В Спрингфилде празднуют 70-летие «Великого кобрового паника» 1953 года, вызванного ошибкой одного подростка

Ozarks Life: Anniversary of the Great Cobra Scare of 1953 Panic spread for Springfieldians from August 15 until October 25 of 1953. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Today, on St. Louis Street, sits an EMS education center. Back in August of 1953, Reo Mowrer’s pet shop sat there. Even then, it was a center for calls when an odd-looking snake was found and taken there for identification. John Sellars, the executive director emeritus of the History Museum on the Square, recalls the story. “(Mowrer) said, ‘Oh, that’s just a puff adder; nothing to be worried about. It’s just got a funny-looking head on it.’ A couple of days later, on the street behind the pet shop, another odd-looking snake was killed. “They took it to the science teacher at Jarrett Junior High,” Sellars said. “And he goes, ‘Oh, dear Lord, where did you get this? This is a deadly cobra.’” Every couple of days, more cobras started slithering into sight around St. Louis and National. It’s an area just down the street from Reo’s shop. “He dealt in some really curious animals,” Sellars said, “so (citizens) felt like he had some culpability in this, but they couldn’t prove it.” “(Mowrer) lost his business license and he left (Springfield) and went somewhere else,” Sellars added. Hoping to stop the panic, the city’s health department and police created a plan: a snake-hunting militia. One of the city’s best weapons? A truck with speakers on top. “They played Indian snake charmer music on the speakers,” Sellars laughed, “well, snakes cannot hear. They’re driving along slowly with this group of people, like a Mel Brooks movie; all they needed was flaming torches, and it was just hilarious.” The Great Cobra Scare lasted from August 15 to October 25 of 1953. A total of 11 cobras were captured. Drury University’s Natural Science Museum has a jar containing the only known cobra that still exists. Reo Mowrer died in 1977, 11 years before the truth of his innocence would come out. In 1988, Carl Barnett came forward. As he told KY3’s Dennis Graves, he had an arrangement with Mowrer that went wrong. “He said he’d take all the snakes I can get our hands on to trade for tropical fish,” Barnett said. “One time I went over there, and I got this fish I really had my eye on, so we’d done some training. I took it home, and it was dead. (Mowrer) said, ‘Well, kid, that’s just tough.’” To get even, Carl told KY3 he went to the back of the pet store, saw a crate of snakes. Thinking they were the ones he caught, he turned them loose to get back at Mowrer. “I thought they were just a black indigo snake,” Barnett said. That’s how the ‘Great Cobra Scare of 1953′ was born. It’s become a part of our fabric. Springfield adopted a seal with the cobra. A local salon offered cobra haircuts in the ’50s. Recently, Mothers Brewery produced a sour wheat ale named Cobra Scare. “It’s a great story,” Sellars said, “and one of those wonderful things that sets us apart from a lot of people.” Life Magazine even covered the Great Cobra Scare. Barnett passed away in 2009. It’s believed other cobras, possibly four, were preserved in jars back in 1953, but only the one at Drury is accounted for; The others have vanished. To report a correction or typo, please email [email protected]. Please include the article info in the subject line of the email. Copyright 2026 KY3. All rights reserved.