In 1915, Dr. Ralph Parker moved to Montana to continue his studies on RMSF, which he had started as an entomology student under Dr. Robert Cooley. He also continued to work on finding ways to control the tick population and on the exact transmission process of RMSF.
Dr. Ralph Parker and his wife Adah N. Parker conducted tick research during their honeymoon in Powderville, Montana, in 1916. She helped collect the ticks from the animals that he hunted.