Snakes, Why’d It Have To Be Snakes.

Found in the Sault News picked up from Iron Mountain Gazette, 9/25/1901.

The following snake story comes from Pembine says the Iron Mountain Gazette: “Mr. McCormick, a foreman on the Soo railroad, and his crew were attacked by a swarm of snakes while digging out a culvert in the railroad, and Mr. McCormick and his six men fought the snakes for fully two hours. ‘We had to use shovels, iron bars and axes to conquer the reptiles,’ McCormack says there were over five hundred of them and the shortest one was three feet long. After the fight was over, the snakes were piled up like a log pile and burned. The snake oil ran from the fire like a flowing spring. The like was never before known in the north. ‘I have traveled the world half over and saw reptiles as thick as the hair on a dog’s back, but the like of this scene I never witnessed and do not expect to witness it again.'”

Blue Racer Snakes grow to three feet or more long.

Authors Note: I think the workers dug into a nest of Blue Racer snakes. They are common throughout Michigan and Wisconsin including the southern Upper Peninsula. Blue Racers commonly grow to lengths of three to six feet long. They are very fast and are non-venomous though they can act formidable.

For more information on Blue Racer Snakes, click here.