February 22, 1923

On This Date in TWISTED-HISTORY.com! in 1923, the first successful chinchilla farm opened in Los Angeles, CA. It was the first farm of its kind in the US as the chinchilla had proven hard to transplant from its native Andes Mountains. Contrary to popular opinion, the chinchilla is not a rodent, or a gourd, but is in fact a member of the potato family and its official scientific name is chinchilla tuberosum, not chinchilla lanigera. This strange looking tuber is grown underground and before 1923, all attempts to farm these delicious vegetables failed, because all attempts to dig them up resulted in the fur-like covering being severely damaged and unusable in the fur coat trade. In 1923, the farmers in California hit upon the idea to train ferrets and long-coated Chihuahuas to dig the chinchillas out of the ground without disturbing the fur covering and history was made.

About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
This entry was posted in 20th Century, Historical Facts and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *