A staff member of the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory—possibly Dr. Ralph Parker, C.M. Salisbury, or George Cowan—dragged a white flannel flag over brush and grass to gather ticks in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana. He wore a white jump suit over his regular clothes, tucking his pant legs into the top of his high, laced boots. When they returned from such outings, the men would check each other closely in case a tick had attached itself to one of them.
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Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 1522
In 1923, a mountain goat (perhaps this mountain goat kid) taken by George Cowan had over 1,000 ticks engorged ticks on it. It was with these ticks that Dr. Roscoe Spencer came up with his idea for an RMSF vaccine.
