(squirrel chittering) (dramatic music) - Well, you've gotta imagine this guy with these teeth in front of, these teeth right here in front, these are the guys that really do the gnawing here.

(squirrel chittering) - And they're noticeable by the switching of its tail when they get excited or nervous or curious.

(squirrel chittering) - And if you got a nice walnut, or any sort of pecan or something like that.

- 'Cause his four front teeth cut into walnuts very easily, and they do the same thing with a man's hand (dramatic music) - Definitely animals you're gonna wanna pay attention to.

As long as they're in the yard, they're okay, but I don't know, out of control could be a problem.

(dramatic music) - [Host] Rodentia Sciurus Carolinesis.

No, it's not a creature from a Spielberg film, but the common squirrel.

(squirrel chittering) - So you guys like squirrels?

- Oh yeah.

- Oh yes, we're- - [E.E.]

Mhm.

- We love squirrels.

- I like squirrels.

- Oh yes, love squirrels, they're a very smart animal.

- [Host] Ray Clark is the public historian for Washington County, and like a lot of us, has a paradoxical opinion of the squirrel.

On the one hand, it's one of God's beautiful forest creatures.

But on the other, and for anyone who's had to defend a garden or bird feeder, the squirrel can be a little devil.

As a historian, Ray, and the people of Salem, Indiana, most certainly have an informed opinion of the squirrel from a time long ago, when squirrels did more than just invade a bird feeder.

What little was written about this mysterious event is kept in these archives.

- In the fall of 1833, there was a remarkable march of squirrels through the county.

They came from the north in countless millions, and stopped not for any sort of obstruction, passing right through even houses and barns, and across streets- - As far as you can see through the woods, here is nothing a drove of squirrels coming through, eating everything in its way.

- [Host] From just a few lines written about The Great Squirrel Invasion of 1833 and 1834, longtime Salem residents, E.E.

Martin and Harry Baker, take over with oral history and tales passed down by generations of Squirrel Invasion survivors.

- It was said to have been literally millions of squirrels that came through.

So we would have to imagine some kind of a mass migration through all of these trees.

- I don't believe there's any good scientific record for any migratory habits of squirrels, they would tend as a group not to be migratory animals.

There are some- - [Host] Zoologist, Julian Duval, of the Indianapolis Zoo, is skeptical of Salem's squirrel saga.

- [Julian] Right?

(tiger roaring) - Now this is true- - Now this is true, this is a true story.

- [Host] If the residents of Salem can be excused for any embellishment, it's because their horror story goes all the way back 160 years, to when Hoosiers first settled Indiana.

Pioneers began to carve farmland out of vast hardwood forests, the home and food source to millions of squirrels, a classic ecological imbalance.

Although there's a dispute as to the magnitude of Mother Nature's reaction, clearly something happened.

(dramatic music) - Salem grew a lot of corn, still does grow a lot of corn, there was a lot of feed for 'em here.

(squirrel chittering) (dramatic music) - [Host] Quite simply, the squirrels came out of the forests, and onto farmland.

(dramatic music) Some reports have the squirrels invading from the north, many other people, however, claim they attacked from the south, from Kentucky.

This is where the legend takes off, because back then, there weren't any bridges crossing the Ohio.

- Squirrels actually swam the Ohio River to get into Indiana.

But these actually would come across by the thousands, and it was said that there was so many of 'em, and so wide, that a person could've walked across on 'em.

- [Host] John J Audobon, the famous bird watcher, had his gaze distracted long enough to report thousands of squirrels forging the mighty Ohio.

In any event, this nation's second largest river was no match to the crazed, hungry squirrels.

(squirrel chittering) The Great Squirrel Invasion was on.

(intense dramatic music) (people screaming) (intense dramatic music) (squirrel chittering) (people screaming) (intense dramatic music) - The squirrels were so hungry that they just cleaned everything out in their path, just like the locusts out in the west.

(squirrel chittering) (dramatic music) - And to be invaded by the squirrels was a whole lot like Pharaoh when he was invaded by the frogs.

(dramatic music) (person screaming) - [Narrator] They were so fat that they were unable to climb smooth barked trees.

- [Host] William Borden, who lived in Salem at the time, wrote one of the few personal counts of the invasion.

"They were plentiful, and the strange migratory instinct" "rendered them so insensible to danger" "that they were slaying in great numbers with gloves."

(squirrel chittering) - Squirrels are very agile, I mean they can move, and I can visualize, listening to this I was just thinking the way they can maneuver.

- Mhm.

(squirrel chittering) (intense dramatic music) - And then when we stops and looks around, you've got a good time to just squeeze the trigger off real slowly, and shoot him.

(rifle booming) (intense dramatic music) - [Host] There was no stopping them, the just kept coming and coming by the thousands.

(squirrel chittering) (intense dramatic music) - If you just saw the squirrels in your mind's eye, you can imagine the little, the squirrels' teeth, their sharp teeth.

- Can you imagine them coming?

- I can.

- So you can actually see the squirrels just coming- - Oh, I can actually see the squirrels coming, yes.

(intense dramatic music) I think it would've been a scary time, because people wouldn't have known what was going on.

You know, people time and again have thought the end of the world was coming.

(intense dramatic music) (squirrel chittering) (bright music) (cars humming) - And then, just as quickly as it began, it was over.

Now is this all the information you have in the entire library on The Great Squirrel Invasion?

- In the entire library, uh-huh.

People have read legends and they talk about The Squirrel Invasion of 1830s, right, but this is all we have in the library of it.

(bright music) - So there is a little bit of truth, as well as a little bit of filling in that the author sometimes does.

- Some farmers were left without sufficient corn to make their winter's bread.

Where they came from, and whether they went, no one ever knew.

(bright music) (intense dramatic music) (upbeat twangy music) - [Narrator] For more "Across Indiana" stories, go to WFYI.org/AcrossIndiana.