Long before highways, smartphones, and state lines, the American continent was a vast and untamed frontier shaped by conflict, courage, and contradiction. From peculiar pilgrim beliefs to brutal bounty systems and geyser-powered laundry hacks, the story of early America is filled with unexpected twists and little-known truths. In this collection, we’ve gathered 50 surprising, strange, and sometimes shocking facts that shed new light on the people, places, and events that helped shape a nation. Whether you’re a history buff or just curious about the wild origins of the United States, these bite-sized stories offer a fresh and fascinating look at America’s earliest days.
1 When Isolation Drove Settlers Mad
Prairie Madness deeply affected settlers-especially immigrants to the USA -living in the prairies during the 1800s. The extreme isolation of remote life triggered mental breakdowns. Fortunately, the condition largely disappeared once telephones and railroads connected these regions.
2. Honeybees are not native to North America. When Europeans introduced them, they spread faster than the colonists themselves. As a result, Native Americans came to view the arrival of the “white man’s fly” as a sign that European settlers were approaching.
3. Catholic pressure led to early laws against the exploitation of Native Americans in the colonies, beginning as early as 1512. Eventually, the Pope entirely outlawed their enslavement and encouraged even more pro-Native legislation. However, settlers largely ignored or actively opposed these laws.
4. Most of North America’s earthworms are non-native. An ice sheet wiped out the native species about 10,000 years ago. Later, settlers introduced European earthworms in the 18th century, and most earthworms today descend from those introduced species.
5. Early American colonists once stood in awe at the sheer abundance of fish. One settler marveled, “There was as great a supply of herring as there is water. In a word, it is unbelievable, indeed, indescribable-as also incomprehensible-what quantity is found there. One must behold it oneself.”
6 Squirrel Scalps for Taxes
Squirrels plagued colonial America as voracious pests. In response, colonies imposed bounties to reduce their numbers, and some even accepted squirrel scalps as tax payments. Over time, colonists became such skilled marksmen from hunting squirrels that they later proved devastatingly accurate against British troops during the Revolution.
7. As many as 30 to 60 million bison once roamed the North American plains. Tragically, that number plummeted to just 1,000 before conservation efforts helped the population recover to around 500,000 today. The U.S. government had actively encouraged bison extermination to starve Native Americans and force them onto reservations.
8. Rough-and-tumble fighting, also known as “gouging,” emerged as a brutal martial art in rural southern and frontier areas during the 18th and 19th centuries. Fighters often aimed to mutilate their opponents, making it one of the most disturbing combat practices in early American history.
9. The real Johnny Appleseed did plant apple trees across the American frontier. However, settlers primarily used those apples to produce hard cider, as clean drinking water remained scarce. Consequently, cider became a safer and more popular beverage.
10. Twenty-six families from the Mayflower are known to have left descendants. Today, over 30 million people are believed to trace their ancestry back to those original Mayflower passengers.
11 Burning the Pope Annually
Colonists in pre-Revolutionary America celebrated Guy Fawkes Night by burning effigies of the Pope. They called the event Pope Night, and it served as both a public spectacle and a show of anti-Catholic sentiment.
12. Pemmican, a survival food made from crushed dried meat, suet, and berries, played a vital role for early Canadian settlers. In fact, its importance was so great that conflicts and even wars erupted over access to it.
13. John Rolfe became the first settler to successfully cultivate commercial tobacco in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1609. By 1614, he had shipped the first batch to England. By 1638, annual exports reached 3 million pounds, and by the 1680s, Jamestown was producing over 25 million pounds for export to Europe.
14. The Spanish were the first Europeans to settle the Florida Keys. When they discovered a burial mound on one of the southernmost islands, they named it Caya Hueso-Spanish for “Bone Island.” The name was later Anglicized to Key West. Spain officially ceded Florida to the United States in 1821.
15. Early Spanish explorers traveling through what is now the Eastern United States described large Native American towns centered around massive earthen mounds, ruled by a leader known as the “Great Sun.” Tragically, by the time British settlers arrived, disease had already decimated these original civilizations.
16 Wampum Inflation Crashed Currency
Wampum, strings of beads used by Native Americans for trade, diplomacy, and storytelling, also functioned as currency. When colonists adopted the practice, they discovered how to mass-produce wampum, which led to inflation and eventually made the currency obsolete.
