Can you imagine??? Excerpt below from "Pioneer Life of George W. Lesan" who settled in Ringgold County, 1855. Article in it's entirety at: http://iagenweb.org/ringgold/biographical/hist-gwlesanpioneer.html FWIW, I had heard all my lifetime (and I'm not a kid anymore :~) that there were rattlesnakes in Iowa. There were supposed to be some in Decatur County in the 1970's, or so I was told at the time. The only snakes I've ever come across were garter snakes, king snakes, and a few rat snakes (don't know what they are officially called.) I hated garter snakes until I got my riding mower - always got one in the push mower and wrapped around my bare legs at least once every summer. Then my barn cat Mindy used to catch 'em and bring the dead snake up & lay it by the back door for me. Supposed to be a cat's way of paying honor to her human, but I didn't see it quite that way. Sharon R. Becker Ringgold County IAGenWeb Coordinator srbecker@iowatelecom.net. Rattlesnakes were numerous. After G. W. got his puncheon floor put in, they were sitting in the twilight when they heard a hissing sound. Andrew IMUS said it was a locust; G. W. said it was a rattler. They stepped to the door to listen when a large rattlesnake crawled from under the rocking chair where Mrs. LESAN was holding the baby. She says, "Here is your snake," when G. W. grabbed the chair with his wife and baby and carried them out of doors. They killed the snake. A few days later, after she had hung out her washing and brought the basket with the remaining pins in it, and sat it down, and took the crying baby up and sat her down by the clothes basket. The child played by pulling and pushing the basket and making the pins rattle. Then she became tired and her mother took her up, fed her, and she went to sleep. She laid her on the bed and proceeded to straighten up the room. She picked up the basket to put it in its place when "horrors," there laid a big rattler, all curled up under the basket. Its back was skinned up where the child had pulled the basket back and forth over his back. She called to her husband and he came and killed it. He tore up the floor, but found no more snakes, and they were not bothered any more, but several children were bitten later, some died and some did not. Excerpt from: LESAN, Mrs. B. M. Early History of Ringgold County: 1844 - 1937 Pp. 22, 156-162. Blair Pub. House. Lamoni IA. 1937. Transcription and notes by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2010 -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 1541 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message