Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Derek Reusser publishes a magazine and mails it to residents in SOG City, including Port Tampa City, Interbay, Ballast Point, and Sun Bay South.  My Gandy highlights local businesses and residents, helpful articles, and historical stories of the area.  If you are in the area, pick one up and check it out.

They even published a historical piece I wrote about a nearby place called Rattlesnake.  Because of space constraints, it had to be edited a bit, so I thought I would reprint the entire thing here on the website.  I invite you to learn a bit more about Rattlesnake, Florida.

It’s hard to imagine, but back in the day Tampa was very much like the towns you see on some of the old westerns. Hard men worked hard, drank hard, and did all they could to make a living out of anything they could find close by. Even as recently as the mid 1930’s, much of the area in and around Tampa was nothing but palmetto thickets and pine trees.

One area (now within Tampa city limits) was particularly desolate, and just filled with that hardscrabble brush. Living in the underbrush was, of course rattlesnakes. Florida has always been a haven for Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes, and Tampa is no exception. There were thousands and thousands of Diamondbacks in the vicinity. Most of the snakes were about six feet long, but more than a few were reported up to eight feet long.

In 1937, George End packed up his wife Jennie and his two sons, and moved from Arcadia out to this barren area. His plan was to catch the snakes and sell the meat. You wouldn’t think there would be much of a market for rattlesnake meat, but you’d be wrong. End turned his idea into a very lucrative mail-order rattlesnake meat market.

George built a canning plant for the rattlesnake meat near a military base. Because of the proximity to the airfield and the men passing through, George quickly added a novelty shop and a tavern to the property.

Although the cannery was successful, and the bar got used to hosting a great number of servicemen, George thought the potential existed for bigger profits. The time and expense it took to go all the way to downtown Tampa to ship his product to nationwide customers was biting into his proceeds. At the same time, George was certain more publicity would lead to more mail-order sales of rattlesnake meat.

By early 1939, George End had convinced the United States government that the area needed a convenient mail stop. On April 27, even though it was not a formal municipality, the Feds officially opened a Post Office at “Rattlesnake, FL,” and the entire operation was housed within George’s cannery! In fact, George’s wife Jenny was even named postmistress of the location. vHis plan seemed to work. The following year George was hiring all sorts of fearless, crazy, or just plain desperate men to catch the rattlesnakes living and hiding in the palmettos. The cannery easily began to produce greater profits. Not only that, but at the beginning of World War II, more and more service men patronized George’s bar. From his convenient location, the troops could hear the work bell indicating the end of break time.

Life was going fairly well for George End and his family until 1944. Although he had plenty of anti-venom, and plenty of experience in using it, George was bitten by a rattlesnake for the last time that year. He died from the poisonous toxin coursing through his body.

Jennie enjoyed her work as postmistress, but as a rattlesnake meat shipper and barkeep, not so much. She sold the property that housed the bar and post office. The buyer, Earl D’Avignon converted the building into an Imperial Gas Station and Garage, and kept the bar intact. Eventually D’Avignon opened a mobile home park behind the property.

Jennie continued her duties and eventually married Grover White. They built a small building to house the Rattlesnake, FL post office just west of the original site. The cannery and novelty shop were sold to Ross Allen, one of Florida’s great roadside theme park showmen, who turned it into Rattlesnake Farm. Jennie passed away in 1950.

On June 1, 1954, the “Rattlesnake, Florida” post office was officially renamed “Interbay.” It was relocated to 3630 Gandy Blvd, just east of Dale Mabry. The post office was again moved to 4520 Oakeller St, where you can check your mail today.

The original cannery building which became D’Avignon’s gas station was on Gandy Blvd. at Bridge St. - about a block west of West Shore Blvd. It was demolished, either in 1956, when the Gandy Bridge was first replaced, or in 1976 when Gandy Blvd. was widened to four lanes in anticipation of the second span of the Gandy Bridge). The spot is now an empty lot (Gandy Blvd. & Bridge St.). The building Jennie and Grover built was located where today you can find the West Shore Club Apartments.

The northern boundary of Rattlesnake was near current-day Fair Oaks Blvd. (NOG), and the eastern boundary followed near Manhattan Blvd south to Everett Rd. (Port Tampa). The western end of Tyson Rd. juts out into Old Tampa Bay. That little peninsula is still called Rattlesnake Point.

Other Rattlesnake rattletrap:

• Google map of Rattlesnake, FL
• A 1946 postcard possibly from Rattlesnake, FL
• Addled Brain once wrote about catching a flight from Rattlesnake, FL with the great parody site SkyHigh Airlines. Turns out the airline has daily flights out of Rattlesnake, FL to such places as Duncan’s Retreat!
• William Moriaty has more knowledge of Rattlesnake, FL online.
• Mike Woodfin of Ghosttowns.com was looking for more information, and even has a couple photographs of buildings in old Rattlesnake.
• Rattlesnake Point Outfitters is located on Rattlesnake Point.

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