The Story Behind The Grasshopper-Infested Glacier In Montana

In Montana's Custer National Forest, there is a glacier with thousands of frozen grasshoppers
Wyoming has a similar glacier about 20 minutes away in the Shoshone National Forest

How Did The Grasshoppers Wind Up In The Glacier?

It's actually a pretty interesting story from the Montana Natural History Center. I'll make it brief.

Credit: J.E. Haynes/CC BY-SA 4.0 (Public Domain)

In the Beartooth Mountains of Montana's Custer National Forest sits a glacier with the bodies of countless grasshoppers. Here's how it happened:

In the late 1800's, locusts were terrorizing America. It's been reported that a swarm that became known as "Albert's Swarm" passing over Nebraska for 5 days was thought to be around 110 miles wide, 1800 miles long, and containing 12.5 trillion grasshoppers. No wonder locusts induce fear.

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The grasshoppers would travel over the Rocky Mountains where they might hit cold, wind, and snow. The grasshoppers would fall into the snow and become part of the glacier permanently.

James P. Kimball did a survey of the Beartooth Mountains in 1898 and found thousands of tons of grasshopper remains on the lower part of the glacier. He said that you couldn't find any piece of ice that didn't have grasshoppers in it.

From Visit Montana:

Credit: Billings Public Library (Public Domain)

In 1914, local Forest Service officials sent grasshopper specimens from the glacier to the U.S. Bureau of Entomology for study. Scientists estimated the grasshoppers had been extinct for 200 years. Entomologists identified the specimens as migratory locusts "Melanoplus spretus, Thomas."

How To See Montana's Grasshopper Glacier

This is not a trip for the faint of heart:

Turn off the Beartooth Highway around 2 miles east of Cooke City, Montana onto the Lulu Pass-Goose Lake road #6493. Keep in mind this is a very rough road that works best in a high clearance four wheel drive and is only open in July and August
Now you have to hike the next 4 miles on the old road to the upper end of Goose Lake
You'll see a snowfield between the peaks of Sawtooth Mountain and Iceberg Peak. This is NOT the glacier
Go to the crest of the first rock ridge and you'll see Grasshopper Glacier on the north side of Iceberg Peak

Sources: Visit Montana, Wikimedia Commons, US Forest Service Shoshone National Forest, Wikipedia Grasshopper Glacier Wyoming, Montana History Portal, Montana Natural History Center, Wikipedia Grasshopper Glacier Montana

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