1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:09,320 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 3 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,239 Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 6 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:37,239 Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. What we call a 7 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:40,480 Speaker 2: group of animals says a lot about how we see them. 8 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 2: We call a group of crows a murder because of 9 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,319 Speaker 2: the bird's ominous appearance. We call ants a colony or 10 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:49,200 Speaker 2: an army of ants because of how they move information 11 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:52,839 Speaker 2: like a small society. And when you see a plague 12 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,280 Speaker 2: of locusts on the horizon, well, that collective noun comes 13 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 2: from the Book of Exodus in the Bible. But what 14 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 2: makes a locust unique among these creatures is that there 15 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:05,640 Speaker 2: really isn't such a thing as a solitary locust. When 16 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,839 Speaker 2: they're on their own, we call them grasshoppers. Taxonomically, they're identical. 17 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,399 Speaker 2: The only real difference is how they socialize. A grasshopper 18 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:18,160 Speaker 2: is solitary locusts, however, swarm. In other words, not all 19 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:22,399 Speaker 2: grasshoppers are locusts, but all locusts are grasshoppers. They are 20 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:26,039 Speaker 2: a creature with a surprisingly rich cultural history. They're mentioned 21 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,680 Speaker 2: in a number of religious texts from around the world 22 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 2: in different cultures. As far as swarming animals go, they 23 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 2: are the most famous. And with that in mind, let 24 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:37,480 Speaker 2: me take you back to the eighteen seventies in America. 25 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 2: Immediately post Civil War, post westward expansion, farmers in the 26 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 2: Great Plains of North America were working hard to keep 27 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:47,880 Speaker 2: up with a rapidly changing country, making a home for 28 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 2: themselves in a land that was settled but not fully developed. 29 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 2: Late in eighteen seventy three to early eighteen seventy four 30 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 2: was a tough time for people, in particular an economic 31 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 2: recession that led to all harsh winter and a dry summer. 32 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,800 Speaker 2: And while the panic in the economy was the main 33 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 2: thing on people's minds in late eighteen seventy three, conditions 34 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 2: would be just right for a new sort of panic 35 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 2: to begin as well. The first sightings were in June 36 00:02:13,919 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 2: of eighteen seventy three, but they wouldn't reach their full 37 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:20,360 Speaker 2: peak until the following year. It started as a shadow 38 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,240 Speaker 2: in the sky, a glistening, vaporous cloud, but the closer 39 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:27,680 Speaker 2: it came the darker. It really seemed there were thousands 40 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:31,720 Speaker 2: upon thousands of insects in the sky rocky mountain, locusts 41 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 2: coming right for them. Farmers scrambled to protect their crops 42 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:39,360 Speaker 2: against the impending swarm. They threw blankets over vegetables, They 43 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 2: locked their windows, They covered their wells to protect the water. 44 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 2: But after a point there was only so much you 45 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 2: could do. The incoming locusts ate everything that wasn't nailed down. 46 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 2: They ate away the blankets that protected the crops. They 47 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,959 Speaker 2: ate bridles from the backs of horses. They ate curtains 48 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 2: and sheets when they got inside. Some farmers had to. 49 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:01,840 Speaker 1: Shake the locusts off their bedclothes before going to sleep 50 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:04,640 Speaker 1: at night, and again when they woke up in the morning. 