<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

"The Million Year Picnic" is a 4000-word short story by Ray Bradbury, about a family from Earth that emigrates to Mars. The story was first published in the Summer, 1946 issue of Planet Stories.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

A family takes a rocketship to Mars, ostensibly for a fishing trip. But once there the Dad blows up the rocket, while promising to show his boys some “real martians.” Except for this family, Mars is abandoned, with only ruins left, and Earth is a dying planet because of a world war. Another family will follow soon, but after that the father does not expect anyone to come. He promises his boys that they can pick out any of the ruined cities for their very own. Once settled, he shows the boys their reflections in the water, and says these are the real Martians now.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 8 (1946).

The Million Year Picnic would later take its place as the final story in Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.