August 2, 2002
A Google internet search using the three words rattlesnake, pioneer, and Iowa yielded interesting reports of rattlesnakes in the Kiron, Iowa area along Otter Creek in Crawford County. A lot of information about the early pioneer history of this area comes from Glenn Gustafson website (2000a). This website includes two histories of original pioneer settlers (Waldemer 1947; Johnson 1915), both of which talk about rattlesnakes and settlers that were bitten. Charley Waldemer (1947) mentions that their neighbor, John Hoaglund, had two daughters bitten by rattlesnakes and that one of them died from the bite. I contacted the historian of the Hoaglund family, Allen Hoaglund, and he provided some more information. Although specifics on the snakes or medical reaction (other than death of one) have not been passed down in the family, he provided some information [e-mail correspondence of August 2] about the day one daughter was bitten.
"She [Mathilda Hoglund - spelling changed in descendants] was born Feb. 02, 1869 in Fayette County, Iowa. She was going to the fields with her two older sisters (10 and 8 yrs) taking lunch to the men.
I do not know the relationship of the house to the location of the snake bite, but I presume that some sort of grain was being either cut or gathered into bundles and placed in shocks. As her death occurred on July 18, 1872, I presume this was the day she was bitten [could have been a day or two earlier JFM]. The farm was in Otter Creek Township just west of present day Highway 39 south of Kiron, Iowa 1-2 miles. "
A younger sister, Christine, was bitten sometime later (Allen did not know the date) and survived. At that time, the family obviously thought this was a venomous snake, since Allen says they attributed her survival to the father sucking out the venom and Christine being doped with whiskey (Hoaglund 2000b). This is consistent with the account of a neighbor, who was living at the time, Casey Waldemer (1947). He refers to both daughters being bitten by rattlesnake. Allen also mentioned that the farm was virgin prairie when they settled.
There are two other credible reports that indicate that some rattlesnakes were in the area at least until the 1940's. One report is from a farmer who told others that back in 1920's, when he would pick up hay with the pitchfork, he would occasionally find a rattlesnake under the hay. This was on the Youngberg farm about a mile south of Kiron (Mauritz 2002 - personal communication). Another was from Glenn Gustafson (Gustafson 2002c) about his grandmother who encountered and killed a rattlesnake in her summer kitchen during the summer of 1943. Both of these accounts are written up as separate reports (Report 73 and Report 74).
Glenn, who left the area in the 50's, indicates that there were a lot of rattlesnake stories around when he was growing up and even the occasional road-killed rattlers. The kids (more of his folks generation) would especially look for them along the Otter Creek bed. Glen said: "I heard plenty of stories of the rattlers when I was a kid growing up. The Otter Creek river bed was a popular place. Lots of sand layers in the slopes of that valley and stones too. Most of the scary stories were about when they got into the buildings." He knew the difference between rattlesnakes and bull snakes, but I did not ask him about fox snakes. However, he apparently didn't find any himself - he just heard of them being around and knew where kids in the past used to look for them.
Most people I contacted (city office of Kiron, naturalist of Crawford County, Kiron lumberyard owner) were not aware of any recent accounts of rattlesnakes, so I suspect they either are gone (extirpated) or in much fewer numbers than back in the 40's when people were more aware of their being in the area.
Although it is possible that these were prairie rattlesnakes, I think it more likely that they were massasauga. The prairie rattlesnake needs short grassland and most folks I talked to said the Kiron area is and was all long grassland (Gustafson 2000d; McMinimee 2000), although the Crawford County naturalist (phone call of August 5, 2002) thought there might be enough areas of short grass to provide suitable habitat. Although there were a number of prairie pastures remaining until at least the 1960's (Gustafson 2000d), pictures on Glenn's web site (2002a) and the topo map indicate gently rolling hills most of which have been plowed removing most of the prairie habitat. If the snakes were prairie rattlesnakes, they would be dependent on big rodent holes for denning, since there is no exposed limestone. Many of the rodent holes along with the grassland habitat would be gone with the cultivation long before the 1940's when they are still known to occur in the area.
There are a few hints that suggest these rattlesnakes might have been massasauga. The first is that there are no hints in any of the pioneer (Waldemer 1947; Johnson 1915) or more recent accounts (Gustafson 2002b and Mauritz 2002) of people's knowledge of denning sites where large number of snakes would be concentrated just before or after hibernation. Such dens, used by a large number of snakes are characteristic of the prairie rattle and timber rattlesnake [least likely possibility]. On the other hand massasauga would be more dispersed in their wintering since they den individually in crayfish burrows. Otter Creek should have had suitable crayfish burrows since it has been known historically to have had lots of crayfish according to a retired farmer (Mauritz 2002). The Crawford County naturalist says Otter Creek still has lots of crayfish. The rattlesnake accounts were all from farms close to Otter Creek, and Otter Creek is also where Glenn says boys used to hunt for them [see account above]. Massasauga are still known to use upland areas around the wet areas (Szymanski 1998) so this assumption is consistent with snakes wandering into buildings (Gustafson 2000b and 2000c) and found in the hay in the field (Mauritz 2002).
