History & local legend
Tumbling Run’s lower reservoir near Pottsville became the focus of a giant-snake story in July 1879. Laborer Patrick Guilfoil said he had found an enormous snake eating a chicken in brush above the first dam. He fled to Palo Alto and reported what he had seen, but searchers found no reptile.
William Parker then described seeing a snake swim across the lower reservoir. Its brown head rose about a foot above the surface, and its tail struck the water as it moved. Parker estimated its length at twenty feet. He and two companions, Lynch and Donnelly, went after it, but by the time they rounded the dam it had disappeared into the trees.
They found only a track about seven inches wide in the dusty path. Parker was so impatient for the story to be printed that he visited the Miners Journal office and threatened to cancel his subscription. The newspaper published his account on July 18, 1879.
Sources
- Miners Journal, A Snake Story—What Mr. Parker Saw in Tumbling Run Dam—Hunting the Reptile, July 18, 1879, transcribed by Schuylkill Haven History
- Haunted Anthracite Tales, Tumbling Run Monster, localized retelling
- Lower Tumbling Run Dam, USGS-derived topographic coordinates
- Library of Congress, A. M. Allen, Tumbling Run scenery, Schuylkill County (circa 1868)
