Snake Stories

One of the great obstacles to overcome in researching the old west were the unfounded rumors and outrageous stories, often called “snake stories,” and there were always those reports of lynchings which must be classified as a “snake story.”

A snake story is an outlandish tale followed by some minor element of truth presented as proof that the entire story is absolutely true. For example a cowpoke related, “I had worked hard, finished early and decided to bathe. I started for the tub behind the bunkhouse, which was nestled under a tree to protect it from the sun, when I heard a rustling in the branches. A snake, the oddest I’d ever seen, fell out of that tree. It paused for but a moment and then started for me so I took a stick and hit it hard. It froze in place, then opened its mouth wide and a second snake crawled out. Both snakes started for me so I hit each one, and the second snake opened its mouth and a third snake appeared. Soon there were seven snakes and I was hollerin’ and hitting as fast as I could. The boys finally came runnin’ and shot them snakes, and if you doubt the truth of this tale, that very tree stands there still.”

In Tombstone, Arizona there was a tale of “19 human fruit dangling from the branches of a tree, ripening in the sun” and the proof of the mass lynching was again a tree, though this time its roots had been undercut by the river and it had fallen over into the fast current, though as late as 1884 “bits of rope could still be seen tied to branches.”

In Wyoming in 1889 “Kettle Jack” and eleven of his gang were reportedly lynched in the Big Horn Basin, and the circumstances of the telling serves as the first clue that it might be a “snake story,” while the outrageous number of a dozen men lynched at once ranks second. The Examiner reported that a prospector returned to San Francisco from the Big Horn Basin in December 1889 and reported that Kettle Jack had arrived in that country about June 1887, assembled a large gang, and began slaughtering the settler’s cattle and stealing their horses. They built an elaborate log house and block fort in the valley and, by sheer numbers, overwhelmed the settlers in several fights. Kettle Jack took a young girl by force and married her but it was not until an old man and his two sons were killed trying to recover stolen horses that an “indignation meeting” was held and $10,000 was offered for the capture of Kettle Jack. Two men tried to assassinate the gang leader but they were killed, and in the shooting Kettle Jack’s wife was killed also. The outraged citizens then rose up, organized into a large force, overwhelmed and captured the entire gang and hanged them. (reprinted in the Territorial Enterprise (Virginia City, NV) on December 12, 1889.)