Dorchester Times: FOLLOW-UP: Could Rattlesnakes Return To Saline Co. Soon?

Monday, June 6, 2016

FOLLOW-UP: Could Rattlesnakes Return To Saline Co. Soon?

Extremely venomous Timber Rattler 60 miles from Dorchester in 2013.

A hundred years ago this month, in 1916, Crete area farmer Ed Aksamit encountered a large rattlesnake while cutting alfalfa in Saline County.

Then he killed it.

The incident was reported in the "Days Gone By" section of last week's issue of The Crete News.

A century ago, rattlesnake sightings in Saline County -- while rare -- did occur.

Why do we mention this? Our June 1 post regarding the recent increase in garter snake sightings has produced just under 3,500 page views.

Since reader interest is obvious, we wanted to examine Nebraska's snakes more carefully.

The fact is, Nebraska has nearly 30 different types of snakes. This video by the University of Nebraska examines the state's eight most common snakes, including the garter and bull snakes, which are prevalent throughout Cornhusker Country.

Nebraska has four kinds of poisonous snakes -- the prairie rattlesnake, timber rattlesnake, western massasauga (a small rattlesnake), and copperhead. The prairie rattlesnake is found in the western two-thirds of Nebraska and the other three in the southeastern corner.

While a few decades have passed since Mr. Aksamit killed the rattler in his alfalfa field south of Crete, don't let your guard down quite yet. In 2013, the Lincoln Journal Star reported that a deadly Timber Rattlesnake was spotted near at Burchard Lake -- about 60 miles southeast of Dorchester.

The Timber Rattlesnake, a dangerous breed that hadn't been spotted in the area of Burchard Lake since the 1980s, "will kill you," one snake expert told the Lincoln paper. "It has enough venom to actually kill a person.”

The Timber Rattlesnake -- described a “sit and wait” predator that often coils up and waits quietly for its prey to come within striking distance -- is native to next-door Gage County, though are found far south in the area and in Northeastern Kansas. The last population count indicates there are roughly 300 adult Timber Rattlesnakes in the general area occupying 12 den sites.

1 comment:

AnonymousJune 9, 2016 at 11:07 AM
My cat Precious would rip that rattler a new one. Promise you.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."