Labor Day marked a sad milestone in nature. One-hundred years ago, Sept. 1, 1914, the last passenger pigeon, the fabled "Martha," died at the Cincinnati Zoo, marking the extinction of one of the most abundant birds in North America.

Southeastern York County remembered the bird by name of the high ground north of Hanover known as the "Pigeon Hills" after the large flocks known to roost there. The name at time appears as "Pidgeon Hills" and some believe the name came from a former area surveyor named "Pidgeon." Eighteen places in Pennsylvania are believed to be named for the passenger pigeon. Also, one of only three monuments to the passenger pigeon is located here.

Believed to have numbered between three and five billion, passenger pigeons reportedly would darken the sky for hours and sometimes days during their migrations. Drafts from the beats of their wings would chill people they flew over.

A Wisconsin researcher A. William Schorger (1884-1972) spent years studying the passenger pigeon for is book "The Passenger Pigeon: Its Natural History and Extinction" in which he summarized nearly 10,000 records found on the species in libraries and historical societies included this account from York County recorded in 1870: "largest nesting in 11 years; majority of body of birds; 100 miles long by 175 miles wide."


The wooded areas across the mid and eastern sections of the United States, including York County, were especially attractive to these migrating birds because of the abundance of food, mast including acorns and beechnuts.

Demise of these birds started in the 1800s and took about 30 years. Their end is a story of human greed and increasing technology.

A favored food source, market hunters killed the pigeons by the tens of thousands annually. Powell's "History of York County," describes hunters shooting the birds and packing and shipping them by the train load to grace the tables of fancy city restaurants. The birds were killed in mass while flying, and baited and trapped. "Squabs," the young birds were especially prized as a delicacy.

The last known wild bird is believed to have been show in Ohio in 1900.

The loss of this bird was an awaking for man. One legacy it left behind is the launching of conservation movements to prevent future losses of our species.

One organization, Project Passenger Pigeon, a project of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, is attempting to promote habitat preservation and species conservation by using "lessons from the past for a sustainable future." PPP's goal is to familiarize people with the passenger pigeon story and explore how humans can impact a species as well as motivate people to promote biodiversity and prevent extinctions.

The Conewago District, York-Adams Boy Scout Council, led by a group of Hanover residents, launched an effort to raise the money for a memorial to the passenger pigeon to promote the need for conservation and preservation. Erected in the former Pigeon Hill Park, on a site once owned by the former Hanover Water Co., and dedicated in 1947, the monument bears the inscription: "In the interest of the preservation of wildlife we here dedicate this memorial to the ill-fated passenger pigeon which from earliest pioneer days until the 1880s flocked to these Pigeon Hills. This migratory bird now extinct was once so plentiful its numbers darkened the skies."

The monument was destroyed by vandals in 1981, was repaired and moved to a hillside along Marina Road in Codorus State Park overlooking Lake Marburg with the Pigeon Hills in the distant background. The monument was rededicated in 1982.

Passenger pigeons live on – at least their remains do – at a number of locations. The PPP lists Nixon County Park in Jacobus and the Pennsylvania State Museum as places known to have their skins, mounts or skeletons.

"Martha's" remains now reside in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
