Very Peculiar Snake Story
Comes From North Side Hill- Cow Said To Have Snake In Stomach
– Eau Claire Leader | March 2, 1906

Eau Claire- A most peculiar snake story comes from the north side to the effect that a cow owned by a widow lady on Madison Street took sick and continued to get worse until it became necessary to kill the beast, which was done. Satisfied that there was some internal trouble an examination was made and it is said a snake, closely resembling a water snake in appearance, about an inch and a half thick and nearly fifteen feet long was found in the stomach of the cow. It is said that neighbors are willing to corroborate this statement.

Chad’s Take: Snakes Are Everywhere!
At first glance the story of a snake being housed in a cow’s stomach seemed pretty mundane to me. I mean cows spend their whole day out in the fields eating grass so the possibility of a small snake getting mixed up in the meal doesn’t surprise me. Plus cows have four stomachs right, so I am sure there was plenty of room for the small snake to maneuver around. However, the article certainly grabbed my interest when it was stated that the snake found inside the cow’s stomach was nearly 15 feet in length. Now keep in mind that I am no Herpetologist, but a fifteen foot snake seems pretty large to me especially when you consider that the average rattle snake averages about three feet in length. Of course this Eau Claire snake was nowhere near the 49-foot python that was captured in Indonesia in 2004, but that snake wasn’t living inside of a cow’s stomach. This snake also seems to be much different than the other black snake that was terrorizing Water Street (See Monster Black Snake Blog) during the same year, as that snake was only six feet long, but it was described as having a mouth as wide a crocodile and the body the size of a kangaroo.

It is amazing at just how many snakes were slithering around the Chippewa Valley 100 years ago. I have collected dozens of stories involving snakes, and those were just the bizarre cases, imagine how many normal snake encounters went unreported. Just to give you an idea of how times have changed, grab a notebook and for the next 10 days record information about all of the snakes that you encounter in the Chippewa Valley during your daily routine.

Keep an eye out.