Posted on 03/29/2025 10:37:38 AM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
Early on the morning of Oct. 28, 1925, Kate heard gunshots in the direction of the pond on her land. It was not an unusual incident, as duck hunters often frequented the area near the pond, despite the “No Hunting” signs Kate had staked around the pond on posts. Kate’s common practice was to saddle her horse and pack her .22 rifle after the gunshots ceased, and ride to the pond to collect the dead fowl left behind by the hunters. This day was no different.
After Kate saddled her horse and packed her rifle, Ernie, who was then 3, in front of her in the saddle and rode toward the pond. Leaving her son in the saddle Kate dismounted and tethered the horse to a bush about 40 feet from the pond. She grabbed her rifle and opened the gate to enter the pond area. At the gate, Kate saw a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike.
She shot it immediately.
Perhaps the report of firepower alerted the snakes in their nearby den. Three more emerged, slithering in Kate’s direction. Unflinching, Kate shot them all. Then, the rattlers began to appear from all directions.
Kate thought quickly. With no time to reload, she pulled the fence post from the ground and began beating and stabbing the slithering reptiles. The battle went on for an unbelievable two hours. During the horror, little Ernie’s cries must have been heartbreaking, but there was nothing Kate could do for her son but beat back the snake invasion.
(Excerpt) Read more at cowboystatedaily.com ...
Why didn’t the District Judge issue a TRO against her requiring her to let the rattlesnakes babysit her baby?
I bought some of those for my .38 and they would jam. Garbage.
What a great story. They certainly stopped making people like that many years ago. Fascinating woman.
****Completely opposite to the characteristics of rattlesnakes to attack in mass or even come one on one when not cornered. Sort of like Pecos Bill riding a Texas tornado in his story.****
My rattlesnake story of coming off a New Mexico mountain at dusk and having to walk through masses of rattlesnakes supports your post.
My younger half brother (13) and I were in a mess, with them everywhere, 5 feet away, 20 feet away, 10 feet, everywhere, for a while I carried him but we had a long distance to cover, we had a junkie old flashlight but there were so many that using the little flashlight was slowing us up and not helping all that much, finally I decided to just turn off the light and walk crisply and hope the rattlers would succeed in avoiding us, although we did go back to the flashlight for a little while after noticing that we had stepped on each side of one as we walked rapidly side by side.
The rattlesnake experience was surreal, I don’t know where they all came from or why they were spread so thickly over such a large area, but as far as attacking they were no different than they usually are, which means they didn’t pursue us as in this article. We also have a couple of rattlesnake stories from that day going up the mountain, but that night experience completely overwhelms those normal experiences.
The myth of gun slingers and the wild west is vastly overrated as even most women and kids knew how to handle guns.
I took the cover off a cistern on some property my parents were looking at buying when I was a kid and there were probably 500 black snakes in there. I was in heaven!
The only point is, they only congretate for hibernation. They were either preparing for hibernation or waking up when she sadly stumbled upon them.
Your comment is plausible. My uncle “gassed” a rock den on our place one time. 41 rattlers came out. Another time I was visiting and watching Grandpa walking through the pasture in front of the house. He stopped and started stomping his feet. Then he walked on. I asked later and he said, “Stepped on a rattler so I just kept stomping ‘til I killed it.”
But give me a rattler anytime over a cottonmouth, they are bad juju.
That is one hell of a story !
I was walking along a creek one time while squirrel hunting and had a huge cottonmouth charge right at me with its cotton mouth wide open for effect. I was standing between him and the water, and as soon as he got in it he submarined off.
Snakes don’t want anything to do with people. They just want to get away.
“Water Moccasins?”
^This^
Many years ago, a friend and I were fishing (in his homemade canoe, like fools) WAY back in a SW Louisiana game preserve, and we drifted in to what I’m thinking was a breeding area at the height of the season. They were swarming toward the canoe from all directions, some already in the water and others slithering into the water from the bank.
My friend argued to stay - but only for a minute, until he realized the insane number of aggressive moccasins heading toward us - at which point he agreed to GTHO of there ASAP, especially since we were sitting only inches above the water line. It was the stuff of nightmares (having a degree in zoology didn’t help lol).
There was a narrow gauge railroad built in my area of the Eastern Sierra of California back in the late 1800s that went all the way to Moundhouse, Nevada near Carson City to reach the Comstock Lode.
Glad you found a copy of the book, I know you will enjoy it!
After quite a few encounters with both I much prefer dealing with a Rattler over a Cottonmouth, but that’s just me.
Happened to a friend of mine back in the early ‘90s as he was coming down a mountain pass from Nevada in his car at sunset. He said that there were seemingly hundreds of rattlesnakes on the two lane road as he headed down toward the valley and he ran over several dozen as he couldn’t avoid them.
But if cornered or surprised, they will defend themselves. So I'd speculate that if this gal and her horse were basically right on top of a den of snakes, they were coming out of the ground and finding themselves within their own perceived "threat range." As such they might turn to attack rather than simply trying to get away. Or maybe they were trying to get away and Kate just was in Total Attack Mode after the first bunch and killing them all as they became visible. I wouldn't blame her.
The topography may also affect this. Since it was adjacent to a pond, escaping in that direction would not have been an option. Perhaps the lay of the land where this happened made the snakes feel more trapped/boxed in than normal, making them more aggressive? No matter how the snakes were perceiving it, I can believe Kate felt like she was under attack, and responded accordingly.
"Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?!"
I’ve got timber rattler snake hide I tanned in a glass frame on my deck. Shot it 2 years ago by my well. Had two chipmunks in it’s belly. I put it there as a reminder to the grandkids to stay on the paths I made in the woods and look where your stepping!
****Happened to a friend of mine back in the early ‘90s as he was coming down a mountain pass from Nevada in his car at sunset. He said that there were seemingly hundreds of rattlesnakes on the two lane road as he headed down toward the valley and he ran over several dozen as he couldn’t avoid them.****
Glad to hear, my experience was so unbelievable that I started doubting my memory after some years, years later I was visiting and my half brother told the story exactly as I had remembered it, hearing your friends experience makes me feel better also.
I had an experience like your friend in Washington State, except with frogs, 1000s and 1000s of them crossing a forest road and my car squashing them by the 100s.
Thanks for That!
.
There’s a scene in “Lonesome Dove” that I Fast Forward-—SNAKES !
I’ve never seen an Agressive one in the wild as they try to avoid you.
Rattlers fear me.
Sure, who knows, unique circumstances could have created an unusual twist to the normal average of things.
Now that's wild! My brother and I were fishing the Owens River near Crowley Lake and Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra back in 1968 and in the tall grass alongside the river were hundreds of tiny baby toads, and I do mean hundreds. Never have seen anything like it since.
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