Dipping Vat
Canton, Van Zandt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Before discovery of a dip (1894) and vaccine (1898), the American cattle industry faced ruin, as it lost $40 million annually from cattle tick fever. In 1918, tick eradication began in East Texas, with colorful, exciting "dipping days" enforced every two weeks from spring to fall. Sometimes citizens resented the compulsory dipping, and dynamited vats or held shootouts with authorities. This dipping vat is typical of 50 built in Van Zandt County. It was on the property of G. M. Hilliard (1856-1931), pioneer rancher and merchant. His estate in 1968 sold this park site to the city of Canton. (1973)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For decades the American cattle industry bled tens of millions of dollars a year to Texas tick fever, until a dip and a vaccine developed in the 1890s offered a defense. Beginning in 1918, East Texas mounted a tick-eradication campaign, herding cattle through chemical dipping vats every two weeks in a ritual known as 'dipping days.' The compulsory program was so unpopular that some citizens dynamited vats or met inspectors with gunfire; this surviving vat, one of about fifty in Van Zandt County, stood on rancher G. M. Hilliard's land.
Why it matters
The dipping vat marks a pivotal, often forgotten public-health war that saved the cattle economy of the South and West, and the resistance it provoked shows how deeply government intervention could unsettle rural communities.
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Related people
- · G. M. Hilliard
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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