14 May 2014

Great Pigeon Roost in Going Snake District

Tahlequah, I.T., via Muskogee, I.T., Oct. 23. — The greatest wild pigeon roost in the United States is just now located about twenty miles north of this place, in Going Snake district, this Nation. A man just from there says the trees covering a mile square of timbered land are literally as full as the limbs will bear, at night, with these birds. Millions of pigeons are there, he says, and at night when they come in to roost they make a noise like mighty thunder. Bird men tell us there are only two droves of wild pigeons now in North America, and this is the largest one. A great many people are encamped around the roost engaged in trapping, netting and killing them for shipment, whcih they are doing by the thousands. New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis and other places of less note are represented at this roost. For dead ones the slayers ger, on an average $2.00 per 100; for live ones the netter gets $4 to $6 per 100. A great many Indians are making from $2 to $3 a day in the pigeon district.

October 29, 1886. A great pigeon roost. Perrysburg Journal 34(30): 1. Also: November 6, 1886 in National Republican and Los Angeles Daily Herald; November 17, 1886 in Louisiana Democrat; et al.