51 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: At least one woman reported that as she froze with fear, 52 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: the creatures ate the dress she was wearing. This locust 53 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:15,400 Speaker 1: plague lasted for five whole years. It was a wave 54 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,320 Speaker 1: that swept across the center of North America, covering over 55 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: two million square miles between eighteen seventy four and eighteen 56 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:26,840 Speaker 1: seventy seven. Multiple state governments attempted to address the devastation, 57 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: with minimal results. They offered bounties to those who could 58 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:33,320 Speaker 1: destroy the eggs in between swarms, but there were simply 59 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: too many locusts to keep up with. Farmers resorted to 60 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:40,040 Speaker 1: a series of increasingly elaborate measures to dispose of the bugs. 61 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,640 Speaker 1: In one instance, someone dug a ditch around his farm, 62 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 1: filled it with tar, and then lit it on fire 63 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:49,280 Speaker 1: to create a barrier between the locusts and his crops, 64 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: but the locusts were so thick in the air that 65 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 1: they smothered the flames with their bodies. Overall, there were 66 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: trillions of locusts involved in the plague. One of the 67 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:01,720 Speaker 1: swarms was one thousand, eight hundred miles long. For context, 68 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: that is over half the width of the continental United States. 69 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:07,560 Speaker 1: It took five whole days for this enormous swarm to 70 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,720 Speaker 1: pass overhead, and in that time it would completely block 71 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:13,120 Speaker 1: out the sun for up to six hours at a time. 72 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:17,160 Speaker 1: Some farmers starved in the devastation. Others took the advice 73 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: of local entomologists and actually ate the locusts for sustenance. 74 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:24,520 Speaker 1: They were, however, in the minority, as eating large bugs 75 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,360 Speaker 1: requires some effort to get used to, even if they're 76 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,360 Speaker 1: cooked and well seasoned. The locusts disappeared suddenly in eighteen 77 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:35,240 Speaker 1: seventy seven, following an especially cold winter that likely destroyed 78 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: many of their eggs. The particular type of locusts that 79 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 1: caused the catastrophe, the Rocky Mountain locust, is believed to 80 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:44,680 Speaker 1: have gone extinct by the early nineteen hundreds, the plague 81 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:48,039 Speaker 1: of the eighteen seventies becoming in hindsight, something of a 82 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,520 Speaker 1: last hurrah for the species. Few creatures on their way 83 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:54,760 Speaker 1: to extinction go out with a bang rather than a whimper, 84 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: and these locust plagues are a reminder to all of 85 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:01,479 Speaker 1: us that even the smallest insect can make a legendary 86 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:19,960 Speaker 1: impact on history. The people of Mitchell's Lake had questions, namely, 87 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:23,720 Speaker 1: what intarnation was doctor Charles Campbell building on the edge 88 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:27,000 Speaker 1: of town. For weeks they had watched the unusual structure 89 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:30,320 Speaker 1: come together plank by plank. It wasn't a barn or 90 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:33,240 Speaker 1: a house, or any kind of building they'd seen before. 91 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:37,080 Speaker 1: Tall and narrow, with odd slats and perched on four 92 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,720 Speaker 1: thick beams, it loomed over the lake an enigmatic wooden monolith. 93 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: No one could guess its purpose, and whenever anyone asked 94 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: Campbell what he was up to. He would respond with 95 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: a knowing wink and a smile that he would say, 96 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:54,080 Speaker 1: is a cure. It wasn't much of an answer, to 97 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: be honest, but the locals had no doubt what disease 98 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:00,480 Speaker 1: he meant. In nineteen eleven, malaria was a major public 99 00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: health threat in Texas, and San Antonio was one of 100 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:07,000 Speaker 1: the worst hit cities. The swampy Mitchell's Lake area on 101 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: the city south side was home to millions of mosquitoes 102 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 1: that carried the parasite. Earlier that year, Campbell had tested 103 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 1: the local population of the eighty seven adults and children 104 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:20,400 Speaker 1: who lived on farms around the lake, and astonishing seventy 105 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:23,840 Speaker 1: eight of them were infected with malaria. So you can 106 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: imagine they were desperate for help, and there was a 107 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,799 Speaker 1: reason to hope that doctor Campbell might actually have a solution. 108 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: The forty six year old two Lane graduate was a 109 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,919 Speaker 1: respected bacteriologist. Just a decade earlier, he had helped stop 110 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:41,160 Speaker 1: a typhoid epidemic that had seized San Antonio. But recently 111 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,680 Speaker 1: something had changed. Campbell had shuddered his medical practice and 112 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:48,359 Speaker 1: become a recluse. He'd gone off the grid, spending hours 113 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 1: wandering in the woods alone. People said that he'd gone battye. 