Behind the Chutes by Saddlebag Dispatches Publisher Dennis Doty

Behind the Chutes by Saddlebag Dispatches Publisher Dennis Doty

IT’S BEEN AN INTERESTING and challenging few months since our last issue. All of us have had to change the way we do things. Working and attending school remotely is now the norm. Buying our groceries and other necessities on-line has been a new experience. We’ve accustomed ourselves to seeing more folks wearing bandanas than on an 1860s cattle drive. Many of us have started to ask ourselves how bad it will get and when will it end. To answer that, we need only look to our history.

This is not exactly our first rodeo, nor our first pandemic. Most of us, by now, are somewhat familiar with the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19. That one resulted in 500 million confirmed cases and 20-40 million deaths worldwide. It was said to be the deadliest epidemic in history. More people died in a single year than in the Black Death Plague epidemic of 1347-1354.

In modern history, we’ve seen seven Cholera Pandemics. The first struck in Bengal 1817 and killed hundreds of thousands of Indians and over 10,000 British troops. By 1820 it had spread to China, Eastern Europe, and Indonesia, where it killed 100,000 on the island of Java before dying out in 1824.

The second Cholera Pandemic lasted from 1829 to 1837. It originated in Russia but soon spread world-wide. In California, it devastated the Native American Pomo tribe in and around Sonoma county in 1833. The Pomo were hit again in 1837 with a smallpox epidemic.

From 1846 to 1860, a third pandemic struck. It too, began in Russia but quickly spread worldwide. In the U.S., it took the life of former president James Polk and ravaged pioneers on the Oregon, Californi,a and Mormon Trails killing an estimated 6,000 to 12,000 hardy settlers and 49ers.

By the fourth pandemic—which lasted from 1863 to 1875—doctors had begun to recognize the connection between cholera and contaminated water, yet it still took nearly 600,000 lives worldwide including 50,000 Americans as it spread outward from New Orleans along the river systems.

The fifth, from 1881 to 1896, was the last to have a major toll in Europe due to improved sanitation.

The sixth, which struck in 1899, was largely confined to the Philippines and far east. However, an infected steamer did land in New York. Health authorities acted quickly and limited the death toll to 11. That pandemic lasted until 1923.

The final Cholera Pandemic struck in 1961 and lasted until 1975. It was largely confined to North Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Soviet Union.

The take-away here, I think, is that pandemics have been with us since the dawn of human history. They are never over in a few weeks or months. It takes years for them to run their course. Meanwhile, advances in sanitation and medicine—along with safe practices such as social distancing and the wearing of protective equipment—are our best hope of combating them.

We’ve been through this before and came out the far end a stronger and more united people with great advances in science and medicine which we might not otherwise have discovered. We’ll come through it again this time. Until then, be safe, be alert, be considerate of others. And take some time to think about your own welfare... like taking a break to leaf through the latest issue of Saddlebag Dispatches.

Until next time....

—Dennis Doty, Publisher