This is good, old-fashioned regular multi-cache with some Ozarks history thrown in. Don't be intimidated by the lengthy text below--most of it is just historical information! It should take the average cacher around an hour or a little less to complete. The hardest part will be finding your way through the fallen trees in the park while searching for the final cache. It is somewhere between a 3 and 4-star terrain, but not exactly "For experienced outdoor enthusiasts only" (which is what a 4-star terrain is, according to Geocaching.com). The majority of the terrain challenges you will encounter is navigating around (and probably over) branches that fell during the Ice Storm of January 2007. We2Geeks' log from 11/25/07 accurately sums up what you may experience on the final leg of this cache: "Okay so this one's difficulty is a lot more than a three and a half to me. If you go for this one any time after 3 pm take a flashlight, or two, or three. And have a phone to call for help if you get lost or loose the path like we did. Oh and travel in numbers and wear thick clothes to protect you from thorns and stickers and shoes that you don't care about. Take it from me, on this one it's a good idea to be prepared for anything." Be careful! At one time there was a geo-path very close to the cache that you should follow. I have been told that this path/trail no longer exists, but I haven't been able to confirm this recently.
INTRODUCTION:
As those of you that have done some of my caches may know, I like to incorporate some Ozarks history as part of my caches. This cache will introduce you to one of the most interesting stories to ever happen in Springfield, and it happened in 1953.
I will provide an outline here of what happened, but you can read more about it in the newspaper articles while you are standing in front of the cobra. No, not the car, I mean the snake. The cobra you will need to visit is one of eleven Naja najas that terrorized Springfield, Missouri from August to October 1953.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
- August 1953 - 1421 St. Louis Street - A teenaged customer who was upset about a dead exotic fish that he bought at the Mowrer Animal Company pet store went to the back of the store and released a crate of black snakes, thinking they were harmless.
- Cobra Encounter #1: August 15, 1953 - 1420 E. Olive Street - Roland Parrish was working in his yard when he spotted a snake in the grass. When Parrish approached the reptile, the snake stood its ground, raised its head, and spread a delicate hood about its head and lunged at Parrish. Parrish struck first and killed the snake with his garden hoe.
- Cobra Encounter #2: One week later, Parrish's neighbor across the street, Wesley Rose, heard his bulldog barking. Rose looked outside and saw his dog wrestling with a snake in the shrubbery. Rose saw what kind of snake it was, pulled his dog off of the snake, and took a garden hoe to the back of the snake who had reared up, ready to fight. The snake was paralyzed, so Rose pulled it out and killed it. Rose called the police, who took the snake carcass to headquarters and analyzed it.
- It was determined the snake was a Naja naja, an indian spectacled cobra that is native to southern Asia and is capable of carrying enough venom to kill an adult human.
- People began to become suspicious of the Mowrer Animal Company, which was located about a block away from the Parrish and Rose homes. The proprietor, Reo Mowrer, admitted he kept cobras at the shop but denied that any had escaped.
- Cobra Encounter #3: August 30, 1953 - 1410 E. Trafficway - Eight days later, Ralph Moore found a cobra in his yard (two blocks from the Mowrer Animal Company). Another hoe was used to kill the snake.
- Cobra Encounter #4: The same night, Willis Murdaugh caught a glimpse of a snake as he drove through his neighborhood. He backed up his car to get a better look at the serpent and saw the snake rise up, open its hood and start swaying back and forth. Murdaugh struck the snake with a jack handle and ran over the snake several times with his car, killing it.
- Cobra Encounter #5: Early September 1953 - 1420 E. Olive Street - Mrs. Howard McCoy was warned by her daughter that a snake had been seen gliding into their garage. Mrs. McCoy grabbed a hoe and entered the garage. The snake was coiled up in a corner, and Mrs. McCoy dispatched it with her hoe.
- Cobra Encounter #6: September 9, 1953 - Another cobra was spotted by neighbors near Mowrer's shop, who caught the reptile before police arrived.
- Cobra Encounter #7: Later that day, across the street from Mowrer's shop, L.H. Stockton saw a snake coming out of his garden. Stockton threw a rock at it but missed his target and he watched in horror as the 4-foot long snake crawled through an opening in the foundation of his house and disappeared. The police were called, and Chief Frank Pike tried to use a 10-foot pole with a rope noose underneath the house to snare the snake but failed. Stockton and his landlord gave the police permission to bombard the crawlspace with tear gas. A gas grenade was set off underneath the house and the cobra came out. Officer Jack Strope aimed a shotgun at the snake but the weapon jammed. Strope grabbed the pistol from his holster and shot the snake five times; however, the snake still managed to raise its hooded head. Chief Pike used his "snake catcher" pole to capture the snake with the rope, and the snake was killed with another hoe.
- By now, the entire town of Springfield was in an uproar. The City Health Director Del Caywood ordered Mowrer to move his stock out of the city, but the scare wasn't over.
