Odd, Old News: Biggest Rattlesnake Ever?

Blue Rock near Cummings in Mendocino.

Blue Rock near Cummings in Mendocino. [Photo taken 1902 by Pliny E. Goddard]

Nuggets of old news is now being served up once a week by David Heller, one of our local historians.

Here’s a clipping from the Daily Humboldt Times on October 4, 1878 repeating a story in the Mendocino Beacon in which a man claims to have killed an odd looking rattlesnake near Cummings south of Leggett. [Note: Rattlesnake Creek is located near Cummings (1890 Rice and Baltzell map shows it was known by that name then). Also note that the largest rattlesnake officially recorded is 8 and 1/2 feet.]

October 4, 1878

SOME RATTLESNAKE.-R. S. Killer called at the Mendocino Beacon office last week and exhibited the rattles of a snake with which he had encountered several weeks ago near Blue Rock on the overland road to San Francisco.

He was riding over the mountains on horseback, when both himself and horse were startled at seeing a huge snake lying across the road, basking in the sun. He says the monster did not look like a rattlesnake in color, being dark green, and having white spots about the size of a silver quarter, which gave it the appearance of a boa constrictor.

He dismounted and went in search of a stick with which to dispatch the monster, and on coming back found his snakeship in battle array, his head raised about two feet above the ground, and its rattles playing a tune of warning.

A lively skirmish ensued, which lasted about ten minutes, in which the snake came out second best.

It measured eleven feet five inches from head to the tip of the rattles, and eleven inches in circumference at the largest part of the body. The rattles which were laid on our table were twenty-seven in number besides the button, and measured six and one half inches.

This, we think, is the largest rattlesnake ever killed in this vicinity.

We don’t recommend killing rattlesnakes if you can avoid it as they are fierce rodent predators. But has anyone else seen such a large snake in the area?

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39 Comments
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Willie Caso-Mayhem
Guest
4 years ago

🕯Did he taste good?

clearlake fool
Guest
clearlake fool
4 years ago

thats more than a one night tasty meal unless snake killer had someone with him .
a 5 footer is good enough for 2 or 3 people to munch on

Willie Caso-Mayhem
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  clearlake fool

🕯🌳Agreed. 👍🏾

Redwood Dan
Guest
Redwood Dan
4 years ago

This was a Rattler I had as a pet over the winter last year. Hew grew 6 inches and shed 3 times. He only rattled once and never struck at me.

guest
Guest
guest
4 years ago

Thanks, Kym! What a fun story, and those old maps are really cool!

crimestopper2
Guest
crimestopper2
4 years ago

the quantity of rattles means the snake never encountered a threat for a long time. Normally the rattles will break off when used often to defend itself. That’s a monster Pacific rattler and will never be matched in length ever again. Pretty interesting story. Thanks.

tax payer
Guest
tax payer
4 years ago

largest rattlesnake ever https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&ei=dw7CXIOYOoOAsQX77paQAw&q=biggest+rattlesnake+ever&oq=big+rattle+snakes&gs_l=psy-ab.1.1.0i71l8.0.0..6938…0.0..0.0.0…….0……gws-wiz.0suyGpccXtI

although i have seen pictures in folsom of rattlers that look to be ten feet

Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
4 years ago

The biggest one i know of was 59.5 inches, killed on black lassic. I killed one 54 inches on english peak in the marble mtns. In1961.So that was a huge one for a pacific rattler. Usually they are only 2 to 3 feet.

Twain lives
Guest
Twain lives
4 years ago

R.S.Killer? Really? Well, tall tales are an accepted part of life of the western US but it’s not for me to be overly precise. Nope, if not for the slight exaggerations, life would be very dull.

I have some whoppers in Florida, living in the Spanish Bayonets that cover the dunes next to the Atlantic. You could trip on the ditches they leave in the sand as they move. Now let me tell you about the Portuguese Man-o-war the size of dinner plates or the horseshoe crab that was so big that two boys were standing on it before they were shoo’d off and the monster dragged back to the ocean.

Big Bang
Guest
4 years ago

Not to nay say, but an eleven plus Pacific Crotalus? Ummmm. Gotta see a pic. Seen alot of Pacific rattlesnakes, and heard alot of claims. Biggest I have seen was just under 6′ and it was a monster in covelo about 40 years ago.It was a pet, and ate live trapped ground squirrels. It was hand tame and we used to take it to the store on beer runs…

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Big Bang

Was it green with white spots too?

gunther
Guest
gunther
4 years ago

From the photo, that looks like the perfect place to find snakes. Rock outcropping with lots of habitat for ground squirrels and mice, etc.

