LaRue Road (which translates as "The Road Road") is located in southwestern Illinois in the Shawnee National Forest and separates rocky cliffs from a swamp adjoining the Mississippi River. Since 1972, a 2.5 mile stretch of the road has been closed to vehicular traffic for two months in the spring and two months in the fall to allow numerous species of amphibians and reptiles (including rattlers, copperheads, and cottonmouths) an opportunity to migrate safely between their summer homes in the swamp and their winter hibernation dens in the cliffs.
Legend would suggest that during the migration season, there is a writhing carpet of snakes and that you could not toss a dead cat onto the road without hitting at least three herptiles with it. However, I, who have on more than one occasion taken the long pilgrimage to the road during the prime migration period and who have even been provided with a learned guide to the alleged hot spots, gainsay this image. I saw nothing. Nada. Not even a common American toad (Bufo americanus).
The guide did report that a team of photographers from a major and highly-regarded media organization (whose name shall be shielded to protect the guilty) did get some good footage of venomous snakes on the road. However, he also revealed that the photographers had brought their own serpents with them in cages, released them on the road for their cameo appearances, and then recaptured them.
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