Jackrabbit Rorschach test

Silver City, Nevada – Silver City’s jackrabbits can inspire all sorts of reactions – appreciation, humor, astonishment, and even fear. My mom, who lives in Indiana, came for a visit this summer. We were strolling along Silver City’s secret art trail, when she stopped suddenly and whispered, “What in the world is THAT?!” It took me a moment to realize she was pointing to a bolting jackrabbit.

Last year two of my sisters were here, and my 12 year old sister Ella was hiking far above us on a mountain trail. Suddenly my sister Jessica grabbed my arm and said, “Oh my God, Quest, what is that by Ella?” My heart was beating hard as I scanned the landscape to see if something like a mountain lion was sneaking up on Ella, but I couldn’t see anything alarming. I finally realized Jessica was pointing out a particularly large jackrabbit that was running by.

I was once given an admonition from Facebook when I posted a close-up photo of a huddled group of baby jackrabbits I’d found under a desert peach bush. Apparently, Facebook thought it was a photo of something altogether different.

When Oakland-based artist Scott MacLeod was a Resident Artist in Silver City in 2016, he took a series of photos of Silver City jackrabbits. He captured images of them running, nibbling, and peering at him from the hills above. Their odd faces can be comical and almost human.

Utah Poet Laureate David Lee was a Resident Artist in Silver City in 2017, and he also noticed the jackrabbits on his walks in the hills surrounding Silver City. He wrote that he saw “three jackrabbits almost within spitting distance of me, staring at me, all, and I could hear them wondering Who and what in the world is this? and two hawks directly overhead screeing, and I came back and then walked away, down, and the jackrabbits did not move, and the hawks, for a short way, lead the way, singing. Glory."

PHOTO BY Scott MacLeod

*Previously published as a column in the MVN in Sept. 2018.