- Cobra Encounter #8: September 16, 1953 - H.K. Patton saw a snake on Chestnut Street near National Avenue. Patton aimed his car at the snake and ran over it, backed up and tried it again. The snake rose up, spread its hood and tried to strike at Patton's car. Patrons from the nearby Twilight Inn helped to trap the serpent and police officers crushed its head with a large rock.
- September 28, 1953 - Life magazine publishes a story about "The Big Ozark Cobra Hunt".
- Near the end of September, the public outcry grew even larger and Caywood ordered anti-venom shipped in as a precaution against a bite.
- Cobra Encounter #9: October 1, 1953 - 1221 St. Louis Street - Dan Funkhouser found a cobra outside his plumbing and heating firm. With the help of his employee, Hardy Teague, and a trusty hoe, the snake was killed.
- October 5, 1953 - Caywood commandeered a truck equipped with a public address system and cruised the neighborhood while a record of "Indian snake-charming music" blared from the truck's roof-mounted loudspeakers.
- Cobra Encounter #10: 600 N. Prospect Avenue: Even though this shouldn't have worked (cobras don't have ears), 45 minutes later another cobra was spotted and killed near the Reynolds Manufacturing Company.
- Cobra Encounter #11: October 25, 1953 - 1400 Block of E. Olive Street - The 11th and final officially confirmed confrontation with a cobra ended with the snake being captured alive and put on display in a glass cage at Dickerson Park Zoo. The snake died two months later.
- Mowrer denied that he had anything to do with the snakes being released and died in the 1970s before the story could be cleared up.
- In 1988, the angry teenager (now a grown man) who released the snakes, came forward and admitted what he did. You can read his story and more details about the hunt for the cobras while doing this cache.
CACHE INSTRUCTIONS:
So now that you know the story behind this cache, here's how you find it. The coordinates at the top of this page will take you to the front doors of the Trustee Science Center, located on the Drury University campus. Free parking is available on the campus property. Because Part 1 of this cache must be done inside the Science Center, it can only be done during the hours the building is open. When I called the university, they couldn't give me a solid answer as to when the building is open, but they said it should be open any time between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM, and whenever classes are in session. I would venture a guess that the building is closed on Sundays.
Go inside the doors of the Trustee Science Center and find the cobra display inside the lobby. It should take you less than a minute to find it. I believe the cobra on display is the one that was forced out of L.H. Stockton's house by tear gas on September 9, 1953.
To get the coordinates to the final cache, you must answer the following questions:
- The cobra on display was donated to Drury in 19AB.
- The bullet wound that you can see on the cobra is C inches behind the hood.
Now write your answers here:
Your answers above should equal 12.
The final cache can be found at N 37° 11.A91 W 093° 1C.9B5 .
I wanted to hide the final cache in a place where you would normally find snakes: the woods! The closest park I could find with woods is approximately 2.4 miles as the crow flies from the Science Center, and is about a 3-mile drive. Parking for the final part of this cache is at N 37° 12.018 W 093° 14.818.
The cache is hidden back in the woods a ways. Finders have mentioned thick underbrush, ticks, and poison ivy so please be aware of that and wear long pants. Permission to place the cache was granted by the Springfield-Greene County Park Board. The final cache location for my "Park Central Square Redux" cache (GCQJ6M) is close to the final cache for this one, so if you haven't done that cache, you can do the first part of that one as well and then find the two final locations fairly close together.
This used to be a "Breeder Cache", but the Momma Cache has decided to no longer give birth to any hatchlings (and I don't think Groundspeak allows these anymore). The "Breeder Caches" from this cache are listed below.
The cache is a 2-quart Rubbermaid container, wrapped in camo Duck tape. Original contents are: log sheets, cache information sheet, pens and "hatchlings", which is another term for newly-hatched snakes.
SHARE YOUR SNAKE STORIES:
If you have encountered any poisonous snakes in your previous geocaching adventures, feel free to share your stories when you post your find (but please keep them brief). My only poisonous snake encounter while geocaching was with a copperhead in the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia on May 4, 2005.
I hope you enjoy this cache. Ssssssstay sssssssafe and enjoy!
THIS "BREEDER" CACHE HAS "SPAWNED" THE FOLLOWING CACHES:
- Hatchling #1: "Ophiophobia" Hatchling #1, by phenixcachers (placed 4/10/06, archived 4/26/06)
- Hatchling #2: SSSeminole Hatchling, by NetDrummer (placed 4/15/06, archived 4/20/06)
- Hatchling #3: Snake on the Green, by by Kristen82 and Chris311 (placed 4/18/06)
- Hatchling #4: Ol' Sneaky Snake, by Knob Creek (placed 6/2/06)
- Hatchling #5: Pieces of Snake, by Racer57 (placed 10/13/06)
- Hatchling #6: Cheloniophobia, by Sir Robin and GeoJenC (placed 10/21/06)
- Hatchling #7: Gephyrophobia, by Parsleys5 (placed 03/11/07)
- Hatchling #8: Bois D'Arc Ophiophobia, by train1904 (placed 12/16/07)
- Hatchling #9: Ophiophobia Revenge, by We2Geeks (placed 01/01/08)