“What kind of snake is this?” That is a question that I receive all the time. Amy was showing me a picture on her phone of a dead snake. The dead snake was a lined snake. These are common, small, and secretive snakes that live in open woodlands and grasslands. While I have caught literally hundreds of the little buggers down along the river, I’ve never encountered one here in town, but they are probably here. They live under leaves, logs, and other things and are mostly nocturnal. Being small and nocturnal they are usually not noticed but they will come out in the morning or evening to bask in the sun and that is basically when Amy saw hers. The snake was dead because she crushed it with a rock!

Lined snakes are harmless and rarely grow more than a foot long. They feed mainly on soft-bodied insects, earthworms, and grubs. They look a little like garter snakes and like garter snakes they do bear their young alive. They mate in the fall and the female retains the sperm until spring when it is then allowed to come into contact with the eggs and fertilization occurs. The “eggs” are retained in the body of the female until August when she will give “birth” to up to a dozen young.

The lined snake is small, gray-green, with a light stripe down the back from head to tail. Roll it over and the belly has a double row of black half-moon spots running down the middle. Harmless, yet still dead! Why?

People are afraid of snakes. While most don’t warrant that fear we do have rattlesnakes around Gothenburg and they can and do cause problems. There were far more of them around when Gothenburg was first founded than there are now and multiple newspaper stories can be found concerning run-ins with the deadly serpents. One story from July of 1887 is of a 6-year old boy bitten on the little finger when he thought the snake was a piece of rope. The story goes on to say he recovered after liberal doses of the “antidote”. The “antidote” was whiskey!

A second story from 1888 tells of a dog being bitten and despite the inability to get the dog to take the “antidote” of whiskey, the dog survived. Another story of a 4-year old boy being bitten didn’t have as nice of an outcome because despite the liberal doses of whiskey the boy died three days later. BTW, a word to the wise. Whiskey is NOT an antidote to snake bite and it can actually make things worse! Last in our list of early snake stories is from September of 1886 and it concerns Elizabeth Ahlander-Bergstrom, the wife of Gothenburg founder Olaf Bergstrom. The Bergstrom’s lived northwest of present-day Lake Helen and Elizabeth was bitten while on her way to get water from the well. According to the paper the “usual” precautions were taken and she recovered fully. I suspect that means liberal doses of whiskey. Betty, as they called her, lived 12 more years and died in Omaha at the age of 47.

Fear of snakes was warranted then, but not small, gray snakes with a line down their back and a head so small it basically can’t bite. However, sadly to me, the small snake did get crushed with a rock and Amy said she would happily do so again!