March 3, 2006

Michigan Snow Snake?

Is there a snow snake slithering around Michigan?

The Daily Press of Escanaba, Michigan published an article today telling of this reptile cryptid. Is it just a folktale?

It’s hard to get a good description of a snow snake because few people have seen this endangered creature. Snow snake sightings are about as common as Bigfoot sightings or Loch Ness Monster sightings.

A few Yoopers have reported seeing the elusive snow snake. Details are sketchy, but the reptile seems to be nocturnal. It’s more active on the nights of the weekend, and it’s more easily viewed after drinking a few hot toddies.

Most people claim that the snow snake is pure white with eyes as transparent as shards of ice. Snow snakes vary in size from the tiny foot-long ones that reportedly bite into and latch onto cross-country skis, causing skiers to lose control.

A six-foot long snow snake allegedly toppled over an ice fishing shack on Little Bay de Noc.

Living, breathing snakes in the snow are just a myth, but snow snakes did exist. They may be extinct now because the snow snake was a Native American toy.

Many tribes of the snow country had a sport of hurling snow snakes. The Indians crafted their snakes from a straight stick of hickory or ash. They carved the snake’s head on one end and the tail on the other. Snow snakes were decorated and painted.

An Indian drawing, taken from “The Book of Indian Crafts,” shows Iroquois throwing the snow snake.

Then the contest began. The players stooped over and tossed their snakes forward, gliding them across the snow. Points were awarded to the snow snakes that traveled the farthest.

So what do you think, is there a snow snake slithering under the snow covering the forests of Michigan?

Filed under Bigfoot Report, Cryptozoology, Eyewitness Accounts, Folklore, Out of Place