- Follow-up to The Tumbling Run Monster
In July 1879, there was a rash of sightings of a 20 plus foot long serpent calling the Tumbling Run Dam, just outside Pottsville, its home.
In the years that followed the first publication of the Tumbling Run Serpent, the sightings declined and seemed to stop completely.
Had the monster serpent been killed?
Was it still in the area, but cautious to the point that it only would hunt when the sun had gone down?
Did the monster serpent actually exist, or was it just a figment of someone’s overactive imagination?
No one had any definitive answers to these questions.
However, just under three years later, a story surfaced that was so unbelievable one would be inclined to believe it was an outline for a new Stephen King novel instead of a newspaper article. This eye-catching story was carried by numerous newspapers throughout Pennsylvania, from York to Wilkes-Barre from Monongahela to Philadelphia. Yet, locations near the spot of the incident did not carry the unbelievable narrative.
The story told of a serpent encounter that defied explanation and rational thought. It told a tale of a monster snake so large, menacing, and even hypnotizing that the people in the vicinity were terrified of leaving their homes for fear of their lives. The location? Just north of Minersville, located past the Mine Hill Gap.
On a Thursday evening in July 1882, a Reverend by the name of Alfred R. Rossiter frantically arrived at the outskirts of Minersville. With fear in his eyes and a tremble in his voice, Rossiter began telling of a sight he encountered that had shaken him to the core. Rossiter claimed he had been traveling north of Minersville, above an area known as Mine Hill Gap, through a patch of old homes. The man of the cloth slowed his venture and looked towards a mountain. There he spotted a slithering sight which stunned him. His eyes focused upon a serpent making its way down the mountain. However, the size of the winding creature could not be reality! Rossiter claimed the monster black snake was 30-40 feet long and was thick as a full-grown man.
To make the matters even more unbelievable, a gaggle of much smaller serpents followed the king snake in its wake. The stunned reverend claimed he was not in fear for his life at this point. The serpent was making its trek across a ravine over 100 yards away. He watched the giant snake slowly and methodically make its way down the mountain. Every few moments, the snake would stop its descent, raise its head several feet above the ground, and survey the area. It would amplify a whirring sound to show its authority over the area. The reverend looked on as the monster serpent made its way towards the mouth of the Mayflower Tunnel, a long-abandoned mine, and disappeared into the darkness. The smaller cohort of snakes followed their leader into the bowels of the earth.
Rossiter immediately made his way towards Minersville to tell what he had seen.
Unsurprisingly, the reverend was met with much skepticism. The mine opening had been disregarded for years and had several cave-ins, yet there had never been a report of a monster snake in the area…except for several years earlier outside of Pottsville, at Tumbling Run Dam. The men laughed with a hint of nervousness as they listened to Rossiter. However, the reverend was adamant he was not trying to hoodwink the men, and never strayed from his story.
The men, upon hearing Rossiter’s story, decided if it was true, they needed to take up arms and search out the giant serpent. Captain Daniel Derr headed the group of armed men as they headed north in search of any type of evidence the giant reptile left behind. The group arrived in the sighting’s area just as the sun rose. Cautiously searching the group initially found no sign of the monster snake. Suddenly, one man standing a short distance away froze and yelled to the other men to come immediately to where he stood. By the time they reached their comrade, the man stood pointing down towards the ground, speechless. In the mud was a trail made by a serpent. The imprint of the reptile’s body was 13 inches across and its weight had made the markings over one-inch deep.
After a deliberation, the men opted to follow the trail left behind. The trail showed a path towards the open mouth of a long abandoned mining tunnel. There they stopped as they viewed the trail disappear into the darkness. The group walked away from the mouth a distance and held a meeting. Intelligently, the men decided they would not go into the depths of tunnel to try to locate what had made the large trail. Instead, they would travel to a small mining community several miles away where an expert on snakes could help them kill the giant serpent. They traveled north of the mountain to the rough and rumble community of Shenandoah.
There, the men contacted an older local man affectionately known as “Rattlesnake Tom”. He was known to be the pinnacle of expertise when it came to snakes in the vicinity. Tom had caught and killed the reptiles for many years.
The day after the choice was made to contact Rattlesnake Tom, the small community was a buzz in conversation about the enormous snake. A local miner was overcome with curiosity. His name was David Williams. Williams decided he wanted to see if the story was valid or just pure hogwash, as he suspected.
As the day broke the following morning, Williams made his way to the location where the Reverend swore he saw the monster. He patiently made his way towards the opening of the mine. Suddenly, almost as if instinct kicked in, Williams stopped. A feeling of danger took over, and the miner kept his distance from the darkness of the abandoned mine’s opening. Williams’ sixth-sense may have saved his life. Within a few minutes, he heard a low rumbling hiss and watched as the head of the giant serpent appeared. The snake made its way out a hole caused by a cave-in above the mouth of the mine. The snake coiled itself upon a plateau as though surveying its territory. Williams, for safety reasons, hurriedly.made his way to “old Sugarman’s Breaker,” where he could keep cover over from the monster serpent. There he had a view of the monster no more than fifty yards away. Williams’ eyes became enormous and his heart beat faster and faster as he realized the sheer size of the creature. At minimum, the snake had to be thirty-five feet long. Its thickness was at least two feet thick. The snake’s color was primarily black except for a small amount of red with a yellow crest on its head. The scales were described as the size of a man’s palm. But what haunted Williams more than the snake’s size was its eyes. Williams described the serpent’s eyes as extremely large and fiery.