17. Lobsters were once so abundant when early European settlers arrived in North America that massive piles-reportedly up to two feet high-would wash ashore, shocking newcomers with their sheer numbers.
18. Dutch settlers most likely named Coney Island in New York City after the large population of rabbits-called “coneys” in archaic English-they found along the island’s coastline.
19. One of the few reliable historical accounts of Pocahontas includes a vivid memory: she reportedly performed naked cartwheels to amuse and entertain the settlers.
20. The first Polish settlers arrived in Jamestown in 1608-twelve years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. Captain John Smith brought them over for their skilled craftsmanship. When they were denied voting rights in 1619, they organized a strike-the first documented labor protest in U.S. history.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Skies Darkened by Pigeons
The passenger pigeon, once the most abundant bird in North America during the 19th century-with an estimated population of 5 billion-moved in flocks so dense they darkened the sky for days. Hunters pursued them relentlessly for sport, ultimately driving the species to extinction. The last known wild bird was shot in 1901.
22. Life in Puritan New England proved so harsh and rigid that many children abducted by Native Americans refused to return to their colonial families, choosing instead to remain with their captors.
23. Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, a strong advocate for peace between Native Americans and white settlers, suffered betrayal twice. Despite agreements of non-hostility, American troops attacked his village on two occasions, ultimately killing and mutilating him along with over 200 Cheyenne villagers.
24. In 1780, an eerie event known as Dark Day plunged New England into darkness. Wildfires in Ontario, combined with unusual atmospheric conditions, blackened the sky so thoroughly that residents needed candles during the day. In parts of New Hampshire, ash blanketed the ground up to six inches deep.
25. One early Spanish explorer of the American Southwest encountered a Native man they called “The Turk,” who spoke of a rich land to the east. He later confessed that he invented the story to lure the Spaniards away from Pueblo communities-hoping they’d perish from starvation on the plains.
RE: Fact #45 (Boobies Named for Clumsy Ways) – That’s also why someone might be called a boob.
RE: Fact #1 (When Isolation Drove Settlers Mad) – That place looked totally deserted. Even in old pictures and films, I’d never want to live there. Just you, the plains, and the buffalo.
Man, those Santa Ana winds in the LA hills were brutal. My old wooden house sounded like it was going to fall apart!
RE: Fact #39 (Pilgrims Fled Dutch Tolerance) – They weren’t escaping religious persecution; they were looking for a place where *they* could persecute others.
That made me think of a line from Eurotrip. America was started by a bunch of prudes who fled Europe to escape all the wild sex. Now I, Cooper Harris, am going back to my ancestors’ land to claim my birthright – a whole bunch of crazy sexual adventures.
It’s pretty clear how they acted once they arrived.
RE: Fact #49 (Puritans Banned Christmas Celebrations) – Christmas wasn’t always the family-friendly thing we know today. For a long time, it was more like a crazy party with pranks and lots of drinking – way wilder than even the wildest office party now.
RE: Fact #49 (Puritans Banned Christmas Celebrations) – They left England for a reason, alright? They weren’t just a bunch of reasonable folks who got a raw deal. They were fanatics, total nutjobs nobody could tolerate.
RE: Fact #34 (Newark: A Puritan Ark) – It’s become a really impure city!
RE: Fact #25 (The Turk Tricked Explorers) – Maybe he was guiding them toward the Mississippian people – those folks were famous for their metalwork, remember the Spanish were crazy for gold? And he was also trying to steer them away from the Pueblos.
RE: Fact #17 (Lobsters Piled on Shorelines) – Whoa, Carl! Don’t eat that giant water bug!
Nah, just kidding, they cost a fortune these days.
RE: Fact #16 (Wampum Inflation Crashed Currency) – Let’s bring back the wampum standard.
RE: Fact #6 (Squirrel Scalps for Taxes) – Womp rats are to Luke Skywalker as squirrels are to colonists.
RE: Fact #33 (Pilgrims Settled Ghost Village) – Early on, Europeans and Native Americans bumped into each other—fishermen, mostly. Basque fishermen might have even cooked up a simple way to talk with the locals.
The difference in population before Europeans arrived is pretty clear if you read about Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain. Cartier described the St-Lawrence Iroquois village of Hochelaga, which was gone when Champlain got there. It seems like tribal fighting over a key spot was the reason.