OrleansNative
Guest
OrleansNative
4 years ago

I officially like old, odd news from RHBB. Thank you.

Buzz
Guest
Buzz
4 years ago

Wow, what a great story!! I like picturing a stubborn ol timer snake and this guy having a showdown in the middle of the overland road. How many squirrels would fit inside a snake that large?!

Pure Cali Gold!

Somebody
Guest
Somebody
4 years ago

My old man killed one by Lake Pillsbury 6 foot+ he’s over six foot and had to hold it up so it didn’t drag the ground 19 rattles and that’s counting one side like your supposed to

Another fishwife
Guest
Another fishwife
4 years ago
Reply to  Somebody

My cousin killed one in our back field in Palo Cedro (Redding area) in 1960. The snake was six and a half feet, and hanging from the porch rafters he touched the floor.

Okie
Guest
Okie
4 years ago

I’ve enjoyed all of these history stories. All I can say about that rattler is “the bigger the tastier “.

crimestopper2
Guest
crimestopper2
4 years ago

For the time line of 1878, its possible to have found lots of rarities when mankind hadn’t set foot yet. Yep, an abundant supply of rabbits and ground squirrels, would have been the perfect recipe for growing larger faster than one would expect and surviving for a long time. What would be a good guess on age? I’d approximate 20-30 years old and possibly even older.
The color pattern isn’t fixed firm always by mother nature. Unique pattern arise. I had a herpetologist show me a pickled rattler that looked like a king snake White/brown pattern 60 years ago.

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
4 years ago
Reply to  crimestopper2

I’ve seen a rattler that looked very similar to a King snake. On the river bar near big flat… at first I thought it was a weird king snake with odd coloring (not all black and white but with that pattern) but it ended with a set a rattles on its tail. The king snake pattern faded into green as it went towards the tail.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
4 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Here is the obverse of what you saw Ullr— locals have told me that they have seen this pattern in young rattlers…

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
4 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Thanks for the picture. I’m pretty sure it was the reverse of that but it was some years ago. Also, it didn’t look like a young rattler because it was 3-4 feet long with quite a few sets of rattles.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
4 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

And thank you Ullr for sharing your anomalous coloration story. Dan’s photo above doesn’t seem to be a young rattler either… I was hoping to lure a herpetologist to the blog to discuss the striped phenomena, or the white spots on green as described in the article. Like now, almost everyone in the 1870’s-’80’s used a pseudonym when writing in to the Humboldt newspapers… hence the name used– R.S. Killer.

burblestein
Guest
burblestein
4 years ago

So R(attle) S(nake) Killer is to be believed?

BajaBear
Guest
BajaBear
4 years ago

I worked at a summer camp in that area in the late ’60’s. It was not at all unusual to see rattlesnakes sunning themselves on rocks by the river, or just sliding through the underbrush.

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
4 years ago

I’ve seen a dark green rattlesnake in Legget. The pattern was irregular but no circles. It’s possible it’s a different species or subspecies of Pacific rattler.

TD
Guest
TD
4 years ago

I rather doubt the guy was carrying a tape measure in his saddlebags, so he probably paced it off in size 9 boots, and if the snake was still flopping around after killing it such pacing would be doubly inaccurate.

But what’s a good rattlesnake story without a bit of embellishment?

Anon Forrest
Guest
Anon Forrest
4 years ago

Pathetic loss of the best wood rat predator in the hills. I’ve had the same rattlesnake in a winter den under my (out door) bathtub for years. We enjoy mutual respect. Ground squirrels have developed an immunity to the toxin, as have most cats. Citified humans, not so much; although 9 out of 10 “bites” are defensive and without venom. Get a grip. RSs are way cool.

Dogbitter
Guest
Dogbitter
4 years ago

Walking in a dried out field around McCann in about 62, deer hunting. An old, wooden hay wagon was sitting there so I just put my foot up on the tongue to rest a minute. Rattler in the shade of the tongue. Saw him just as my boot touched the wood. Jumped back and snake struck the tongue. Had to cut 2 feet off the wagon tongue to save it.

