Growing up in Stuart, my parents taught me to respect nature and not to fear it; this included snakes. I remember coming home from school and my mother having a captured or rescued non venomous snakes, opossums, raccoons, birds, turtles, squirrels, and other wildlife for my brother, sister and I to look at, learn about, and sometimes nurse, before releasing the animal. We got out our pocket sized, $1.00, Golden Nature Guides and pretend we were Jr. Scientist. It was fun and in fact these experiences remain some of my favorite memories of growing up along the Treasure Coast. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Guide)
My brother, sister and I were taught that snakes were God’s creatures, as all animals were, however frightening, dangerous or strange; that all animals held a miraculous and important place in the web of life and food chain that made the world work.
Truly, I don’t remember seeing many venomous snakes growing up in the 60s, 70s and 80s, just indigo, black racers, and orange and black rat snakes. Although there was one incident on Arbor Day in fifth grade at Jensen Beach Elementary School, when we were planting a class tree and a diamond back rattlesnake was warning us of its presence in nearby palmettos. The teacher fearfully huddled all the kids, and a maintenance man was called to behead the reptile. No explanation. No thought. Typical.
Now for the picture…
The above photo is one that my parents acquired in the early 2000s when looking at a piece of property on Indian River Drive in the 12,000 section. Properties in this area were once known as the historic Indian River Lagoon town of “Eden.”
My mother, a historian, often talks about how Eden could never fully develop, as Jensen did, as Eden backed up to the easterly savannas which are underwater a good portion of the year.
The gentleman who gave my parents the above photo, saw them walking around in the savannas behind the house, shared the photo, and warned them “to be careful.”
Yikes!
When I recently asked my mother to share this photo, she said “although she usually I likes to have more than one person’s story in regard to such matters, she did not think the photo was a hoax.” She also mentioned, she believes there is a photograph of a large rattlesnake killed by John Miller, who owned the property where the photo came from, at the St. Lucie County Historical Museum.
True or untrue, with all the development, and mankind’s propensity to kill snakes, there are probably very few of these giant rattlesnakes remaining anywhere in Florida. So a photo like this one is worth “remembering.”
One thing no one would question is that both the savannas and the Indian River Lagoon, are just shadows of what they used to be!
Venomous snakes of Florida: (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/fl-guide/venomsnk.htm)
Savannas State Park: (http://www.floridastateparks.org/resources/doc/individualparks/brochures/sav-brochure.pdf)
This snake was killed in South Georgia near where I live. The large eastern rattler was found in a cabbage patch in 1982.
Very interesting. I will tell my mother.
I have seen the original in newspaper, Tucker, Georgia 1936.
I’d love to see it too. I will search. Thx 4 comment!
Well, there is what looks like an original photo of this image at a hardware store in Cotulla, Texas that says that this snake was killed near Yorktown, Texas.
Maybe my mom and I were fooled. Thank you for your comment. In any case there were huge rattlers along today’s Indian River Drive. I need to pull the old accounts on the Baker property in today’s Indialucie. Huge!
Hello Jacqui. Now that this conversation has going on more than a year, I was just reminded of it this past weekend 1/18 when I was up in Cotulla, TX and saw the photo and read the citation in its own frame below it. The story was that it was killed in Teague, Texas. I initially couldn’t remember the town ( I initially said Yorktown). According to this story the man in the photo did not kill it himself. There are some references, the Teague historical society (or maybe chamber of commerce), and names of people who could verify the story. Who knows????
Have a great New Year.
Wow, I really appreciate your sharing this. Such a remarkable animal.
the man holding the snake is Lavon Granthem, he killed this snake on sept.1 1982 in a cabbage patch in south Georgia. The length and weight were not taken but from the picture I would estimate it was around 7 feet long and weighed upwards of 30 pounds. Eastern diamondbacks get much larger in girth than their western cousins.