There was also probably enough marsh or swampy area to support some massasauga. Glenn talks about two valleys [draws] in his great great grandpa's century farm next to theirs that were never plowed at least until the 60's. The valleys were always wet and filled with slough grass which was scratchy and stood eight feet tall (I am quite sure this is prairie cord or Spartina pectinata). He can remember remember "chasing cattle through 'paths' and 'trails' in these grass stands and feeling like I [he] was in a 'jungle'." (Gustafson 2000d). There were also fresh water springs on his farm that I assume helped feed these moist areas. There was at least enough long slough hay (chord grass) in the early days to have it used along with straw for thatching (Johnson 1915). However, currently there is very little marsh or swamp area in or adjacent to Otter Creek except for the stream bed itself (observation of the Crawford County naturalist) and that raises the question if there is still enough wetland habitat to support massasauga. Some of the wet area isgone because the marshy bottomland has been tiled. For instance, Glenn (2000d) talks about a 4 acre area adjacent to his farm that was tiled and subsequently plowed. If this were massasauga, one would expect it elsewhere on the Boyer River that Otter Creek drains into and there are also early accounts of rattlesnakes further downstream on the Boyer from Dunlop (Report 76). There is also a good newspaper account from Missouri Valley (Anonymous, 1898; Report 78) but the five foot size of the rattlesnake from is really too big for massasauga. Another fact that does not fit massasauga or prairie rattler is Glenn's recollection that the reputed size of the rattlers was bigger than the 5 to 6 foot bull snakes he encountered. I tend to discount that since sizes tend to get exaggerated and such a big size would only fit the size of timber rattler. Timber rattlers would be more out of the known range than the other two rattlers and timber doesn't fit as well in terms of habitat. It is also possible that, as the rattlesnakes became less common, some long (up to 54 inches) fox snakes or even bull snakes could be mistaken for rattlesnakes.
The early accounts of rattlesnakes and bites, combined with the death of Mathilda Hoglund from a snake bite, make the presence of some rattlesnake in the area early on quite certain. I think the snakes were most likely massasauga and less possibly prairie rattlesnakes. It appears from conversations with local people that these rattlesnakes are either extirpated or currently in such low numbers that they are rarely encountered. The fact that they did remain until at least the 1940's, long after cultivation, opens the possibility that there still may be a few left, but if so there numbers are VERY low. I will share this report with the Crawford County naturalist so she can be aware that rattlesnakes have historically been in the area.
Numbers of rattlesnakes in the county must have been historically low
in the county since it did not opt for establishing a bounty. Cecilia
M. Fineran (e-mail of 15th of August), the Crawford County Auditor checked
the records of the county board of supervisor's minutes and found no record
of bounties from 1909 when the state authorized counties to establish a
bounty until 1943.
REFERENCES
[Anonymous], 1898 Monday June 6th section in Thursday June 9th. edition of Missouri Valley Times
Bounty for Destruction of Rattlesnakes, Laws of the Thirty-Third General Assembly Jan 11- April 9, 1909. [additional to section twenty-three hundred forty-eight (2348) of the code, relating to bounties.]
Fineran, C. 2002 Snakes, snakes, snakes. E-mail to author of August 15, 2002
Gustafson, G.. 2002a (June 8th version) Kiron Kountry. Internet site available from url: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~gwgustaf/. Accessed on August 5, 2002.
Gustafson, G. 2002b Re: Problem links. E-mail to author of August 3, 2002
Gustafson, G. 2002c Re: Now I am excited. E-mail to author of August 3, 2002
Gustafson, G. 2002d Re: Preview on report on rattlesnakes. E-mail to author of August 6, 2002
Hoaglund, A. 2002a Phone call and follow-up e-mail to author on August 2, 2002. entiled: Snake Bite.
Hoaglund, A. 2002b Re: Kiron snake report preview. E-mail to author on August 7, 2002.
Johnson, C.J. 1915 History of the first Swedish pioneers .. from 1867 to present time 1915. Privately published by Denison Review Printers in Denison, Iowa. A 1997 electronic copy available at url: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~gwgustaf/library/1915/sw_hist.htm and accessed by JFM on August 5, 2002. Also available in Dennison (Iowa) public library and as a microfilm copy in library system of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.
Mauritz, Delmar 2002 Phone conversation with author on August 5, 2002.
McMinimee, H. 2002 Phone conversation with the author on August 6, 2002. [Howard is a local historian.]
Szymanski, J. 1998 Status assessment for eastern massasauga (Sistrurus c. catenatus). Available online at url: http://midwest.fws.gov/Endangered/reptiles/mass.pdf Accessed by the author (JFM) in 2001.
Waldemer, C.N. 1947 [not clear exact date, but written in his old age - he died in 1947] Pioneer Memories of Waldemers and the first settlers. Available at url: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~gwgustaf/library/Town/recolcnw.htm accessed on August 5, 2002.