114 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:55,800 Speaker 1: But when Campbell finally completed his tower in the spring 115 00:06:55,839 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: of nineteen eleven, the mystery only deepened. Soon, strained noxious 116 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:04,360 Speaker 1: odors began wafting from the thirty foot tall wooden structure, 117 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:08,440 Speaker 1: and then the noises began, not from the tower itself, 118 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: but from the surrounding area. Late at night, people started 119 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,239 Speaker 1: hearing a loud orchestra of music from deep in the woods. 120 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,520 Speaker 1: Campbell was showing up near abandoned buildings in large trees, 121 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 1: blasting music at ridiculous levels. He banked pots and pans 122 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:25,840 Speaker 1: and made as much ruckous as he could, and from 123 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: there it didn't take long for the locals to figure 124 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: out what he was up to. The doctor was driving 125 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: bats out of their hiding places, making their old roosts 126 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: unbearable with the noise, and where did they go to 127 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:41,080 Speaker 1: the carefully designed structure that he had just built for them. 128 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:44,040 Speaker 1: The Tower at Mitchell's Lake was a house after all, 129 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: just not for people. The stench wafting from it was 130 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:51,360 Speaker 1: guano or bat droppings. Campbell had filled his bathhouse with 131 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,080 Speaker 1: cheesecloth soaked in the stuff hoping that it would make 132 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: his tower more inviting to the displaced bats, and it worked. 133 00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:03,320 Speaker 1: First a few bats arrived, and then hundreds, and then thousands. 134 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,640 Speaker 1: Soon each evening brought a dark cloud spiraling from the 135 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:09,800 Speaker 1: tower as bats took to the sky in search of food. 136 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:14,240 Speaker 1: The Mitchell's Lake mosquito population plummeted as a result, and 137 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: with it went the disease. The next year Campbell retested 138 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:22,160 Speaker 1: the population, there wasn't a single case of malaria. Words 139 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: spread quickly, and similar towers began to crop up all 140 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:28,680 Speaker 1: throughout Texas, Florida, and even as far away as Italy. 141 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:31,920 Speaker 1: They weren't always as effective as the one at Mitchell's Lake, 142 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,439 Speaker 1: and eventually malaria was eradicated in the US through more 143 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 1: traditional medical advancements, But for a time, Campbell's clever innovation 144 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,679 Speaker 1: was the best weapon against the disease. His work has 145 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,120 Speaker 1: had a lasting effect too, not just in combating malaria, 146 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: but in changing people's relationship with bats. Once viewed as 147 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: disease carrying pests, they became a valued fixture in Texas skies. Today, 148 00:08:56,440 --> 00:09:00,079 Speaker 1: they're protected by state law in recognition of their eco 149 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:04,880 Speaker 1: logical importance. And while Campbell's original tower has now collapsed. 150 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:08,720 Speaker 1: Modern versions continue to be built. One near Brackencave in 151 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:13,480 Speaker 1: San Antonio houses over twenty million bats, the largest mammal 152 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:17,240 Speaker 1: colony in the world. They're a natural, cost effective form 153 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:20,800 Speaker 1: of pest control, keeping farms and orchards free of insects 154 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:24,440 Speaker 1: without the need for pesticides. It turns out doctor Campbell 155 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,120 Speaker 1: learned a thing or two wandering around in those woods. 156 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:31,120 Speaker 1: Thanks to him, we finally learned that sometimes bat neighbors 157 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:38,480 Speaker 1: make the best neighbors. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided 158 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on 159 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,960 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting 160 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me 161 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:53,520 Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make 162 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:57,119 Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 163 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:00,200 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 164 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:05,079 Speaker 1: about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, 165 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:06,200 Speaker 1: stay curious.