My Genealogy Hound

Kansas Rabbit Drive Depression Era and Dust Bowl Historic Photo

For those living in the western states during the years of the Great Depression (the 1930's), it not only involved the extreme financial difficulties of the day, it also included the years of the dust bowl and the nearly impossible farming conditions of the time. In many western states jack rabbits multiplied in great numbers resulting in even further devastation to what few crops could be grown and to pasture lands. In an effort to reduce their large numbers, large groups of farmers conducted rabbit drives to round up and eliminate as many as was possible.

This vintage 1930's photo shows a Kansas Rabbit Drive with the crowd in the background holding jack rabbits in a pen.

A hand written note on the back of this photo reads "A picture of a drive, I think it was northeast of Dighton. Covered about seventy sections*, about 30,000 or 40,000 rabbits were killed. We were at the drive. There was five coyotes caught that I know of also. This picture was taken inside the wings that lead to the trap. Most of the rabbits were killed before they got to the trap."

Dighton is the county seat of Lane County, Kansas, in west central Kansas.

* A section equals 640 acres or one square mile thus this rabbit drive involved about 70 square miles.