To some they are dangerous, sneaky creatures of mythical proportions, laying in wait for the next unsuspecting victim with their venomous bites. To others they are magnificent creatures of Nature that demand respect but are special and are just cause for celebration. Regardless your take, the place to be if you want to tribute the Texas rattlesnake is in Freer, Texas, where the rattlesnakes outpopulate the people that live there. Get ready to head down to the Freer Cactus Corral for the biggest snake Party in Texas featuring concerts with nationally known country western and Tejano artists. It's going to be fun for the whole family including a carnival, parade, arts/crafts exhibit and show, stage shows, a dare devil snake show, fried rattlesnake meat, talent contest & much more. Freer is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and State highways 16, 44, and 339, twenty-four miles northwest of San Diego and twenty-three miles northwest of Benavides in northwestern Duval County. It is the second largest town in the county.  It's 'way out' in the middle of nowhere, say locals, but well worth a visit, especially during the Rattlesnake Roundup. The area was originally called Las Hermanitas ("the Sisters"), for two hills south of the present townsite, and then became known as Government Wells, for a water well dug by United States Cavalry troops in 1876. According to the handbook on Texas, when Norman G. Collins, who moved to Duval County in 1867 and later became the county's leading sheep rancher, bought 35,000 acres, the future townsite became part of his Rancho Americano. The German immigrant William Hubberd became one of the first settlers at Government Wells when he arrived to manage Collins's ranch; Hubberd bought his own land in 1876. Among the first settlers in the area may have been the brothers Paul and Joe White, who around 1900 settled in the valley of Rosita Creek, near the site of future Freer, to dig water wells for the local ranchers. The single most important event in the history of Freer occurred in 1928. Three wildcatters drilling on the W. P. Norton property just southwest of what is now the Freer townsite struck one of the nation's largest oil reserves. The discovery of oil soon turned Freer into what Life magazine called "the last of the tough frontier oil towns." In 1975, when the town celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, a booklet put out to commemorate the occasion included several poems by Freer residents that acknowledged the town's lack of physical beauty but praised its warmth and unity. The town has continued to depend on the petroleum industry for much of its prosperity. Beginning in the mid-1950s a number of major petrochemical corporations, including at various times Coastal States, Exxon, Goliad Corporation, Mobil Oil, Phillips Petroleum, Texas Eastern, and Valero, have had plants in Freer. In 1990 Valero Hydrocarbons was still operating a small plant at Freer producing butane, propane, and natural gas.  While there may not be a lot to do in Freer, the Rattlesnake Roundup offers plenty of activity in a land that is as much mystery as it is friendly.