Rattlesnakes remembered

Question: Do I want good pictures of rattlesnakes? Answer: Well certainly. Question: Doesn't everyone? Answer: "No!"

Years ago in my days as an editor, I asked my top photographer, Carl Hansen, …actually my only photographer, to take my high school son Shannon as backup camera and, "Go get some really good rattlesnake photos." Drew them a map, told them to be careful, and bid them an early spring morning farewell. They set off for the Flathead Indian Reservation with excitement and great expectations.

Upon their return to the Kalispell newspaper office about 6 p.m., I met them at the door and immediately asked, "Did you get some really good rattlesnake pictures?"

They did not answer for a couple of seconds, then almost in unison yelled. "You could have got us killed." I told them to calm down and give me some details.

According to Carl and Shannon they drove their enclosed jeep to my secret place, along a narrow two-track road, through the rock outcroppings, up a big open mountain above the Flathead River.

Arriving at the denning site, Carl stepped out of the vehicle and snakes were crawling everywhere in the fairly dense dead grass. He yelled for Shannon to stay in the jeep and jumped back in himself. Shannon yelled back, "I see three or four rattlers on this side and have no plan what-so-ever to get out now…or at any time in the future."

They told me with the engine turned off they could hear constant buzzing of rattlers and see grass moving in all directions. I interrupted the story to ask, "Couldn't one of you have climbed up on the roof of the jeep with a camera to take pictures while the other one drove slowly around?"

"We didn't consider that Dad, but maybe tomorrow we could go up there and you could show us how to do it."

Carl said he would rather go back to Vietnam than go to that place again.

The Kalispell News managed to get by with very few rattlesnake pictures over the years and none of them were taken by either one of those guys. Shannon does have a video of "The Incident" of five years ago wherein I accidentally pulled the rattles off a snake while trying to toss it down into the road so Shan could get pictures from the car window. First Wife Iris still refuses to discuss "The Incident" and has told me and my sons to never ever bring up "that unbelievably dumb story" in public.

All these wonderful memories came back last week while reading about the two girls getting caught in a rattlesnake patch in Paradise Valley on July 6. For those who missed it, thirteen year old Izzy Effler and twelve year old Morgan Beadwell climbed a hill trying to find a spot where they could call friends back home in Colorado using a cell phone. Izzy stepped on a rattler but it missed striking her Their dog found another one. They were "surrounded" by snakes and used the cell phone to call Dad Effler and a nephew who rescued them, shooting two snakes with a pellet gun.

A "rattlesnake trapper" was called in and reportedly saw about 30 snakes in that area. He said they were irritated more than usual because many were shedding their skin.

I have recently been told of "a wonderful" rattlesnake area closer to our valley. I'd probably go there tomorrow…if Iris would let me.

G. George Ostrom is the news director of KOFI Radio and a Flathead Publishing Group columnist.