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  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | National Institutes of Health

Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory 100th Anniversary

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The Canyon Creek Schoolhouse was located in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, an up-and-coming agricultural and business area in the early 1900s. In May 1910, the Western News printed a 27-page supplement called the “Bitter Root Valley Illustrated” describing the valley’s businesses, orchards and farmland, industry, and civic and religious life. What the supplement didn’t mention was that a highly fatal disease killed some residents every spring—and there was no prevention or treatment for it. The disease was Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF).

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Object: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 18.10.1

Why did Dr. Frank J. O'Donnell write his name and the date "Dec. 20, 1924" on the 1910 supplement? As a field agent for the Montana State Board of Entomology, O'Donnell did control work for the prevention of RMSF and other tick-borne diseases endemic to the valley. Two notable things had happened in his life that year: He went from being a Montana state employee to a U.S. Public Health Service staff member, and he helped begin production of RMSF vaccine, enabling the promise of the Bitter Root Valley supplement to come true.

(Note that “Bitterroot” is today’s preferred spelling.)

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Early residents of the Bitterroot Valley called the disease “black measles”, “blue disease”, “black typhus”, or just “fever.” RMSF appeared in the valley after the slope had been cleared of trees for timber to make railway ties for the Northern Pacific Railroad, leaving the perfect environment for ticks. In 1902, the state of Montana asked scientists to investigate the mysterious disease. In less than 22 years, researchers identified what caused the disease, how it was transmitted to humans, and created a life-saving vaccine. This was nearly a miracle in an age with little knowledge of virology and only basic technology.

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A drawing of a leg covered with Rocky Mountain spotted fever rash, which is red blisters over the leg and entire foot.

This drawing shows the spotted fever rash on a leg. It was drawn in 1903 by Dr. John F. Anderson when he became one of the first scientists to investigate Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Montana.  Anderson was a U.S. Public Health Service officer assigned to the Hygienic Laboratory, which later became the National Institutes of Health.

Read his report. (20 MB)


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Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 1533-1

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