Nature Carries On

      While much has changed from early pioneer days, one thing changes little: nature. Summer gives us nature in full force. August nights in the woods start at dusk with lightning bugs, birds singing, and the plaintive buzzing of seasonal cicadas. After dark there is a din of whirring crickets, tree frogs, and squawking katydids. Recently it dawned on me – settlers two centuries ago saw and heard the same things.

     Meriwether Lewis at the beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition floated down the Ohio River. His journal in September 1803: "observed a number of squirrels swiming the Ohio River...” Squirrels migrated then - millions of them. Lewis said his dog Seaman recovered several squirrels, and “I thought them when fryed a pleasent food." On September 13 Lewis stopped at Marietta. There he "... observed many passenger pigeons...". Now extinct, their huge flocks often blocked the sun.

     What's warm weather without bugs? Col. John May was "tormented beyond measure by myriads of gnats. They not only bite surprisingly but get down one's throat." Bugs (Ok, insects) could be dangerous. Mosquitoes bore diseases, such as malaria. Many were the poignant cases of sickness and death. Civic leader Ephraim Cutler moved from New England to Marietta in 1795. On the journey two of their children died of illness. Cutler himself was bedridden on arriving here. Several times, including 1822 and 1823, there were epidemics that infected hundreds. In late 1822, 95 people died in Marietta, which then had a population of 2,000.

     The buzzing periodical cicadas have been around for millenia; the first experience of pioneers was in 1795. Their scientific name is magicicada septendecim, attesting in Latin to its "magical" reappearance every 17 years. Scientist and historian Samuel Hildreth was one of the first in the country to observe the cycle, write about it, and draw illustrations.

Periodical Cicada from Roger Hall Illustration 

at inkart.com

Samuel Hildreth was a gifted artist. This shows the life cycle of a butterfly. From findagrave.com

     The rivers offered water for settlers and for transportation – but were fickle. Thomas Walcutt in February 1790: "Rivers choked with ice, which stopped all river traffic." A week later, "At sunrise water rising fast...before we could get our breakfast done, water came in so fast that the floor was afloat..." With no locks and dams, rivers had shallows, deep pools, riffles, and slack water. One could wade across during dry spells and walk over them when frozen.

     Rivers provided food. In 1790 James Patterson caught a 96 lb catfish. He had set out a trotline, then anchored his canoe and slept. The fish hooked itself and managed to drag the anchored canoe into deep water near an island – where Patterson found himself upon waking. Meriwether Lewis saw "a great number of Fish of different kinds, the Stergeon, Bass, Cat fish, pike.” Walcutt marveled at another water critter, a crayfish: "a complete lobster in miniature about two inches in length…found in streams and springs." 

                           Crayfish - Can Stock Photo

     The area teemed with plant life. Towering trees provided needed lumber for construction, but their shade hindered growth of crops. One of today's nuisance plants also bedeviled settlers; Colonel John May reported "feeling the effects of poison ivy" after clearing land. Plants also were a food source. Ever heard of nettle, celandine, and purslane? They helped settlers survive periods of famine early on. Historian Samuel Hildreth: "(the) tender tops (of nettle) were palatable and nutritious. The young, juicy plants of celandine afforded also a... pleasant dish.” Hildreth, also a scientist, was awed by this plant life. He observed that purslane grew "as if by magic" when exposed to sunlight from "seeds scattered ages before, by the Creator of all things.”

     Mark your calendars: the periodical cicadas will return here in 2033. The cycle of God’s creation goes on.

Magic Cicadas

Eastern Ohio is abuzz, literally, with the haunting sounds of the periodic cicadas. Billions of them emerge on schedule after 17 years of slow underground incubation. Their buzzing, whirring din echoes through the area. 

Video by author June 18, 2016, near Marietta OH. 

They have fascinated Americans since first observed in 1633 in Plymouth Colony. Governor William Bradford reported that "they made such a constant yelling noise as made all the woods ring of them.” The pilgrim colonists incorrectly called the cicadas "locusts," referring to their similarity to biblical plagues. 