RE: Fact #7 (Bison Massacre by Design) – Buffalo were wiped out for a bunch of reasons, none of them good. It was a total disaster.
The government wanted to starve out Native Americans, especially the Sioux and Lakota, by killing off their food source.
Railroads also hated buffalo. A single buffalo wasn’t a big deal, but entire herds would wreck trains. And while there were train hunting parties, they weren’t as common as people think because leaving all that meat to rot was a waste of money.
Buffalo hides were super valuable – about a week’s wages for a factory boss. They were fashionable in Europe, but even without that, factories needed the leather. Plus, there were butchers who processed the meat and others who collected bones for fertilizer.
Lots of Civil War vets, many with PTSD, took these jobs. It was good money for a while, but some thrived, and others… well, let’s just say they didn’t always make it to retirement.
Finally, settlement and new technology finished them off. Barbed wire stopped the buffalo from roaming, and as railroads spread settlements, farmers fenced off land, blocking the buffalo’s migration routes.
RE: Fact #4 (Earthworms: Foreign Invaders Beneath) – Since they are not native they’re causing real trouble. They mess with the underground fungus networks that trees use to talk to each other, making northeastern trees die much sooner. It might be happening elsewhere, but I haven’t looked into that yet.
RE: Fact #1 (When Isolation Drove Settlers Mad) – Michael Lesy’s 1973 book, *Wisconsin Death Trip*, paints a grim picture of life in Black River Falls from 1890 to 1900. It uses photos by Charles Van Schaik and newspaper stories about all sorts of bad stuff – epidemics, suicides, bank failures, the whole shebang. The title and the book itself reflect the vibe of the time and are all about understanding what made those people tick back then and there.
RE: Fact #8 (Fighting Meant Eye Gouging) – Backwoods fighting in the southern and western US was brutal. The main thing was really messing people up—tearing them apart. But the absolute best move was gouging out an eye; it was like a knockout punch in boxing. The real pros were good at other fighting stuff too. Some even sharpened their teeth to make biting off limbs easier. Getting an eye out fast was the quickest way to win, the ultimate bragging right. This spread as far west as Missouri, where a skilled fighter could pop someone’s eyes out with just his thumbs. Getting your eye taken out was a big shame.
RE: Fact #5 (Colonists Drowned in Fish) – Historical animal numbers are seriously depressing.
Thinking about how things have changed lately is kind of a bummer. I used to see tons of fireflies every summer, whole swarms of them! Now, you’re lucky to see a couple in a backyard.
RE: Fact #3 (Colonists Ignored Papal Orders) – The Pope’s Sublimis Deus bull said enslaving Native Americans was wrong because they were people, not property—a sin! This led to new Spanish laws trying to stop the abuse, but the landowners weren’t happy about it.
RE: Fact #31 (Samoset Asked Pilgrims for Beer) – Handy phrases to know when learning a new language: “Where’s the loo?” and “Can I get a beer?”
RE: Fact #15 (Mound Cities Lost to Time) – Did Native Americans have any diseases that Europeans caught? Seems weird it was one-sided, right? Honest question.
RE: Fact #13 (Tobacco Empire Began in Jamestown) – Back then, it was against the law to take tobacco plants or seeds out of the Caribbean, so he basically snuck them out.
Bringing tobacco to Virginia had some major downsides: it led to a big jump in slavery and really hurt the small farmers. Plantations using slaves could out-compete the small guys who couldn’t afford slaves. Tobacco farming was a lot of work, so having slaves was a big deal for the big tobacco growers. Where the plantation was also mattered—land along the river was best because they didn’t have to haul the tobacco far to get it to the ships. And tobacco farming is rough on the soil, so the huge plantations could just move to a new spot when they needed to.
RE: Fact #12 (Pemmican Wars in Canada) – That’s what those Antarctic explorers lugged around, right? Light as a feather, but packed with calories.
RE: Fact #9 (Cider, Not Apples, First) – He was farming that land, so he also claimed it – I think there was a Missouri law saying something like, “If you farm it, you own it.”
RE: Fact #35 (Blackbirds Blocked Bachelor Marriages) – Did the guys just start keeping the birds in their barns and houses, feeding them until they needed six?