“It can be 10 snakes to a couple hundred, depending on the health of the population,” Scollins said. This could have been simply descriptive, or it could have served as a warning: Here be snakes. When snakes are together in a den, they are easy to find — and easy to eliminate. In 1880, African Americans — including former enslaved people — started buying land there, forming a community known as Snake Den or Snakes Den. Presumably, someone saw a bunch of snakes near all of them.

Source: Washington Post December 12, 2020 21:33 UTC