So It's Not Night of the Lepus

On this date 91 years ago, George Shutz died of a shotgun wound to the leg.  George was a wheat farmer from Paha in Adams County.  How did George come to get shot you might ask, well he was participating in a rabbit drive and boy named Kelly shotgun accidentally went off and hit George in the leg.  What made this day fatal for more than Lepus was that George was stand rather close to Kelly.  George bled to death prior to the arrival of the next train to Spokane.  What is uncertain, is whether or not the clubbing of rabbits stopped when George was shot. 
Rabbit drives were once commonplace throughout the West.  In Washington State they were common prior to the arrival of Grand Coulee irrigation water.  Too many rabbits meant the wheat crop was in danger, so rabbits were driven into small pens and clubbed to death by men and boys.  I've heard it told that rabbit drives would start as picnics and end as brawls. 
When I was a kid  as my dad and I went down the bumpy gravel roads of Eastern Washington with long rooster tails of dust kicked up behind us, he would say something about never seeing rabbits anymore and how there use to be a rabbit running across the road every hundred yards.  I think he mentioned it so often, because it bothered him.  Maybe he just couldn't come to grips with the idea that something that was so common to his youth was completely gone as an adult.  Maybe it made him feel older than he liked.  I don't know, I never asked, I usually rolled my eyes when the story came up.  I once saw a jack rabbit driving to Vantage from Wanapum Dam, it darted across the road.  It was so very exciting, I had finally seen a jack rabbit.  I remember telling my Dad about it, he too was excited and then told me about how you couldn't go hundred yards within seeing one in the old days.
So George's death and the lack of bunnies has me thinking about a couple things.  First, I wonder what sort of events, or stories my kids will roll their eyes at when I tell them.  Also, I wonder if they will ever realize they missed an opportunity to really find something out about their old dad, when they remember rolling their eyes at the story.
Anyway, since I have seen only one jack rabbit and since I am not really sure as to the location of Paha and since I can't find a better picture of a rabbit you get the Easter Bunny. 
America's Finest Blog at it's best.
Enjoy
Dan