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Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory 100th Anniversary

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What causes RMSF?

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Collecting Ticks

Although it was known that RMSF was caused when the Rickettsia rickettsii bacteria infected a Dermacentor andersoni tick that then bit a human, more questions remained. Was the bacteria spread by other species of ticks? And exactly how did the ticks get infected? To find out where the ticks were picking up the infection and to answer a number of other questions, ticks had to be collected in the wild.

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Image Removed

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.

Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 1522

Image Removed

In 1923, a mountain goat (not 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.

Image: Montana Memory, 264

In Memoriam

“What shall we say of the some twenty-five workers, who fully appreciating the dangers incident to the daily routine, still continue at a rate of compensation not higher than the gain in other kinds of work in which these dangers are lacking. We may say, at least, that idealism and the spirit of sacrifice for the general good have not died out.”

(Quote: “The Cooperation with the United States Public Health Service,” Robert A. Cooley, Eighth Biennial Report, Montana State Board of Entomology, 1929-1930, page 10.)


The 25 workers who Cooley wrote about included people working for both the State of Montana and the U.S. Public Health Service. Three of these researchers died during the years that the Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) work was being done at the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory. Cooley had taught two of them—William Gittinger and Arthur Kerlee—at Montana State College. On June 6, 1929, Cooley dedicated the Gittinger-Kerlee memorial plaque at Montana State College to his former students. 


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William Edwin Gittinger (1899-June 30, 1922)

William Gittinger graduated from high school around 1918. He then attended the Montana State College, graduating from Dr. Robert Cooley’s entomology program. He hoped to go to medical school but took a job as a junior laboratory assistant in the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory. He had only worked there a short while when he was infected by Rocky Mountain spotted fever and died on June 30, 1922. He was almost 23 years old and left his mother, two sisters, and a brother.  According to Lucy Salamanca, after Gittinger died, Dr. Roscoe Spencer posted a sign on the laboratory door: ‘‘Persons entering these premises do so at their own risk!”

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Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 3521

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George Henry Cowan (January 8, 1886- Oct. 29, 1924)

George Cowan was born in Victor, Montana. His parents were among the original White settlers of the area. A field station for studying Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) was located in Victor before moving to the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory in Hamilton, Montana.

Cowan joined the RMSF investigation in 1913 and was the longest serving field worker at the time of his death. The Montana State Board of Entomology made him deputy chief of tick control work in 1921, and he continued that work with the U.S. Public Health Service in the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory. Cowan helped to collect ticks and when he shot a mountain goat, more than a thousand already engorged ticks were picked off of it. Dr. Roscoe Spencer tested to see if the ticks caused RMSF, discovered that ticks had to be fed before they became infectious, and got the idea to grind the ticks into an RMSF vaccine. Unfortunately, the vaccine was not completed in time for Cowan to receive it before he became ill with RMSF and died in October 1924.

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Image Added


Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 1575

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What causes RMSF?

Div
classgrid-col-6

Collecting Ticks

Although it was known that RMSF was caused when the Rickettsia rickettsii bacteria infected a Dermacentor andersoni tick that then bit a human, more questions remained. Was the bacteria spread by other species of ticks? And exactly how did the ticks get infected? To find out where the ticks were picking up the infection and to answer a number of other questions, ticks had to be collected in the wild.

Div
classgrid-col-6

Image Removed

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.

Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 1522

Image Removed

In 1923, a mountain goat (not 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.

Image: Montana Memory, 264


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What causes RMSF?

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Arthur LeRoy Kerlee (March 5, 1905-February 14, 1928)

Arthur Kerlee was born and educated in Darby, Montana—a local boy studying Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) at the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory.  He graduated from Montana State College in 1927 with a B.S. in Botany and Bacteriology. Robert Cooley was one of his professors. After graduating, Kerlee became an assistant bacteriologist in the U.S. Public Health Service at the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory. He co-authored a paper with Dr. Roscoe Spencer on the Weil-Felix reaction as a diagnostic test for RMSF.

Kerlee died during production of the RMSF vaccine. Because he had already received the vaccine, his death caused some consternation in the Bitterroot Valley until it was found that he had only received the first shot and had become ill either right before the shot or right after the shot, meaning that his immunity had not had a chance to develop.

A large number of Bitterroot Valley citizens attended his funeral, which included a quartet and a military tribute from the American Legion because he had been made a 2nd lieutenant in the reserve officer’s training corps. He left a father, four brothers, and two sisters. One of his brothers, James, joined the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory in tribute to his sacrifice.

Div
classgrid-col-6

Image Added

Collecting Ticks

Although it was known that RMSF was caused when the Rickettsia rickettsii bacteria infected a Dermacentor andersoni tick that then bit a human, more questions remained. Was the bacteria spread by other species of ticks? And exactly how did the ticks get infected? To find out where the ticks were picking up the infection and to answer a number of other questions, ticks had to be collected in the wild.

Div
classgrid-col-6

Image Removed

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.

Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 1522

Image Removed

In 1923, a mountain goat (not 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.

Image: Montana Memory, 2641578


Div
classgrid-row grid-gap

What causes RMSF?


Div
classgrid-col-6

Collecting Ticks

Although it was known that RMSF was caused when the Rickettsia rickettsii bacteria infected a Dermacentor andersoni tick that then bit a human, more questions remained. Was the bacteria spread by other species of ticks? And exactly how did the ticks get infected? To find out where the ticks were picking up the infection and to answer a number of other questions, ticks had to be collected in the wild.

Div
classgrid-col-6

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.

Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 1522

In 1923, a mountain goat (not 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.

Image: Montana Memory, 264

Div
classgrid-row grid-gap

What causes RMSF?


Div
classgrid-col-6

Collecting Ticks

Although it was known that RMSF was caused when the Rickettsia rickettsii bacteria infected a Dermacentor andersoni tick that then bit a human, more questions remained. Was the bacteria spread by other species of ticks? And exactly how did the ticks get infected? To find out where the ticks were picking up the infection and to answer a number of other questions, ticks had to be collected in the wild.

Div
classgrid-col-6

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.

Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 1522

In 1923, a mountain goat (not 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.

Image: Montana Memory, 264

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