Shawnee National Forest is open year-round . . . almost. Since 1972, one path completely closes to vehicles several weeks each year. The closures aren’t for area maintenance or staff vacations. Forest Road 345 closes for snake crossings.
Southern Illinois is home to Shawnee National Forest. At the forest’s western edge are the LaRue-Pine Hills. LaRue-Pine refers to the settlement of LaRue and a tree native to the area. The hills are a series of 150-foot limestone bluffs rising out of the Mississippi River Delta. Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark viewed these same bluffs. As they traversed the Mississippi in 1803, Lewis recorded in his journal: “Here putts in some high clifts the summits of which are crowned with pitch-pine & seeder.”
Perhaps the two saw another area attraction: the great snake migration. Every spring and fall, dozens of snakes in the LaRue-Pine Hills move from hibernation sites in the bluffs to summer spots in the swampy lowlands. Then they move back again.
About 100 species of reptiles and amphibians live in Illinois. Researchers have found 56 of them in LaRue-Pine Hills. They include frogs, lizards, salamanders, turtles—and snakes. Some are threatened or endangered in the United States.
The 2.5-mile Forest Road 345 is aptly nicknamed “Snake Road.” Researchers have noted as many as 17 different snake species nearby. By far, the most common is the potentially deadly venomous cottonmouth. The U.S. Forest Service closes Snake Road during the area’s twice-yearly snake crossings: March 15–May 15 and September 1–October 30.
Biologist Scott Ballard works for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. He says that in summer, snakes feed in the low wetlands. They store fat to sustain them over the winter. During hibernation, they burrow down two or three feet. There, below the frost line, they won’t freeze.
Scientists identify snakes as one of the most common phobias. But God created snakes—even venomous ones—for a reason. They eat and are eaten, keeping pesky creatures away or becoming another predator’s next meal.
Ballard supports protecting LaRue-Pine’s slithery residents. “They are not aggressive. They are very afraid of people,” he says. Ballard argues that if a person steps on a dog and it bites, people excuse the dog, saying, “It was just defending itself.” But if the same happens with a snake, it’s called an attack.
Ballard declares, “Snakes get a bad rap.”
