A Curious County: Bracken County, Kentucky Forteana A “Devil’s Backbone,” a treasure cave with a giant skeleton, an imposter on a grand scale, mysterious faces in window glass, big snakes, fiery devils, and sin-induced levitation—who knew that one small and very rural Kentucky county could be so infested with fortean excitement?
Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Snake. I was born in a Snake Year, so I feel like starting the year off right with a post on some strange snake stories—or “snaix” as the papers jocularly referred to the monstrous snake stories that were printed in such profusion in the 19th century papers that some publishers joked that they needed a “snake editor.” Since I would be spoiled for choice in trying to select the crème of the giant snake stories, let us concentrate instead on stories of reptiles remarkable for something other than their size.