Last of the Granite State Rattlesnakes

Presenter: Dan Billin

Rattlesnakes were so common in colonial-era New Hampshire that dozens of places were named for them, ranging from the Massachusetts border to the White Mountains. They were so abundant some settlers could pay their property taxes with the bounties offered for killing them. Today, however, Crotalus horridus, the timber rattlesnake, is the state’s rarest native animal—only a handful are known to survive. State law protects them now, but that may not be enough to save them. Wildlife biologists have predicted this tiny remnant will die out without extraordinary intervention.

  How did this feared and fascinating animal come to the very brink of extirpation in our state? This illustrated presentation maps how we got here through the social, political, and natural history of New Hampshire’s rattlesnakes. Historian and former newspaper reporter Dan Billin presents vivid, little-known stories and images from our centuries-long war on our rattlesnakes. Topics include: who’s been bitten; the medicinal use of rattlesnake oil by the Shakers and others; the exploits of the “Rattlesnake King of New Hampshire”; the twentieth-century rattlesnake panic in the legislature; and the mysterious recent appearance of rattlesnakes with Pennsylvania genes. This program reviews what is and isn’t being done today to conserve our rattlesnakes, and the many obstacles to their survival.

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