Each week we’ll take a step back into the history of Great Bend through the eyes of reporters past. We’ll reacquaint you with what went into creating the Great Bend of today, and do our best to update you on what “the rest of the story” turned out to be.

Great Bend was in its infancy as a town in 1874.  In May, the Great Bend Register issued Vol. 1, Issue 1 with W.H. Odell as editor in chief.  One month later, A.J. Hoisington took over.  In only a few issues, news turned from the wonders of life in the Arkansas Valley to what would become known as The Grasshopper Plague of 1874.  

Pawnee Rock days numbered
Stories lauded the wonderful way of life and the beauty of the land.  Hoisington traveled to Iowa to bring back his wife, and reported the corn and wheat was doing much better in the Great Bend area than in central Iowa.  A few weeks later, he traveled to Larned, and along the way passed Pawnee Rock and gave his first-hand account of the place.
“On our ride we passed the historic “Pawnee Rock,” from which a wagon load, more or less of soul stirring, hair raising, heart smashing, sickening and disgusting yellow covered Beadles dime novels have derived the groundwork for their tales of romance, narrow escapes and adventures.  There is some interest attached to this spot, as the rock has inscribed upon its face the names of many illustrious men who have followed the Santa Fe trail for the last 20 years, and of some who have slept in dishonored graves, victims of their own rashness, and of some who today hold a place in the heart of the great American nation.  But the ruthless hand of the settlers in the vicinity of Pawnee Rock is fast removing these names, by quarrying and carrying away for building purposes the sandstone of which this landmark is composed.  A few more risings and settings of the sun, a few more days of peace and prosperity, and the Rock, like poor Lo (?) which God grant (all but the Rock) will be numbered among the things of the past.”
It would be another 28 years before the Daughters of the American Revolution Pawnee Rock chapter would join with other women’s groups to convince the state to protect the rock from further destruction, and erect a monument there.  Because of their efforts, that monument and many of the remaining names can still be visited today by travelers along U.S. 56 which travels along what used to be the Santa Fe trail.

A plague of locusts
Then, the next week, news of the onslaught of the grasshoppers made the paper.  The grasshoppers arrived earlier, but Hoisington chose not to mention their appearance immediately in the paper.
“We refrained last week from publishing anything in reference to the grasshoppers because we did not wish to add fuel to the flame of excitement then so high and because we felt sure that our people were not in as bad a straight as so many of them feared themselves to be.  We say candidly and truthfully to all, whether to those who now reside here or who contemplate coming, that the grasshoppers have almost entirely destroyed our corn crop and such other vegetation as was in a condition for injury by them on account of being green.  Our small grain crop was a success.  The corn crop would have been unusually so but for the grasshoppers.  Garden vegetables are mostly destroyed.”
In the online book, Biographical History Of Barton County, the author writes, “It is related by old timers that the hoppers would swoop down on a field of corn and when they rose there would be nothing left to denote that there had been anything on the spot except the bare prairie. They
also tell of the pests having often eaten clothing, and incidents are cited where they actually stopped a railroad train by piling up on the tracks in such numbers as to make it impossible for the engines to push their way through them.”
Hoisington’s editorial outlined three ways the area could find relief.
“First, that the Board of County Commissioners issue scrip or bonus for such relief as shall be needed.  Second, that donations and subscriptions be invited from the more fortunate portions of the east.  Thirdly, that in some way, not clearly defined as yet, the Railroad shall carry free to us produce and general aid that may be secured in the East and that with which to purchase necessary assistance the county vote and issue bonds.”  He recognized the weakness in all three, but again questioned, “How shall we afford speedy relief to those who are now suffering?  The only answer we would now give is the question that if any human being in Barton County is actually starving something will be given to him...Let us not be stingy, neither in our efforts or influence.  We have but little money but we may do much by way of encouragement and genuine sympathy to aid our suffering fellow citizens.”
The Congress passed a law allowing settlers from around the Midwest to leave their land until July 1875 without worry they would lose their claim.  The grasshoppers, later determined to be Rocky Mountain locusts, returned again in that year, so the provision was extended another year.  Relief efforts saved the day for many, and in 1876, those persistent farmers who remained made another go of things.  Thanks to them, Great Bend survives today.