Clouds of Terror

No, it's not a headline from today's newspaper, but a story from Minnesota's past. Helga and Erik lived on a farm in southwest Minnesota in the 1870's. While fishing one day, they saw a black cloud forming on the horizon. It was a cloud of locusts and suddenly they were overrun by them. As a person who gets creeped out a little just walking through tall grass that is full of grasshoppers, it is hard to imagine what it was like to have the ground and every surface covered by several inches of the creatures. This story vividly describes what happened to one family and how the children helped save their home and livelihood. It was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in 1995.