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PENINSULA GATEWAY (Gig Harbor, Washington) 15 October 04 The Laurence Olivier of snakes leaves residents rattled - Rumors persist of rattlers in Seacliff after long-ago prank (Callie White)
On its face, it seems impossible: A man kills a rattlesnake in Gig Harbor. After all, one of the tenets ophidiophobes cling to in Western Washington is that although there are indeed snakes here, none of them are poisonous, unlike those in the eastern part of the state.
However, in the Seacliff area of Gig Harbor — up around Moller and Hallstrom — there are persistant rumors of rattlesnakes.
So when Steve Jeffcoat was confronted with an aggressive snake curling into itself, thwapping its tail on the ground and sticking out its distinctively triangular head, he didn’t take any chances for his animals or his children.
“I let them run amok,” he said.
Jeffcoat went to his garage, got one of his machetes and cut its head off.
The dead snake, about three feet long and dark gray with lighter markings, didn’t have a rattle. Post-mortem, its head looked fairly flat.
“It had more of an arrow head when it was attached,” Jeffcoat said.
According to John Houck, deputy director at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, the rattler was really a gopher snake.
Often, he said, the non-poisonous gopher snakes are confused with rattlers because of their defense mechanism. When they’re threatened, he said, they rear up in the typical S-formation of the rattlesnake and thump their tail on the ground.
At the same time, they puff up their cheeks, giving them a more triangular look, and hiss like crazy.
The snakes are so convincing they scare away most predators. Unfortunately, they’re also so convincing that people kill them for their acting skills.
Being duped by a snake’s method acting is one thing; being duped by science is another. Why would people in Seacliff think there are rattlesnakes around?
Because, Jeffcoat said, of what happened almost 40 years ago.
“Some college kids brought a bunch of rattlesnakes from Eastern Washington and dumped them here,” Jeffcoat said. “They became a problem in the Seacliff area.”
Jeffcoat learned the story from a neighbor who had lived in that area for years. In fact, the rattlesnake story is part of the lore of Gig Harbor’s longtime residents.
Actually, it wasn’t “a bunch” of college kids that dumped the snakes, said Evan Reames, a longtime resident of the area. It was one, a neighbor of his.
“He had a summer project to milk these things and he decided to dump them,” Reames said. The student did it over on Sunrise Beach Road. The snakes couldn’t remain a secret forever, and Reames said the whole episode snowballed when a woman, hiking with her husband, stepped up on a log that was over a rattler. It shook its tail, she fell over and broke her leg, Reames said.
“She completely freaked out,” he added.
Although there was an investigation by the Sheriff’s Department and a huge community effort to catch the snakes, which Evan Reames and his family were involved in, which implicated the then-student, the Reames ended up being blamed by the community for the viper emancipation.
“We caught holy hell,” Reames said.
Reames said there were “26 or 27 snakes.” All were recaptured or killed. The proof, Reames said, was that the snakes weren’t wild; they were from a university lab. The professor in charge of the lab later certified that all the loose snakes had been returned.
Nonetheless, Reames said, the community continued spreading the notion that there were unaccounted snakes breeding up in Seacliff.
“We still have people thinking there are rattlesnakes after nearly 40 years,” Reames said, adding that no bona fide rattlesnakes have ever been caught or seen in the years since.
Real rattlesnakes, Houck said, might be able to exist in Western Washington, but even then, “they’d hibernate most of the time.” Unfortunately, the gopher snake’s self-defense mechanisms might inadvertantly help perpetuate the rumors.
“It was, like, the late ‘60s, early ‘70s; this is called ancient history,” Reames said. “This is a kick.”
Rumors persist of rattlers in Seacliff after long-ago prank

Gopher snakes are not supposed to live anywhere near there either. And of course being from WA, I have heard a few folks swear up and down that they've seen rattlesnakes in Western Wa.