This is part of an article that appeared in the Columbus Dispatch 4/9/1939, a recounting of the experience of "one of Columbus' most thrilling hours of history" by Wm. M. Fisher, citizen of this city: "It was a lazy spring day in 1855, and the quiet little town of Columbus, with its mud streets and clapboard houses still recalling the pioneer years, drowsed under a hot, midday sun. Only a few people were on the streets, and in front of a few downtown shops loungers sat and soaked up the welcome spring sunshine. Suddenly heads were lifted. Horses, tied at hitchracks, fidgeted. Dogs got up from the dust, their tails drooping. A shopkeeper walked out of his store and looked up at the sky, searching its expanse, with a puzzled frown on his forehead. A low-pitched hum was in the air. Everyone heard it. The noise--not unlike the sound of rapids in a distant river--grew louder. Far off in the southern horizon a cloud appeared, and even as the watchers stared, the hum increased to a mighty throbbing. Now everyone was out of the houses and stores, looking apprehensively a the growing cloud, which was blotting out the rays of the sun. Children screamed and ran for home. Women gathered their long skirts and hurried for the shelter of stores. Horses bolted. A few people mumbled frightened words about the approach of the millennium, and several dropped on their knees and prayed. Suddenly a great cry arose from the south end of High Street. "It's the passenger pigeons! It's the pigeons! Get your guns!" And then the dark cloud was over the city, and the citizens were seeing one of the wonders of that age--a flight of passenger pigeons. Millions--incalculable millions--of the birds were flying overhead. Day was turned to dark. The thunder of wings made shouting necessary for human communication. The breadth of the flock was unknown; its height was that of a two-story building; its speed approximated 60 miles an hour--and for one hour and thirty minutes there was no end to the mighty stream of feathered travelers. In that time Columbus citizens underwent a mild sort of madness. Guns boomed continuously from all parts of the city; thousands of pigeons hurtled to the ground with buckshot in their soft bodies. Boys aimed their slingshots in the general direction of the flying horde and every shot brought down a bird. Boys and grown men threw stones; men stood on roofs with long poles and batted birds in frenzied abandon. Where one pigeon fell, another took its place in the broad stream--there was no ceasing of the flow of birds nor of the noise of their wings. Then, as suddenly as they came, they were gone. The hunters sat down, blinded by the brightened sky and breathing heavily from their exertions. The ground and buildings were white with the flock's droppings; the town was littered with the bodies of tens of thousands of birds. ...They are passing, and soon perhaps none will be left. If God could have created a more beautiful bird or animal, he would done so--but of them all the passenger pigeon was the most beautiful. The multitude pouring across the heavens like blue meteors, their cooing sounding like a mighty organ, the noise of their wings an awesome thunder, will never again be seen by mortal eyes." When this flock appeared over the Columbus, its end was probably on the other side of the Ohio in Kentucky. The article goes on to say, among much else, that there were three important roosts in Ohio, one near Kenton, one at Buckeye Lake, and the third not far from there in Bloody Run Swamp a mile east of Kirkersville. In spring the birds would head to these roosts and stay for several weeks before moving north or east. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]