The periodic cicada has the scientific name of magicicada septendecim. The name captures its "magical" reappearance. The second word in Latin denotes the 17 year cycle. There are multiple populations of these critters in the eastern U.S. This group is referred to as Brood V which emerges in eastern Ohio, parts of West Virginia, and patches of Virginia and Maryland.

Pehr Kalm, a Swedish naturalist, observed a cicada emergence in 1749 while visiting Pennsylvania. He opined about the 17 year cycle after hearing and reading of cicada appearances in 1715 and 1732. Thomas Jefferson also wrote about the cicada in his "Garden Book. He noted the apparent cycle after hearing from an acquaintance about "Great Cicada" years in 1724 and 1741. 

I was surprised to learn of a Marietta connection to the periodic cicadas: Physician and scientific observer Samuel P. Hildreth was one the first to verify their 17 year cycle with a scientific observation. 

About Hildreth: He was an intrepid observer of all aspects of life in Marietta - local history, agriculture, wildlife, geology, and weather. Hildreth was born in Massachusetts in 1783, was educated at Philips Academy, and became a doctor after studying under his father and Dr. Thomas Kittredge. 

Image of Samuel Hildreth from Wikipedia

He journeyed by horseback to Marietta in 1806 (at age 23) to satisfy a lifelong curiosity about the Ohio Country, then the unsettled area west of the Ohio River. He permanently moved to Marietta in 1808. Samuel Hildreth was a true renaissance man. He served as the town doctor while continuing his local history research, scientific studies, and prodigious writings. 

Back to the cicadas and the 17 year cycle. Hildreth observed cicada appearances in 1812, 1829, and 1846. He studied them with far greater concentration than your attention span-challenged author could ever muster. Here is just a small portion of his observations in May-June 1812:

"From the 24th of May to the 3rd of June, their numbers increased daily, at an astonishing rate. The cicada,...when it first rises from the earth, is about an inch and a half in length, and one third of an inch in thickness....has the appearance of a large worm or grub...When they first rise from the earth, which is invariably in the night, they are white and soft. They then attach themselves to some bush, tree, or post and wait until the action of the air has fried the shell with which they are enveloped: the shell then bursts on the back for about one third of its length, and through this opening the cicada creeps, as from a prison."

Newly emerged cicadas. Image from the Mount St. Joseph University website "MSJ Cicada Web Site, viewed at 

http://faculty.msj.edu/kritskg/cicada/Site/Cicada_home.html

Hildreth kept a diary; here are just a few of his notes: 

May 27, 1812: ...the cicada is beginning to appear in vast quantities on the trees and bushes in the woods...The hogs are very fond of them and devour all they can find."

June 4: The cicadas begin begin to deposit their eggs in the tender branches of...trees...; and when anyone passes near, they make a great noise, and screaming, with their air bladders, or bagpipes...indeed I suspect the first inventor of the (bagpipe) borrowed his ideas from some insect of this kind."

June 12:...The cicadas still very busy depositing their eggs...The female has..an instrument in the center of her abdomen with which she forms the holes to deposit her eggs - at the instant the hole is made....one cicada will lay an immense number (of eggs)...at least one thousand. 

In 1812 he determined ("I have learnt to a certainty") that the cicadas last emergence was in 1795 - 17 years before. This was based on observations of a Mr. Wright, a landowner along the Muskingum River. 

Wright had cleared his land in phases during 1795 to plant an orchard. Part was cleared before the cicadas emerged. The other portion was cleared later, after they were gone. In 1812, Wright noted that cicadas did not appear on the land cleared early in 1795. But they did emerge from the land cleared later in the year wherever a tree had stood before (and where the newly hatched cicadas would have burrowed into the ground for their 17 year "gestation"). 

Hildreth was also an accomplished artist, producing life-like detailed images of cicadas, such as the one below.

Image by Hildreth from Notices and Observations on the American Cicada, or locust, published in the American Journal of Science and Arts, 1830, reproduced from Derek Hennen's blog at normalbiology.blogspot.com

Soon the 17 year cicadas in Eastern Ohio will vanish - until magically reappearing in May of 2033 - continuing a cycle that has repeated over millions of years.