150 years ago on this day in Wichita, it was the third & final day of the great grasshopper scourge of 1874.
Some people recalled the 1874 variety of grasshopper was different from later types: these were dark gray, with red legs -- the kind the old settlers called Rocky Mountain locusts -- and did not look like the ordinary brown or yellow type. All were of the same medium size, and they completely ruined healthy corn crops throughout the area.
This has been considered the worst grasshopper plague in Kansas history.