Rattling Tales

One duty I was given by my leaders was to make all of the many Utah residents that held jobs or ranched in Arizona get Arizona License plates on their car. They used our roads and highways but didn't help pay for the road upkeep.


A lot of people that worked at the Whitey Brothers saw mill south of Fredonia lived in Kanab, Oderville, Glendale of Mount Karmel in southern Utah. Many Utah residents had ranches on the Arizona Strip, the Kaibab and in House Rock Valley.

Most of them working at the sawmill have been forced to "double plate" by the men at the checking station but some have avoided it. When they were legal they had plates from both states. The ranchers were the ones that gave me the most trouble because they had been getting by without "double plating" for generations.

One hot summer day in 1955 I drove out to Pipe springs National Monument and as I drove up to the place where people filled water tanks on trucks a truck was pulling away with a full load. He had no plate on his truck at all so I stopped him right in front of the fort. I proceeded to write him a ticket. I was parked behind his truck and was writting the ticket on my car hood. He was standing beside me so I could ask him all the questions I needed answered. My car motor was running and vibrated quite a bit. For some reason I looked down at my feet and saw that a large rattle snake had crawled up and coiled right between my feet! I quietly and slowly took out my pistol and warned the other guy not to move. I shot the snake right thru his head and killed him instantly. The snake had apparently been sleeping around the base of the huge cottonwood paplar tree about 5 feet from my car. The vibration of the car motor running had enticed him to come nearer. He was the biggest rattlesnake I have ever encountered, 10 ratles and a button!

The rancher not only got a ticket but a good scare too.

I had learned about the fact that vibration drew rattlesnakes when I worked on a road to an old mine. It was when I was 16 years old, my dad and I were working on a road about 30 miles south of our home in Bryce, Arizona. They needed the mine in use for the war effort.

I ran a jackhammer driling holes in huge boulders that were in the way. We drilled holes all day then they put dynamite charges in the holes and blew the rocks up after we cleared out. Dad ran a bulldozer to make the road bed.

I worked with an older Mexican driller nd we had a compressor sitting near by to run the jackhammers. We had been drilling on this large boulder for quite a while when we stopped to change bits. We looked around and rattlesnakes were all around enjoying the vibration. A snake den was apparently under this rock. We spent a while killing snakes. It was on the south slope of the Santa Theresa Mountains.

Later that summer I spotted a guy that was with me when I killed the snakes at Pipe Springs, so I followed him. He was in a pickup that wasn't "double plated". I noticed he was driving very erratic; weaving alot.

I stopped him and noticed he was drunk. I talked to him for awhile ten I said "I am going to have to lock you up for drunk driving" He was already mad at me so he said, "Like hell you are!" He was standing with his back toward the bar-pit, a gentle slope for about 20 feet or so. I just flat handed him right in the chest and he went head over heels down the berm. When he landed I was on him and had the handcuffs on him before he knew what hit him. I locked him up for drunk and reckless driving and ticketed him for not having Arizona license plates.

He was a young man in early 20's from a big raching family in Orderville, Utah. He paid a big fine and was released the next morning. I never had any more contact with him.