While doing family tree research I was working on my mother's side of the family and specifically a grand uncle. I remember him telling me that he was chased by a Hoop snake when he was young. Apparently the Hoop snake was quite common a hundred years ago, even if it's existence is highly questioned today. Now if you don't know what a hoop snake is I will tell you. According to legend it is probably one of the most venomous creatures to ever live, and it would grab it's tail with it's mouth and make a hoop so it could roll after it's prey.
It didn't bite you, it had a stinger on it's tail that it stuck you with, some people claimed that if it missed you by as much as 5 feet you would be lucky to live it was so venomous. This he said happened near Atmore, he was walking to visit a friend and noticed something at the top of a long hill rolling toward him. He realized what it was and turned and ran down the hill, near the bottom of the hill there was a 500 year old Live Oak Tree, just as green as could be.
He knew the snake would soon catch him so he jumped behind the tree, the snake hit the tree and stuck the stinger of his tail in the tree allowing my uncle to escape. A few days later he borrowed his dad's shotgun and was going to go visit this same friend along the same road. When he got to the huge oak tree it was completely dead from the snake venom, all the leaves had fallen off and even some of the smaller limbs had done rotted and fallen off. As he was telling me, I began to smile and he ask what's the matter you don't believe me, I said of course I do, I'm just trying to remember where there is a hill that big in Atmore. Now I've never seen one of these Hoop snakes and hope I never do as bad as they are.
I did step out of the truck bow hunting one day years ago during the time bow season opened in early September and stepped on a Coachwhip snake that was a good half a mile long, or so it seemed. When I got out of the truck, I felt something under my feet, looked down and saw the snake.
I ran a good quarter of a mile down the road in front of the truck, looked down and saw I was still on the snake, so I turned and ran past the truck another quarter of a mile or so in the other direction and looked down and I was still on the snake, that makes him a good half mile long. I think both of us were glad when we finally went in different directions. It sure seemed like I ran a quarter of a mile in each direction but it probably wasn't more than 10 or 12 feet. It's easy to imagine things when the adrenaline is running through your veins mixed with a little fear.
The Hoop snake has never been accepted as real by the scientific community, but even today there are still occasional reported sighting of them. The legend of the Hoop snake is known not only in the United States but also in Canada and Australia as well.
Here in this part of the world some sightings are contributed to being the miss-identification of the Eastern Mud snake, which sometimes lies in a single coil with it's head near it's tail. If seen on a steep bank it might easily be mistaken that it was about to assume a upright position and begin rolling down hill. I've often wondered why my uncle would say he was chased by one, maybe he saw a mud snake with it's tail near it's mouth on a steep bank and imagined it was about to start rolling toward him, since the Hoop snake was one of the most feared animals of that time period.
I have ask a lot of older people about Hoop snakes, while most had never actually seen one, just about all of them could name someone that had seen one. Apparently the legend of the Hoop snake was widely known until the mid twentieth century. The Hoop snake legend is one of two snake legends that were quite common during my grandparents and great grandparents day. The other was the Joint snake, which supposedly would separate into several sections if struck, then rejoin itself when the danger passed.
I feel most legends get a start in miss-identification of animals or objects. There are some very interesting stories on the web about Hoop snakes. I'll leave it to you to decide if these snake legends are true or not. The ASHS meets at 6 P.M. the third Tuesday of each month at the Leach House Museum at 4th and Jefferson in Century join us.
