Black Nick and the Rattlesnake - A Florida Cracker Tale

The Double F Ranch was a pretty piece of property with 12 miles on the Ocklawaha River from Moss Bluff to Sharps Ferry. It had some high ground and a lot of scrub. There were 10 or 12 nice little lakes on it.

In 1959 I was working there by the day or when they needed help with their cattle. One time, after we had penned some "dry" cows to sell, one old cow jumped the fence into an old watermelon field that was now covered with brush and cactus. The ranch owner, Mr. Fisher, wanted me to get that cow. She had pulled this trick before and they had had enough of her.

She was standing in the field when I drove there with the pickup and horse trailer. I unloaded Nick, a black Mustang. When the cow saw what was going to happen, she took off across the field. Nick and I were right behind her.

I roped her about halfway to the far side of the field that turned to thick woods. In the process of trying to get her to a tree so I could tie her, Nick went crazy. I looked own and saw why - a six foot rattlesnake was trying his best to strike Nick`s legs, and Nick was trying his best to buck me off on top of the snake.

I left ten finger nails in the pommel of my saddle, but I wasn`t coming off. Every time Nick got back off the snake, the old cow would pull us back on top of it. I finally got my pocketknife out and cut the rope. The cow ran off a little ways and once Nick got away from the snake, I rode him back to the pickup and got my rifle.

I wanted to ride back and kill the snake but Nick made it known I`d have to go by myself. I cautiously eased through the brush and cactus until I spotted the snake still coiled and buzzing those rattles like rocks in a tin can. I shot him full of 22`s and dragged him back to the truck.
I had to put Nick in the horse trailer before he pulled the fence down that I had tied him to. We told the old cow we would see her at a later date and drove back to headquarters.

When I pulled across the cattle gap going to the cow pen, there was another big rattler just on the edge of the brush. I killed him too and threw it in with the other dead snake in the back of the truck.

This ranch had more rattlesnakes than any place I had ever worked and I figured it was because there were no wild hogs on the place. They had been killed and trapped out before the Fishers had bought the place.

Wild hogs will clean a place out of rattlesnakes, as the fangs of the snake cannot get through the fat layers of a hog.

Bill Roberts painted the picture of black Nick and the rattlesnake. He now lives near Cedar Key and is writing a book - chock full of his Florida Cracker Tales.