is this is 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.640 something historically happens all the time. You know, there are 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:47.360 stories of locusts in ancient text there are stories of 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.440 other things. I'm off the top of the dome. Here, frogs, 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.960 there we go. You know, the plagues, the biblical ones 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:59.240 the locusts would eat, would decimate fields of grain and 0:04:59.560 --> 0:04:59.960 other crops. 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.200 And that's the thing. We like animals when they're cute 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.000 and cuddly, and they keep a healthy distance from us, 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:08.400 and they stay in their animal lanes. But as soon 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:12.080 as they start eating our lunch, it will not stand. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.480 This is this animal aggression will not stand, my friends, and. 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:21.200 We often band together as humans to cooperatively combat the 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:26.360 threats posed by wild animals. Today's story takes us all 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:27.400 the way back. 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.080 To nineteen eighteen. 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:35.440 As American soldiers were battling German forces in France, there 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:40.560 was an entirely new war going on in California, and 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:42.160 it used child. 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.760 Soldiers of all places. Yeah, this is how a fantastic 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:49.640 article on Alice Obscura sets up this tale. And little 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.080 spoilerlerd here in nineteen eighteen, California drafted children into a 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.479 war on squirrels, is the title of this article by 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.840 the fantastic Dave Gilson. I had never heard of this 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.520 and the squirrel war. We know about war as real 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.719 wars that were started by all kinds of arbitrary things, 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.200 like there's the stray dog war, there was the one 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.039 about the camel, there was the one about like a bucket. 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.960 This is not a real war, but it involves some 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.000 anti German propaganda a little down the line. That's why 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.400 the setup works so well. But here's the thing. In California, 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.720 they were in the midst of a ground squirrel epidemic. 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:31.599 These little buggers were consuming about thirty million dollars worth 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.680 of crops, which if you enter that into the old 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:42.640 inflation calculator, it's approaching five hundred million dollars of food stuffs. Yeah. 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.680 Absolutely, I personally think squirrels are cute. I know they're 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.640 not for everybody, but I've also never been in a 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:55.960 situation where they are literally eating eating the food supply 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.679 on which I would depend. So these squirrels were not loved, 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.480 not lovable. They were seen as a source of pestilence, 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.000 you know, and they were thought to be a vector 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:13.240 for the plague. So California addressed the problem. And we've 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:17.920 got a great quote from State Horticulture Commissioner George h. Heck, 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.640 which is a cool name, so old Man Heck says, 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.840 we have enemies here at home, more destructive perhaps than 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.680 some of the enemies our boys are fighting and the trenches. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.320 He said this as part of an impassioned call up 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:37.040 for what he called school soldiers to self organize, you know, 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.520 within your classroom, your friends, or your overall school to 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:45.120 eradicate these ground squirrels. In California as part of a 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:49.800 seven day event they called Squirrel Week. You know, because 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:51.360 a week is seven days long, is. 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:52.240 That like Shark Week? 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.320 It is a little more agro than Shark Week, but 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.720 deep cut, nice reference. Do we mention that on air. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.760 Back to the old, the old parent company. Yeah, back 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.200 several parent companies ago, Shark Week was was a regular 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:09.440 occurrence around the office. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.520 People still love Shark Week. That's still a thing, right, Yeah, 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.000 Shark Week is great. It's it's good stuff to watch. 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.520 I think what got us is way back in the 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.720 day when when we worked with Discovery, every podcast was 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.240 told to come up with something related to Shark Week. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:25.840 And I don't know if I ever mentioned this to you, 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.360 but this was when Scott, Benjamin and I were still 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:33.760 doing car stuff and we see guys car stuff and sharks. 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.360 How do we make this work? But we did twice. 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.400 You can check about They're not They're not the best episodes, but. 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:40.880 There I'm sure there are a lot of fun don 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.160 I enjoy that entire catalog and I miss it dearly, 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.200 just just like everyone else. It's true. But you know what, 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.280 forget move over Shark Week. It's time for Squirrel Week. 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.440 And what Squirrel Week was was a promotion that the 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.520 government pumped a pretty penny into to disseminate print and 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:04.600 dissemin pamphlets, posters, and all of all kinds of literature. 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:06.280 Because that's what you spent money on in those days. 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.400 I don't know, maybe some broadcast pieces, what do you think. 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:14.400 Yeah, public speeches. California is set aside forty large from 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:20.319 their emergency wartime fund to create this Squirrel Week campaign. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.480 And it was a pr blitz, as you said, around 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:29.680 thirty four thousand posters popped up around the state, half 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:35.480 a million leaflets and the pamphlet which you can see. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:37.559 The pamphlet is not subtle. 