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Snake PitEach spring, the small city of Sweetwater, Texas, hosts what it bills as the world's largest rattlesnake roundup. Over three days, snake hunters bring in their catches (to make $5 a pound) and spectators gawk at the writhing, bloody spectacle. Here, a group of children peer into the window of a holding pit containing thousands of rattlesnakes. None of the snakes will survive the Roundup—they will be decapitated, then skinned. Read more about the Rattlesnake Roundup on the American Festivals Project blog.
Photograph by Ross McDermott, American Festivals Project

Rattlesnake Roundup

See photos of the 2009 Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Texas, in this American Festivals Project travel photo gallery from National Geographic.

April 12, 2010
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