For several springs from 1918, the farmers of Arbon Valley set out poisoned oats for the ground squirrels and gophers that ate into their wheat. The American Falls Press followed the campaign from schoolhouse meetings to the valley's own poison day in April 1920, and then to Ed Davis's field at Arbon, where four of his best horses died after eating the bait that June.
Arbon had been in Oneida County until 1913 and was now part of Power County. The county agent, the Power County Farm Bureau and the county commissioners ran the campaign. An earlier try had been stopped by the weather: in January 1916 U. S. Ebner, the federal man in charge of rabbit, squirrel and gopher extermination in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, touring the county's schoolhouses to mix poison in front of the farmers, "was unable to keep his Arbon and Crystal appointments, owing to storms and other unexpected conditions."
Mixing bees and district leaders
In April 1918 the county agent called a "poison mixing bee" at the Central school in Arbon, and his successor another at the Pauline school. "Farmers are requested to bring oats," the Arbon notice said; the agent would bring the poison, mix it and show them how to use it.
That fall the Farm Bureau counted the cost. Twenty-five of the first farmers to return its cards reported losing 11,275 bushels of wheat to rabbits and squirrels in 1918. These losses were reported from the worst-infested part of the county, the Prosperity and Pleasant Valley precincts beside the lava beds. In October County Agent Bruce Lampson met the Arbon valley farmers at the Central school house and promised them strychnine "at not more than half cost." The Arbon column of November 26 reported that he had named Lucien McLarry district leader at Arbon "for the rabbit and squirrel campaign."
On January 3, 1919, the Press gave the county's losses its front page. Of more than 1,000 cards sent out, 525 had come back, reporting losses of 113,376 bushels, worth about $225,000. A farmer robbed of $400, the paper began, would be a sensation, and the sheriff would hunt the thieves. Then:
A bigger robbery than that has taken place, a robbery far in excess of the total amount collected as taxes from all the people of the county, and it has created no sensation. It has been taken as a matter of course, and has been going on in a greater or lesser degree, for a number of years. The robbery has not been committed by men, but by rodent pests—rabbits and squirrels.
The commissioners ordered 3,000 ounces of strychnine for $5,250 to sell to farmers at half price. Lampson set meetings at the Arbon Central school house and the Crystal school house for January 9, and that month the Farm Bureau chose its district leaders: J. C. Davis for Crystal, E. C. England for Pauline and Lucien McClary (the Press spelled it both ways) for Arbon. Each leader took the strychnine on a note for half its cost and collected from the farmers as he gave it out, "or stand good for it."
A new state law that spring let counties poison squirrels on land whose owners neglected them, after ten days' notice, and charge the cost as taxes against the land. The men laying the bait were to "use every precaution to prevent the destruction of domestic fowl or animals." J. C. Davis and two federal men mixed the bait for the Crystal district, and the Arbon correspondent warned in April, "The gophers and rabbits are becoming quite numerous." In December 1919 the Farm Bureau thanked its squirrel leaders by name, among them J. C. Davis and W. S. Snyder of Crystal, E. C. England of Pauline, and Lucian McClary and Joe Arbon of Arbon.
Poison day, 1920
In April 1920 the county meant to start early and enforce the new law "to the limit." Twelve tons of bait, carrying 2,000 ounces of strychnine, were ready. The Press announced on its front page:
The farmers of Arbon valley have designated April 20th as the day for poisoning squirrels. Several tons of bait as well as some strychnine will be distributed to the rodents that day in an effort to rid the valley of danger from that source.
The Arbon column of April 30 told of one of the worst storms the valley had known, and added: "The poisoning of squirrels was delayed Thursday by the heavy wet snow. Many farmers were out that day putting out poison, several are waiting for a drier day." On May 14 the column called the poisoning "the diversion of the week, especially Friday which was the day set for the Arbon farmers," and found squirrels and gophers scarcer than in former years: either the last year's work had been good, the writer thought, or they had gone to another settlement. The papers do not explain how that Thursday and that Friday fit with the April 20 date.
The horses
In the middle of June the bait killed horses. On June 18 the Press reported:
E. H. Davis of Arbon lost four head of his best horses the first of the week when they ate poisoned oats that had been left in a sack in the Davis field by George Iverson. Mr. Iverson had been poisoning squirrels and left the sack open while he went to dinner.
A week later the Arbon column put the loss at "four or five work horses" and called the bait "gopher poison." E. H. Davis was Edward Henry "Ed" Davis, an early settler who kept a store at Arbon; see the Davis family. George Iverson was probably George H. Iverson, an Arbon homesteader. The loss is also told briefly among the site's Stories of the valley's tragedies.
After 1920
In June 1921 the county agent, T. H. Morrell, planned a week in the valley, and the front page said: "Some of the squirrels in that valley are reported half as large as sheep and Mr. Morrell is preparing an unusually strong dose of strychnine for them." The Arbon column was plainer: "Several farmers met one day last week at E. H. Davis Store and the Arbon farm to help poison squirrels, but no poison came out." It added that Ed Snyder had lost a valuable work horse that showed signs of poisoned oats, though no one was known to have put poison where his horses pastured.
By May 1922 a Farm Bureau meeting at the Crystal meeting house was set to open "the annual poisoning campaign against the squirrels in the Arbon Valley."
On this site: the Davis family, the Arbon family, Arbon, Crystal and Pauline and West Fork.
Sources
- American Falls Press, January 13, 1916, page 1
- American Falls Press, January 20, 1916, page 1
- American Falls Press, April 9, 1918, page 3
- American Falls Press, April 16, 1918, page 4
- American Falls Press, October 18, 1918, page 8
- American Falls Press, November 19, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, November 26, 1918, page 3
- American Falls Press, January 3, 1919, page 1
- American Falls Press, January 24, 1919, page 1
- American Falls Press, January 24, 1919, page 9
- American Falls Press, March 28, 1919, page 9
- American Falls Press, April 4, 1919, page 7
- American Falls Press, April 18, 1919, page 12
- American Falls Press, December 26, 1919, page 8
- American Falls Press, April 9, 1920, page 1
- American Falls Press, April 30, 1920, page 2
- American Falls Press, May 14, 1920, page 2
- American Falls Press, June 18, 1920, page 1
- American Falls Press, June 25, 1920, page 6
- American Falls Press, June 17, 1921, page 1
- American Falls Press, June 17, 1921, page 2
- American Falls Press, May 25, 1922, page 1