The miner cowered inside the safety of the breaker, praying the snake did not pick up his scent with its olfactory senses. The snake raised its head several feet above the ground and let out a hiss that Williams swore could be heard for half a mile. As if being summoned, a rhumba of rattlesnakes appeared, coming out of the same opening the king snake had just exited. There, 30-40 rattlesnakes made their way towards the enormous serpent. Now, this summoning is odd enough. The most unbelievable part to Williams was that not one snake made a sound. They approached the enormous snake and stopped, almost waiting to receive their directives. After a moment or two of silence, rattling began by the snakes in unison. Williams watched on astonished as the monster snake rose its head and began to sway while the rattling continued. Just as the rattling had begun in unison, it abruptly ended in the same manner. There was an eerie silence, and time seemed frozen.
The king snake, followed by three of the larger rattlers, made their way down a small hill from the plateau towards broken wooden platforms and dilapidated buildings not far from where Williams was. Williams then realized the order the snake had given to its subordinates. The three rattlesnakes made their way below the wooden platform as the large reptile waited patiently. One rat ran out from below the platform. Before the rodent could see the new day sun, the king snake had already pounced on the rat and ate it. This continued as numerous rats were chased from under the platforms and buildings. “Like a chicken picks up corn”, the king snake gorged itself on the fleeing rodents. After several moments, the rattlers came out from under the wooden planks. Together, all the rattlers lead by the monster snake made their way down into the valley below.
Williams stood horrified by what he had just witnessed. Terrified, he slowly made his way out of the breaker and traveled back to Minersville as quickly as he could. There, he told his story to the locals. This story, told over and over, ensured Williams his fifteen minutes of fame.
The Shenandoah snake hunter made his appearance that Friday evening. A crowd of interested onlookers and gawkers accompanied him as they made their way to the now infamous site. The hunter assembled a trap, called a deadfall, at the mouth of the mine. He attached a live chicken to the trap hoping to entice the gigantic snake to show itself. The crowd went to the same breaker Williams had occupied that morning. They waited, and they watched. The hunter’s hope was to finish off the snake after the trap had been sprung. Hours passed, and all was quiet. Without warning, the silence was broken by a loud crash from the trap being set. A heavy stone, which was set to strike the snake, was rolling down the decline into a creek bed below. The men froze within the breaker, waiting for the Rattlesnake Hunter to lead the charge to kill the snake. To their utter disappointment, the heralded hunter refused to leave the safety of the breaker.
As morning broke, the horde of vigilantes decided they needed to investigate the trap. They made their way to the mouth of the mine. All that was left of the chicken was a smattering of blood. Suddenly one man stopped, pointed and screamed at the top of his lungs, “There!” Racing down the hill towards the direction of the men was the monstrous snake. Death appeared in its eyes. The snake was several hundred yards away as the group began to flee in horror. As fast as their legs could carry them, they dispersed in all directions, trying to find protection. The snake continued at its high rate of speed until it reached the mouth of the mine. It abruptly turned and slithered into the black darkness.
The hunters reconvened, attempting to compose themselves. They needed to decide on a plan. A team of twelve men, all miners except the Rattlesnake Hunter, armed themselves and decided they could only exterminate the 35 foot snake one way. They needed to kill it within its own lair.
The men walked towards the mouth of the mine with the sun still high in the sky. Tension, and possibly fear, gripped the men as they entered the mine to go face to face with the serpent.
The group walked deep into the mine, keeping their eyes wide open, led by their makeshift natural lighting. Through inky waters, over slate and rock heaps, and exploring long abandoned mining tunnels, the men went deeper into the darkness. They searched high and low with each step, fearing for their lives. However, even consumed by fear, the group knew they needed to rid the area and its people of this threat.
The dampness and stress took its toll on the men. After searching with no success, they began making their way back towards the mine opening. The men cautiously walked towards the safety of daylight. One miner named Mulhearn oddly stopped and began peering down a side chamber. He slowly took hold of the arm of the man next to him and, in a hushed tone, alerted the other hunters, “There it is.” The men shifted their gaze using their natural lighting to see down the long chamber. There they saw two large eyes swaying back and forth zeroing in on the men.
The hunters had walked right past this pathway, failing to notice the true hunter beforehand. Shocked and completely unnerved, the men quickly made their way backwards down the gangway, waiting for the snake to take on its pursuit. Shockingly, this did not happen.
The group of twelve regrouped outside the mine and decided this had to end now. They could not go back home without killing the snake. The men checked their firearms and made their way back into the depths of the mine. They approached the chamber they had just witnessed the monster serpent within. Turning to their left , they peered down into the chamber. There the snake was holdin its ground, seemingly challenging the men to come and attempt to take its lair. Simultaneously, they opened fire and discharged a volley of buckshots into the darkness of the chamber. After what seemed like an eternity, the shooting subsided and the echoes faded away. The men listened. There in the darkness they heard loud hissing and movement away from the main gangway. Slate and earth could be heard falling from the top of the chamber as the fleeing movement continued. The men stood for a moment and opted not to give chase. They believed the necessary damage had been done. The twelve decided the only way to be sure the snake would not harass the area people was to entomb it in its own lair if it was not already dead. The hunters closed every opening they could find to the old, abandoned mine. They brought dynamite in as several of the hunters stood guard ensuring the snake could not make its escape, and the main entrance was completely closed off. They detonated the explosive, hopefully entombing the gigantic snake for good.
The men left the area feeling rattled but accomplished. They received a hero’s welcome back home, as the tale was told over and over. Surely all rounds were on the house that night.
It is said the local people slept restfully that evening, knowing the hunters had taken care of the threat. As for the Monster Serpent? The snake was never seen in the vicinity again. The old mine and its contents were forgotten over time.
This tale, whether based on facts or saturated in untruthful story telling, is quite a published narrative to read within the day's newspaper.
The Times - Philadelphia, PA
June 5, 1882
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