On June 8, 1914, a new law was passed in San Antonio, Texas.

It was backed up by the city council.

And any person found in violation of this law could be fined up to $200.

It's around $6,000 today.

It's a pretty steep fine.

And the law was this.

It criminalized the killing of a very specific population.

It made it illegal for any person to willfully, wantonly, or maliciously kill any bat within the city limits.

No touching those flying creatures of the night.

Three years later, the governor signed a similar law.

Government officials were in a little bit of a bat craze,

thanks to a local doctor named Charles Campbell.

Dr. Campbell was what you would call a bat evangelist.

He called the winged mammals one of man's best friends.

There's this terrific photograph of Dr. Campbell standing on a bat roost.

There's these four concrete pillars that are each 10 feet tall.

Then there's this giant wooden steeple that's 30 feet tall.

He wanted people to raise backyard bats in towers just like these

because he was trying to cure one of the world's greatest health problems

by harnessing the power of bats.

And I'm looking at this photograph of Dr. Campbell and his municipal bat roost,

and I'm going, what in the heck is that?

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