Texas State Historical Association - My Texas

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The Hoop Snake

This is my mother's story. I recall her telling this story many times during the years I was growing up. She also told it to her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren, and all my cousins. I don't recall when she stopped telling the story and I didn't know the reason until I discovered this story in her journal after her death in 1997 at the age of eighty-eight.

THE HOOP SNAKE

By Emma Ruth Webster Smith

I remember when I was just a little girl about six years old. I had a scary encounter with a very large snake. One morning very early my father, Will Webster, left to plow a field on our farm located about a mile from the house. At that time we lived on a farm just east of the small town of Weston in north Collin County.

On this morning as he drove the team of horses out of the corral, he told me if I brought him some water later in the morning, he had a surprise for me.

About the middle of the morning, my mother, Lillie, put some cool well water in a jug for me to take to Daddy.

I walked down a path with tall grass growing along the sides. Suddenly, I stepped on a large snake.

I remember I was skipping along and singing. I didn't see the snake until I actually stepped on it. I was bearfoot and the snake felt cool to the bottom of my foot. When I jumped back, the snake reared upon its tail and made a strange sound.

I was so frightened, I ran all the way back to our house. I told Mamma about the snake and said I was not walking down that path again.

Mamma saddled an old gentle horse for me and I rode to the field where Daddy was plowing. The horse and I went the long way, on the road. Even on a horse, I didn't want to risk seeing that snake again.

After Daddy drank some of the water, he showed me the surprise. It was a mother opossum and four little baby opossums in a hole under an old dead tree. I had never seen little opossums before. They were old enough to have their eyes open. I thought they looked a lot like rats.

About a week after my encountor with the snake, some Black men were cutting wood near the place I had seen the snake. They found a large snake and killed it.

They came by our farm carrying it. I saw them talking to Daddy and I ran out and looked at the snake. They called it a Hoop Snake. They told me Hoop Snakes were very rare and not usually found in our part of the country. They said a Hoop Snake can roll itself into a hoop and chase people. They said it makes a loud noise as it chases someone.

Even though it didn't look as big as I remembered, I was sure the snake the men killed was the same one I had seen on the path. I was glad it was dead and couldn't chase me again. They didn't say what a Hoop Snake would do if it caught someone.

Not long ago I read an article in Texas Highways magazine about Texas myths. In this article I found the myth of the Hoop Snake. It really doesn't exsist at all.

Now I don't know if those men were just teasing a little girl or if they really believed the snake they killed was a Hoop Snake.

Whatever type of snake I saw that day so long ago, it scared me. It did make a strange sound and I swear it reared upon its tail. Well, to a small child it looked as if it did. However by then I was running so fast I don't know if it really chased me.

I decided I wouldn't tell that story again.

[This was a shame for it was a great story enjoyed by all the children growing up in our family.]

Shirley A. Clark
Sherman, Texas
Published: March 17, 2006