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:38.680 You can see. 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:42.319 Victors of this in the article and then in archival 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.640 reports from papers of the time. It says it's a 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.880 nice old timey propaganda cartoon kind of approach, and it 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:54.320 says in the top left, kill the squirrels, and it 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:59.160 shows a mother or a teacher instructing children to scatter 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:04.280 poison bar and then it it shows squirrels in the 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:09.559 bottom mister and missus squirrel h dining on dining like. 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.120 Kings, right, yeah, literally, and they've all got little speech 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:18.600 bubbles next to them. And it's like the caption for 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.640 this particular comic is our star borders as though they're 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:23.400 at some sort of bed and breakfast, like we're giving 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.520 them free you know, free room and board. And one 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.560 of the missus squirrel. I'm sorry, mister squirrel is saying, 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.000 wait time today, I'll have my favorite dish, whole wheat cakes. 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.960 And then missus squirrel replies, and you may save me 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.040 some nice young body. 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:43.400 Sprouts, and she's holding up glasses like opera glasses, opera glasses. 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.080 And in the back behind the hapless waiter who has 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:51.000 a tag describing him as a farmer, there is a 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.440 sign that says Hotel California board bill for squirrels in 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:59.280 nineteen seventeen thirty million dollars. So that's the amount of 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:05.880 damage this ground squirrel infestation was doing to the agriculture 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:07.280 of California. 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.720 Here's my favorite little detail. I actually didn't notice this 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:13.160 until just now. On the bottom outside of the circle 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:17.439 that's sort of the cartoon panel that's framing the squirrel 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:22.520 scene are two squirrels wearing those Kaiser Wilhelm kind of 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:25.960 spiked helmets. Yep. And that's the little touch of anti 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.120 German propaganda. And we'll hear more about that in some 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.400 of these other pamphlets. 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.240 Right. 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.840 So, what they wanted to do in this Squirrel Week 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:45.120 campaign was to inspire patriotism in kids who knew that 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.920 their relatives or maybe even one of their parents was 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.800 active in the war effort. They wanted these kids to 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.280 feel like they were doing their part by sprinkling rodent 0:11:55.480 --> 0:12:00.840 side outside of these various squirrel burrows. The pamphlet even 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:04.880 included a recipe for strict nine laced grain, as well 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.840 as suggestions for other squirrel killing methods shooting, drowning, the 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:14.280 use of poisonous gas. This is heavy, heavy stuff for children, 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:19.000 but they knew that money talks, right. The heart may 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.560 want what it wants, but the pocketbook does too. So 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:27.600 just in case doing one's patriotic duty was not inspiration enough, 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.400 they also sweetened the pot with rewards for the kids 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:32.839 who killed the most squirrels. 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.360 Yeah, it was a tiered rewards system, fifty bucks for 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.800 the winner at each elementary school. What the organization behind 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.560 this must have been pretty decent, right, Yeah, so fifty 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.760 bucks for the grand prize, and then you got your 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.240 runners up making thirty and twenty and ben you want 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.800 to you want to handy dandy inflation calculatron, those bad boys. 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:56.439 Sure, fifty bucks is around eight hundred dollars today, zounds, 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.200 I know, especially Can you imagine you're in elementary school, 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:00.120 you get eight hundred. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.120 What are you gonna do with that? Buy more ammunition 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.400 for your red ryder bb gun. I imagine. 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:07.520 I don't know, man, they might get in like this 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.200 feedback loop and just buy more strict nine. 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.720 To poison the week. How many full blown psychopaths do 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:16.400 you think this program created? Ben? 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:18.560 Probably about three hundred and seventeen. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.160 You put that on the inflation calculator. 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.840 So if you got the runner up position and you 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:32.040 got thirty dollars, that was still five hundred dollars back then. 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.360 And then if you got twenty bucks, that was still 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.240 three hundred and thirty something dollars. So this is this 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.000 is good cash for psychopaths. 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:46.880 Potential budding psychopaths, aspiring psychopaths, right totally. So the thing 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.320 that's that's really interesting is this was all happening during 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.679 World War One and there was always a need for propaganda, 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.000 and they were certainly able to sneak these messages into 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.400 this material for for Squirrel Week and start making the 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.880 squirrels like stand ins for the greater enemy at large, 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.200 and the language even really started to shift to some 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:13.440 slogans like this, he preys on our crops and countless hordes. 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:17.880 He fills the ranks of the killed in true military fashion. 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:23.000 You know why hesitate? We can get them, how poison them, 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.720 gas them, drown them, shoot them, trap them, submarinum. Why 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:28.000 do you submarin a squirrel? 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.520 It feels like just a different way of saying drown them. 