Unwinding the mystery of Rattlesnake Road

Rattlesnake Road was seven miles of twists and turns until it was straightened out and paved six decades ago.

That’s how it got its name, says John Large who hunted snakes nearby on Parvin Butte as a boy.

He doesn’t recall seeing any other snakes elsewhere in the area, but travelers who turn south off Highway 58 three miles east of Pleasant Hill often are surprised to find a road that runs straight ahead up a hill and under a train overpass.

Rattlesnake Road ends when it turns south near Parvin Butte and becomes Lost Creek Road, which continues past a Lane County dump site.

Large was 7 years old when he moved to Dexter where his father was working on the Lookout Point Dam. Eventually, the family moved to Lost Creek Road out of Dexter. He now lives off Lost Valley Lake off Rattlesnake and chairs the Lane County Republican Party. I wrote a column recently in which I quoted him as chairman of the Lane County Republican Party.

Rattlesnake got its name, he says, because it was so windy. The hill adjacent to Highway 58 was often difficult to navigate when it rained or snowed.

“It was a dirt road with some gravel until the early 1960s when it was straightened and became “a 70-mph road,” Large says. The improvements probably were prompted by increased road traffic created when people began moving to the Lost Creek Road area, he adds.

Rattlesnakes?

“The kids would get together on Parvin Butte and hunt snakes,” he says. Otherwise, you didn’t need to worry much about rattlesnakes in the area.

If you turn north off Highway 58 on Rattlesnake Road, you will discover a creek named Rattlesnake that twists eight miles or so in a westerly direction parallel to the highway. The Trent community near the end of the road was known as Rattlesnake, according to a type-written story titled “Early Settlers of Trent” in possession of the Oregon Historical Society.

Or you can travel a few miles east on Highway 58 to Dexter for a daytime meal at the Rattlesnake BBQ, which is known at night as the Dexter Lake Club bar, made famous by the popular 1978 movie “Animal House.” You will find brisket, ribs and chicken on the menu but no rattlesnake.

In “Illustrated History of Lane County,” published in 1881, author A.G. Walling wrote: “Immediately east of Pleasant Hill we have another valley known by the somewhat significant name of ‘Rattlesnake,’ a pretty little place, large enough to furnish good homes for a dozen families.”

Now you probably know more about Rattlesnake Road than you wanted to know before you read this column.

Longtime Oregon journalist Dean Rea, widely known for his years as a University of Oregon journalism educator and editor at The Register-Guard in Eugene,  serves as a founding board member, correspondent and columnist for The Herald.