Steve Parr
Guest
Steve Parr
4 years ago

Here’s my big rattlesnake story (from Texas, and I know they’re big liars in Texas, but I’m from here, and you can believe me).

I had a friend with a ’74 Chevy pickup, with a built-up 454 in it. We used to rip around at 100 mph+, drinking moonshine and shooting at coyotes. Coming out of a ravine one day, flying up through a cut in the bank, we got air over a small telephone pole laying across the road, one end in the dirt on the shoulder, and the other end in the opposing lane. I was on the passenger side; as we passed over it, I saw that it was moving – not from being hit, but slithering.

There was a rattlesnake skin twelve feet long on a board in a tack-shop in a neighboring town. We’d just seen its daddy, and I was determined to get it. By the time I got the driver to turn around and go back (he was born and raised around there, and knew better than to be chasing after such a snake), the tail was just disappearing over the top of the cut-bank. Grabbing the bumper-jack out of the back, I scrabbled up over the rocks in a cloud of dust, hopped over the barbed-wire fence at the top, and waded out into the brush, waving that bumper jack over my head, ready to claim my prize.

I made it about thirty feet before getting hung up on mesquite thorns, and as I untangled myself, I realized I was chasing after a fifteen-foot rattlesnake in brush so thick I couldn’t see my feet – but he could.

I picked my way out of there pretty quick.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Steve Parr

Was that twelve foot skin right next to the jackalope? That was pretty common going through Texas.

Steve Parr
Guest
Steve Parr
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

The twelve-footer was on a board in a tack shop in Slaton, Texas, about twenty miles S.E. of Lubbock on Highway 84.

The one we ran over was on a two-lane road outside of Post, Texas, which is 43 miles S.E. of Lubbock, on Highway 84.

Saw a lot of jackalope while I was down there, but never a live one.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
4 years ago

Great comments everyone! I seem to have called up snake energy by posting three weeks in a row with snake stories…. two days ago I bent over to retrieve where I put the nozzle of my garden hose in a potted Mock Orange tree, and there by the pot, in the mid afternoon sun on the cool bare ground, was a rattlesnake who raised his head and flicked the air with a noticeably long black tongue. As my feet were, and I measured it later, two and a half feet from him, I did immediately shout but quickly recovered to utter a “Hi Beautiful”. We had a peaceful communion for a minute or two, and he never attempted to coil but slowly turned and headed into the shade under my deck. It moved so slowly away that I could approximately count the rattles, with six definite and two or three more that were there- I couldn’t get a fix on the littlest ones as it moved away. The ringed pattern was present for the last foot or so of its 4 1/2 to 5 foot length. I didn’t know it was so long at first but it just kept unpiling itself as it undulated away. Not a monster like some people’s accounts, but as I have only seen one other rattlesnake in twenty two years on the property, it was memorable by virtue of being infrequent, and very close, yet not threatening. Vigilance is now in mind, and my lower deck steps all get a back board!

Steve Parr
Guest
Steve Parr
4 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

We used to get them coiled up underneath the dog-house steps on the drilling rigs in the oil-fields of West Texas. We had to pay attention coming down the steps because it was hard to hear them over the roar of the rig, but if you listened good you’d hear them buzzing, reminding you to jump clear and come back with a shovel to cut them up.

I was sitting on a big dirt-clod from the mud-pits on a new location one day, eating my lunch. The rest of the crew stood in a half-circle in front of me, eating and talking. I noticed the conversation had ceased, and I looked up to see them looking at my feet. Moving my lunch out of the way, I looked down to see a scorpion on my boot. Kicking it off, I went back to eating, but was interrupted by one of them calling my name. Looking up, I saw them still looking below me and, moving my lunch and looking down again, saw the head of a rattlesnake which was crawling out from under the dirt clod on which I sat.

I don’t remember jumping, but I was suddenly standing with the rest of the crew, watching that rattlesnake and thinking, “Where else but West Texas could I be sitting there minding my own business, eating my lunch with a scorpion on my boot and a rattlesnake under my ass?”

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
4 years ago
Reply to  Steve Parr

Such a story! When I lived in the SW briefly in the early 1970’s the rattlesnakes were evolving not to rattle… ever hear of such a thing in Texas Steve?

Steve Parr
Guest
Steve Parr
4 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

No, they rattled like a sonofabitch.