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:37.280 They also had neat little catchphrases. Right in one text, 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.800 it says millions of food must be saved. Slay the 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.680 mother squirrel during breeding season. March to me, remember a 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:46.880 squirrel in time saves killing nine. 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:48.360 That's right, But that's. 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.280 The there's a loophole with that. And I don't want 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.720 to be too cold, but if we are addressing the 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:57.000 reward system in play, then you would want to kill 0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:59.560 nine squirrels. You wouldn't want to kill them early, you 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.880 know what I mean. They didn't think that all the 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.360 way through, but they had a lot of money on 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:10.440 the line, and with this creeping propaganda, with these squirrels 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:15.840 being painted increasingly as German soldiers, if we're being honest, 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:22.960 we see the cause move beyond the boundaries of California. 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.400 The US Food Administrator at the time, a guy named 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.920 Herbert Hoover, who would later go on to be President 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:34.000 heartily approved of this effort because he said they were 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:38.080 saving vast quantities of food which might otherwise be used 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:42.520 for support of our armies abroad. So we're not just 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:47.680 fighting pests in California, We're helping the war effort in Europe. 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.560 Yeah, for sure. I mean it's just empowering. And again, 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.120 this is kids. This is directed at kids. This is 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:58.200 a school like box top program essentially, but instead of 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.960 box tops, you're bringing in squirrel tales or literally entire 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.080 dead squirrel carcasses. There's an image from the Internet archive 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.280 that's posted on this outs Obscure article where it is 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:12.240 a barbed wire fence hung with dozens of dead squirrels. 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.040 I mean, it is very macab. There's even instructions published 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.680 for how to hook up a tube to the exhaust 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:23.520 pipe of a car and fill squirrel burrows with carbon 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.160 monoxide to literally gas them out. 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:31.800 And kids loved this exactly, just gleeful murder. Kids loved this. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.000 They also, they loved it so much that some kids 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.280 were impatient. They didn't want to wait for all the tallies, 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:42.640 so they started sending squirrel carcasses directly to Commissioner. Heck, 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:48.560 even before squirrel Weeks started, so his office literally began 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.480 to reek, and he made a special request that children 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.640 no longer send him any more tales directly, and he 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.600 told all the county commissioners working for him, like, okay, 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:02.400 count the tales, keep the tally, but then please get 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:06.520 rid of them, bury them or something. Stop sending squirrel 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.680 tales to my office. My wife won't touch me, she says. 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.840 I wreak of death and rodents. I added that last part. 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:16.360 There's a little bit of poetic license. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.720 But it was a smashing success because I think they 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:24.919 tallied somewhere, you know, official number. The official number was 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:29.560 upwards of one hundred thousand squirrels dead were recorded, but 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.480 they you know, it's assumed that that it would have 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.359 exceeded that number by quite a lot, just with the 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.399 attitude of rampant squirrel murder that was, you know, pervasive 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.240 in all of California around this time, and that attitude 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.480 continued into the future even once the program expired. That's right. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.800 We don't know how long it lasted after Squirrel Week. 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.359 We do know, however, thanks to a report called California 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.320 Ground Squirrels, a bulletin dealing with life history habits and 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.119 control of the ground squirrels in California, that this this 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.600 machine could not switch on and off. This cultural impetus 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:09.560 that they had created, continued on and for a quote 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.800 indefinite period of time. Afterwards, these kids kept killing squirrels. 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.520 We do have one example, just to give us a 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:22.199 snapshot of the level of squirrel genocide occurring here in 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.760 lass In County. Later in the year there was another 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:30.520 anti squirrel campaign. One girl, one female student brought in 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.680 three thousand, seven hundred and eighty tails and one boy 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:38.080 brought in three thousand, seven hundred and seventy. So now 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.160 we have to ask ourselves, were these kids very very 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:46.879 talented squirrel assassins or were there just that many squirrels. 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:50.959 Were the hills, you know, alive with the chitters of squirrels? 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.720 Yeah, the hills have eyes, my friend, tiny beady, fidgety 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.760 squirrel eyes and tails. Did we talk about the difference 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.280 between a bushy tailed tree square and a little bit 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.200 more of a skinny tailed, chipmunk looking ground squirrel? 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.000 We have not. That's a that's a good call. Let's 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.240 get into that. So ground squirrels technically are known as 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:13.679 odo spermophyllis Beachi. 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:15.760 Yeah, I was having a hard time with that second part. 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.520 Two's got the double e and then the why and 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:20.960 then the why. The plot twisty is a big plot 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.960 twist why. But I think maybe any intrepid, ridiculous historians 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.199 out there that are what do you call that? Squorel 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:28.160 squirrel ofphiles? 