Pitchfork-wielding farmers charging through tear gas to battle police — this wasn't a typical fall day in 1931 Cedar County, Iowa. It was the climax of the "Iowa Cow War," when 400 angry farmers armed with crude weapons faced off against 65 lawmen in a violent clash over the right to test cattle for tuberculosis.
The confrontation had been brewing for months as Iowa's bovine tuberculosis testing program met fierce resistance from dairy farmers who feared financial ruin during the Great Depression.
Radio broadcaster Norman G. Baker turned skepticism into open rebellion, using his Muscatine station KTNT to spread misinformation. "Baker verbally assaulted the medical and veterinary professions, Iowa politicians, farm magazines and state universities while fanning the flames of rebellion in Cedar County," reports Little Village magazine. He convinced farmers that TB testing was a government plot built on fake science, claiming it would cause cow miscarriages and reduce milk production.
The stakes were enormous. "Families lost an average of $130 for each animal killed, a huge blow to family finances in the midst of the depression," according to Teaching Iowa History. When peaceful protests failed to make testing voluntary, farmers turned violent.
"The situation is out of control," warned James Risdon, Iowa's chief criminal investigator, after protesters hurled rocks at veterinarians while slashing gas lines and stuffing radiators with dirt. Governor Dan Turner responded by deploying 1,800 National Guard troops. Machine guns were positioned facing country roads while armed sentries patrolled the Tipton fairgrounds. Under this military shield, veterinary teams tested 5,000 cattle daily.
"Here comes the Army!" echoed across farmyards as troops with fixed bayonets poured from railcars, according to Cedar County Historical Society records. The show of force worked — most farmers stood down rather than face armed soldiers. The month-long operation concluded with just two arrests and one injury.
"If all that sounds familiar," notes Little Village, "consider this: In 1931, the Republican governor of Iowa who deployed the Guard troops was firmly on the side of science."
Previously:
• Woman arrested after not treating, isolating for active tuberculosis
• Smartphones enlisted in the war against tuberculosis
• Woman with tuberculosis faces jail time after refusing treatment and visiting a casino
• Some New Englanders in the 1800s believed that tuberculosis symptoms were caused by the dead
• Photo of a tuberculosis isolation tent in Haiti
• Not your great-great-grandfather's consumption