The following story appeared in Joe Durhams entry in Blue Skies and Prairie and is well worth reading. I have no idea about how true it is but it is rather funny even if it was a potentially deadly situation.

Seems as if Joe and a fellow named L. V. Irwin were given the job of mapping the best areas for their fellow snake hunters to look for rattlers during Okeene’s upcoming Rattlesnake Roundup. Joe had never been snake hunting with Irwin, and Irwin had never been flying with Joe, so they were both going a lot on faith. It being April, the roads were muddy, so Joe and Irwin decided to fly out to Salt Creek Canyon, a spot known for good snake hunting. When they got to the airport, they found only one plane available, an old homebuilt Stewart biplane with a 90-horse Gypsy engine. A slight drawback like that doesn’t discourage avid snake hunters, however, so Joe cranked it up and they took off.

Arriving in the Salt Creek Canyon area, Joe set her down on a road on the Cargill Ranch and they struck out on foot for the canyon a mile away. They found several dens where rattlers were holed up and noted them on their maps. It was still early spring and most of the snakes were in hibernation yet. This Irwin guy was a practical joker type and had one of those wind-up buzzers. Every time he caught Joe not looking, he’d touch him with the buzzer and Joe would jump out of his skin because the thing sounded like a big rattler that was mad. Joe decided to himself he’d fix Irwin, once he got him back in the plane. As it turned out, this was a big mistake, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

They climbed to the rim rock, crossed over to Ruby Canyon and were walking down a creek bed when Irwin suddenly yelled and jumped back. He had almost stepped on a huge diamondback that was well camouflaged on the rocks. Gathered around the six and a half foot rattler were about 10 smaller ones four feet long. They had found Big Mama and her family. She was a locally notorious rattler that many hunters had tried unsuccessfully to catch through the years. Big Mama weighed about 20 pounds and was about four inches thick in the middle. She had 14 rattlers on her tail.

Irwin was a seasoned snake hunter so he was anxious to bag Big Mama and her brood. Her presence could assure plenty of interest and attendance for the big Rattlesnake Roundup.

Joe wasn’t sure they could bag her, they hadn’t really come prepared for hunting. Big Mama was too large for the little loop snare they had, but they decided to try anyhow. Joe found a forked tree limb, and tried to hold the rattler down while Irwin. slipped the snare over her head but Big Mama bucked .and wiggled and broke Joe’s tree limb like a match stick’. Joe got a bigger limb and tried again, jumping back time after time as she struck at him, knocking bark off the limb with her sharp fangs. If Joe had been hit he’d have been S.O.L. because Irwin couldn’t fly the plane to get him back to a doctor. They struggled with Big Mama for about fifteen minutes more, until Joe finally maneuvered her head in the right position and Irwin slipped the noose over it. Even then she was a handful, thrashing around as they tried to lift her into the sack. By the time they got her in the sack they had choked her pretty good and were afraid she was dead. They were afraid she was now merely a candidate for the taxidermist. but like Mark Twain, the reports of her death were greatly exaggerated. Bagging Mama’s offspring was easy and they soon started back with a whole sack full of snakes. Finally back at the plane, they put the sack of snakes on the floorboards between the two cockpits and took off. The neck of the sack was tied with wire-securely, they thought.