The Hudson River Valley today (©Dan Eatherley)
Eighty-one years ago today, the New York Times revealed that five hundred snakes including ‘rattlers, some of which measured twelve feet’ were destroyed by U.S. Government workers in the Hudson River Valley.
On January 29, 1934, the Times described how described how the snakes were killed by CWA squads while ‘clearing forests and building roads … near Morristown’ and ‘at Stony Point up the Hudson.’
In the same issue, Raymond Ditmars told the Times that the blacksnake, the rattlesnake and the water moccasin winter in the same rock ledges year after year. “The serpent clan,” said Ditmars, “is particularly tolerant or passive about the “changing of position, arrival or departure of other members.” He has seen “bevies of heads of the three “kinds peering from the crevices in the Spring”.
Note: The CWA (Civil Works Administration) was an expensive - and hence short-lived - government initiative to create jobs during the Depression winter of 1933-4.
On January 29, 1934, the Times described how described how the snakes were killed by CWA squads while ‘clearing forests and building roads … near Morristown’ and ‘at Stony Point up the Hudson.’
In the same issue, Raymond Ditmars told the Times that the blacksnake, the rattlesnake and the water moccasin winter in the same rock ledges year after year. “The serpent clan,” said Ditmars, “is particularly tolerant or passive about the “changing of position, arrival or departure of other members.” He has seen “bevies of heads of the three “kinds peering from the crevices in the Spring”.
Note: The CWA (Civil Works Administration) was an expensive - and hence short-lived - government initiative to create jobs during the Depression winter of 1933-4.
Northern black racer (Coluber constrictor) - another snake of the Hudson Valley (©Dan Eatherley)
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