Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

I have several newspaper clippings plus facebook posts to add here

April 27, 2016 post by Indiana Department of Natural Resources  on Facebook:

Another bird that once occurred in Indiana and is now extinct is the Passenger Pigeon. There once were billions of these birds. In 1813, John James Audubon wrote of them at a location along the Ohio River near Harrison County. The air was literally filled with Pigeons; the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse…The Pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession.” It became extinct in 1914. Left photo: Passenger Pigeon painted by Audubon. Right photo: 1805 surveyor's notebook about Dubois County pigeon roost. Photo by F. Oliver. Courtesy of Indiana State Archives.

Question in Comment: What caused them to go extinct?

Answer: Passenger Pigeon extinction was caused by variety of methods, including habitat loss and market hunting. I recommend reading “A Feathered River Across the Sky” by Joel Greenburg for a full discussion of the causes for extinction. Bloomsbury books.

Passenger Pigeon Audobon.org 

1813 | Kentucky Watching the Devastation John James Audubon on the plight of pigeons. at Laphams Quarterly.

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