New Braunfels: The Real Snake Farm That Inspired Ray Wylie Hubbard

The sign on Interstate 35 just north of New Braunfels has been shouting at drivers since 1967. Big red letters on black: SNAKE FARM. For most people it registers as a curiosity and disappears in the rearview mirror. For Ray Wylie Hubbard, it finally struck at the right moment, and he went home and wrote one of the most beloved Texas songs of the 21st century.

“I went ‘Uggggghhhhhhh,’” Hubbard recalled. Then inspiration arrived. A farm full of snakes. A woman named Ramona who worked there. A man who didn’t like snakes but loved her anyway. The details came fast — she’d dance like Little Egypt, drink malt liquor, have a python tattoo eating a mouse. He sat down and wrote it in about 15 minutes.

Just Sounds Nasty

“Snake Farm” appeared on his 2006 album of the same name and became his signature song — the one audiences demand every night, the one that outlived its novelty and became a genuine piece of Texas music tradition. Its genius is its simplicity: a great hook, a blues groove, a love story with teeth.

The real Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo has operated at Exit 182 on I-35 since before there was an interstate. It started as a roadside reptile stand in 1967 and grew into a private zoo with over 500 species of animals. The original cinderblock snake room is still there, with 200 species on display. Hubbard had never set foot inside before he wrote the song. When he finally visited, he found something unexpected.

“The first time I went in there, I realized the people were really nice,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a carny sideshow act.” It wasn’t. But the sign was still the sign. And the sign was enough.

Hubbard lives in Wimberley, where he notes all four venomous Texas snake species also reside. He has posed with 14-foot albino Burmese pythons for photo shoots. He keeps a rattlesnake tail in his old Gibson guitar — good mojo.

The Snake Farm made him its most famous ambassador without ever knowing it was coming. The zoo is still open daily on I-35. The song is still in every set. Neither is going anywhere.