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.320 You know, it's a good question. I don't know whether 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.280 we have in this language is specific word for squirrels, 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.960 but I do have good news. We can make one up. 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:43.440 The language is flexible enough. Let's see. We could say 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.359 squirrel ologists, which is which is tough? 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:46.960 That's real? 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:49.439 No? I mean, well it is, okay, got it? 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:53.360 English is a malleable language for sure. Squirrel squirrel that's hard. 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:55.040 That's holologists. How about? 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:59.480 Okay, So squirrels are part of the scuri day family, 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:03.480 so maybe they could call themselves scuriologists. That sounds a 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.120 little bit more legitimate. Although wait, now that I think 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.920 about it, and I've seen this question before somewhere, I 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:15.040 think rodentologist is actually a word. Squirrel Ologists might not be, 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.880 but rodentologists, I'll bet some scratch on that. 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:20.480 Surely that must be a thing. 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:25.200 All right, So rodentologist is probably the closest we'll get 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:29.680 until ridiculous historians we hear from you, because, as you said, Noel, 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.359 English is malleable. It is a living language, and you 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:37.959 know this might be interesting. Hey, Casey, what's the French 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.359 word for squirrel? I'm just curious to see whether that 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:41.200 would be easier. 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.560 It's not easy. In fact, it's a weird one. The 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:48.640 French word for squirrel is rolls off the tongue, right, oh. 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:53.080 Man, Casey, on the case, I think we might have 0:20:53.119 --> 0:21:02.159 to stick with squirrel guys or rodentologist. Squirrel weekended on 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:07.280 May fourth. Children continued hunting and killing squirrels to combat 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:12.879 this campaign, and the state considered this a great success. 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.320 According to reports, the crop yields bounced back in areas 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.399 where squirrels had been eradicated, so there was a clear correlation. 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:26.000 But here we are a little more than a century later, 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:31.480 and ground squirrels are still considered insidious pest, you know 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:31.960 what I mean. 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.320 Yeah, it's certainly insight that we're used to around here 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.480 in Georgia, But for me, it's more the tree squirrels 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.680 that I'm used to seeing and whenever I go somewhere else, 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:43.560 and I see a different type of pervasive rodent, like say, 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:46.840 chipmunks or whatever that weirds me out, because I totally 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:49.000 did not remark upon like squirrels are like pigeons in 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.040 New York City or something like that. Around here, it's 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:53.840 just a very common occurrence and they don't really threaten me. 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.359 But have you ever seen like a rogue squirrel that 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.280 I'll like, it looks a little slack jawed and like 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.600 like shamble too close to you, like it's got the 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:03.760 rabies or something that's no fun. 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:08.720 Yeah, I mean a lot of people here hate squirrels, 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.280 and Casey, you were mentioning off air that some of 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:15.119 your friends from different parts of the world find squirrels 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:16.360 a little bit what spooky? 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:19.760 Yeah, I guess. I mean it's hard to imagine as 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.040 an American who's been seeing them their whole life, but yeah, 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:24.440 if you're not used to it, apparently they can be 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:25.160 quite upsetting. 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:28.520 I'll tell you know, as I was looking through the 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.239 differences of ground squirrels and tree squirrels, I feel like 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:36.960 I ran into squirrels before what ground squirrels before? Once 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:40.920 long ago, and it creeped me out because I saw 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:44.600 them crawling on the ground, you know, like belly on 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:47.760 the ground, and I thought they had had their I 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:50.040 thought they had their backs broken or something, until I 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:52.800 realized they were just that's just their method of locomotion. 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:56.080 This was in Arizona, So those may not have been 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:58.879 ground squirrels. Oh no, right in and let let us 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.240 know what those weird little rodents were. We see the 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:07.960 prejudice against ground squirrels continuing today. There was a University 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:12.440 of California web page about damage caused by ground squirrels, 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:15.240 and it featured an image of a squirrel wearing a 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:20.399 helmet and aiming at the ground with a bazooka. So 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:24.520 there is still a problem, and it is true, as 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.160 strange as it may sound, California did indeed recruit child 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:31.480 soldiers to wage war on ground. 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.000 Squirrels, but they weren't the first or the last to 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:39.159 launch a tactical strike like this against these pasts. In 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:43.240 eighteen ninety seven, according to the same author as the 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:45.359 Atlas Obscure piece, in an interview he did with The 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:49.919 Washington Post, The Washington Post in fact, published a report 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:54.879 citing that thirty US states offered quote unquote bounties for 0:23:55.800 --> 0:24:00.520 troublesome animals, including like panthers, the sinister ground score of course, 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:06.280 pocket gophers, woodchucks, English sparrows, and wolves. So this was 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:10.479 definitely a thing that there was a precedent for, and 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:15.520 Pennsylvania paid out around ninety thousand dollars in bounties for 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:19.919