The Selah Rattlesnake Hunters Who Shipped Their Catch to China
A Yakima Valley farm employed Chinese laborers to catch rattlesnakes alive, jar them in whisky, and export them for a profit—an odd, dangerous trade recorded through the racist language of the era.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On P. A. Bounds' Selah farm four Chinese laborers were employed. The item described them in the racist language common to the period. They were particularly busy catching rattlesnakes that were appearing freely in the surrounding hills and even coming down onto the farm. They captured them with a stick to the end of which was attached a slip loop, which they put down over the snake's head and pulled tight. They then inserted the snakes alive in a jar of whisky. The number they captured would bring them money enough to pay all their expenses for the season. They shipped them to China and reaped an average profit of $5 for each reptile.
“They capture them with a stick to the end of which is attached a slip loop, which they put down over the snake's head and pull tight. They then insert the snakes alive in a jar of whisky.”
The item is a reminder that immigrant labor has long filled some of the Yakima Valley's riskiest jobs, often while being described in hostile terms by the local press. Today's debates over agricultural labor and who does dangerous work still echo that arrangement, even as the snake trade itself has vanished.
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