Circus Snakes On The Lam in 1911 Ypsilanti

Here's a little story DD wrote about rampaging circus snakes; hope you enjoy it!

Rampaging circus snakes form a little-known chapter in Ypsilanti history. “Circuses departing leave snakes behind; [that] has been the experience of Ypsilanti for a number of seasons,” says the August 11, 1911 Ypsilanti Daily Press. “Young Buffalo’s Wild West show which appeared here yesterday was no exception. It is quite probable that these snakes are in ashes, however, though the sinuosity of the snake family is such that one cannot be quite sure.”

This possible herpetological infusion into Ypsilanti neighborhoods occurred, the Press noted, as the popular touring Wild West show, run by Joe R. Smith. a/k/a “Young Buffalo,” was packing up to leave town.

“Last night about 9:30 the showmen were loading the wagon of snakes, over which ‘Latino,’ the snake-charmer, had exercised her patent spell to the delight of hundreds throughout the day, onto a flat car at the Lake Shore depot, when a torch which the men were using to light their way about set fire to the tank of gasoline in the snake wagon. Instantly the wagon and the flat car were ablaze. The fire department was quickly called and on their arrival, finding that to extinguish the fire and save the wagon was impossible, they tipped the snake wagon off the flat car and let it roll down the bank at the side to burn itself out. This it did with the exception of the front wheels.”

Latino and her snakes were one of the sideshow acts in this Wild West show that traveled around the Northeast and Midwest between 1909 and 1914 from thaw till frost. Though the fire was a blow to the show, there were other sideshow acts to entice attendees at the next whistle-stop town. One act proved a bit too enticing, near Chicago. “Sheriff Collier tabooed the Salome dance, given in a side show of the Young Buffalo Wild West show, showing here. The dance was of the spiciest sort, and was conducted on immoral lines.” (1)

But the snake and Salome sideshow acts were small potatoes to most of the Ypsilantians who’d come to see the show’s headliner: Annie Oakley. Having wowed the crowds at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, the 51-year-old Annie performed in Ypsi late in her career. The Young Buffalo show was a belated spinoff of the show that had secured Oakley’s fame, Buffalo Bill’s renowned Wild West Show of 30 years earlier. In 1911, Wild West shows were on the decline. But the Young Buffalo show, with a still-sharp Oakley who continued to set shooting records into her 60s, offered plenty of excitement to Ypsilantians for their 50 cents.

In addition to Oakley, the show featured crack shooting displays from Curtis Liston and Colonel [O. A.] Stevens. Another exciting act involved Buffalo Vernon wrestling steers. “As his charging pony reaches the hot side of the steer, Vernon leaps from his saddle on the animal’s neck. He seizes the beast by its horns and with a quick jerk turns its head toward him. Then he sinks his teeth into the animal’s lips and by one quick twist of his arms and his neck hurls the animal to the ground.” (2) Julia Allen performed a dancing bronco act on her horse Teddy, accompanied by Maud Burbank on her horse Dynamo. (3) There were Indian war dances, “attacks” on prairie schooners, music by Fred Burns and his cowboy band, and displays of roping, rough riding, and bronco busting.

Ypsilantians who couldn’t afford admission to the show could still enjoy its associated pageantry. The Young Buffalo show attracted crowds at the railroad depots of the towns where it disembarked. At one Ohio town, “notwithstanding the early arrival of their trains there was a large crowd of people on hand to witness the unloading of the horses, wagons, and paraphernalia of the show.” (4)

The show also featured a mile-long street parade to the showground, highlighted by a 20-oxen wagon train driven by one man. The parade was so popular that some local thieves seized the chance to go hunting for homes they knew would be unoccupied. One theft victim lived just east of town. “W. E. Gotts and family, who reside near Tuttle Hill Road, were in Ypsilanti taking in the parade of the wild west show,” notes the August 11 1911 Press, “[when] their house was entered and ransacked by thieves . . . A Winchester rifle was taken, also a number of cans of fruit and jam, cake, pie, and several cards of honey.”

The theft wasn’t the only crime connected to the show. In Indiana on the final night of the show, worker Phil McCool convinced a number of boys to help him break things down. “He permitted them to see the performance in the evening on their agreement to help him after it was over. As a guarantee of good faith he took their coats and caps and held them in a sack until the police got hold of him and made him return them. He used the iron stake for the purpose of spurring the boys to greater effort and the police heard that he struck several of them.” As a result, McCool served 60 days, missing the next several shows, and paid $5 and costs for his indiscretion.

Other lawbreakers were young runaways determined to join the circus. In Indiana, “Capt. H. C. Stolls’ patrolmen picked up a couple young fellows at the Pennsylvania yards this morning . . . George Kelling, one of the boys, says he is seventeen years old next month and that he ran away from his home in Laporte [Indiana] with Young Buffalo’s Wild West show last Monday . . . the other lad says his name is Charles Daley, that he is eighteen years old and that his home is in Forest, Ontario.” (6) The boys were dissuaded from their Wild West dreams and returned to their homes.

As the show prepared to leave Ypsilanti in August of ’11, however, the loss of the snakes was the pressing concern. “$150 worth of precious snakes went up in smoke,” noted the August 11 Press. “Not having at hand quotations of the snake market, it is not possible to state how many snakes $150 worth would make. But for so valuable and fascinating an adjunct to a circus, snakes to be missing is considered a misfortune which the show people will understandably hasten to correct.”

Young Buffalo’s Wild West show by and large delighted the Ypsilantians who’d attended to see one of the last performances representing a thrilling, daring, and quickly-vanishing way of Western frontier life.


(1) Daily Herald (Chicago), September 16, 1910
(2) Newark Advocate (Ohio), May 8, 1911
(3) Indianapolis Star, May 7, 1911
(4) Newark Advocate, May 18, 1911
(5) Fort Wayne Sentinel, May 4, 1912
(6) Fort Wayne Sentinel, August 18, 1911