TWO RATTLESNAKE SIGHTINGS
/SNAKE BELIEVED RATTLER
May 16, 1941
What is believed to have been a rattlesnake was killed about 11 a.m. on Thursday by Joseph Patrick Brawley, eighteen-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Brawley of the Township of Marrnora. The barking of "Chum", their dog, attracted the attention of Mrs. Brawley who went to open the back door but suddenly decided it were more discreet to pass out by the front door to investigate. Going to the rear of the house, she saw the reptile coiled up on the back steps in defiant attitude.
Mrs. Brawley called to her son who was at the home of a neighbor Barney Callery. Getting a stout stick "Pat" stunned the reptile and then ended its existence.
(NOTE: Once common throughout southern and central Ontario, the threatened species is now found on the eastern side of Georgian Bay, the Bruce Peninsula, and in small pockets near Windsor and Wainfleet, Ont. in the Niagara area.)
SECOND SIGHTING - September 10, 1942 Marmora Herald
Forrest Dennis
A year ago The Herald received considerable notoriety as a result of a snake story. The article was copied in papers all over the Province and broadcast over the radio. We still believe the facts were as stated as to the length of the snake, but many people doubted the story.
This time we give The Belleville Ontario Intelligencer credit for the following:
Graeme MacKechnie
"Forrest Dennis of Crowe Lake and Doctor Graeme Mackechnie of Timmins, had a novel experience this week while fishing on Beaver Creek, about twenty miles north of here. They had landed from their canoe at what is commonly known as "The Bear Camp" to spend the night. The doctor was unlocking the door while his companion came behind him carrying the equipment when they heard the ominous rattle of a rattlesnake. The doctor threw himself through the opened door just in time as not more than two and one half feet from him was a four foot rattler, coiled and ready to strike, while Mr. Dennis was not more than five feet in the distance. Before they were able to kill the reptile, it disappeared underneath the cabin. As the men had been wading the creek, their trousers were rolled to the knees, thus making a good target for the snake. The fishermen claim they had a good sleep after first making sure the door fit tightly and it was safely closed."
The "Bear Camp" is the hunting camp used by W.A. Sanderson and other members of his hunting party each fall and owned by them. It is really on Otter Creek near its junction with Beaver Creek.
(Forrest Dennis was a well known fishing guide in Marmora and Dr. Graeme MacKechnie was son of Dr. Wm MacKechnie of Marmora -see http://www.marmorahistory.ca/doctors )
