The Great Rabbit Invasion of 1897
Farmers and settlers in the Palouse region faced a desperate agricultural crisis as a massive swarm of rabbits descended upon their fields.
A plague of rabbits is currently creating havoc in the Palouse country, and the settlers are at their wits' end to know how to prevent the destruction of their crops. The animals appeared in swarms, moving in a line across the country, and in the space of a few hours, the wheat in their path is mowed down as cleanly as if it had been cut with a scythe. In some places, the grain is so thick with the pests that it is impossible to see the ground. The settlers are talking of organizing to rid themselves of the problem by driving the rabbits into enclosures. It is estimated that if the rabbits are not checked early in the season, they will reduce the wheat harvest to at least 11,000 bushels less than expected.
“The animals appeared in swarms, moving in a line across the country, and in the space of a few hours, the wheat in their path is mowed down as cleanly as if it had been cut with a scythe.”
While Washington's modern agricultural economy is vastly more industrialized, the region still deals with the unpredictability of invasive species and climate-driven threats. This 1897 report captures the visceral anxiety of frontier farmers whose livelihoods were entirely dependent on the vulnerability of their crops to sudden environmental shifts—a feeling that resonates with contemporary farmers facing climate volatility.
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