Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia

Carl Porter is a retired truck driver from Kingston, Georgia, who “look[s] more like a barber, or someone’s favorite uncle” (11) than a reverend. He is described as possessing a nondescript look, including his wardrobe, which consists of a white dress shirt and polyester slacks. Carl is in his late-40s, with a flattened nose, close-together eyes, and thin hair. Carl is a preacher in the snake-handling community, and his home church is The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is known as Covington’s “spiritual mentor” (133), who taught him about snake handling, encouraged him to read through the entirety of the New Testament, and because of whom he’d gotten baptized in his home church in Birmingham.

Carl is not perfect and did a fair bit of what is known in his community as “backsliding”(40) before attaining his current position. He left preaching for seven years to drive big rigs, do drugs, and chase women, leaving his wife, Carolyn, and church waiting at home. Now, Carl had been back for around 17 years. He is quoted as saying, “I’ve been high on dope, whiskey […] It’s like nothing compared to the Spirit” (135). He approved of Covington’s book as “edifying to the body of Christ” (20).

Carolyn is Carl Porter’s wife and a reckless handler, whom Covington had once seen pick up an entire pile of snakes in her husband’s church in Georgia. She spoke to them in tongues and then hurled them all to the ground so hard Carl had to come and get them back in order. Carolyn Porter disapproved generally of the Tennesseans’ treatment of their wives, believing it to be backwards and restrictive. In fact, she had tried to talk Diane Pelfrey out of marrying Steve Frazier on the grounds that Steve’s cousin was the infamous Punkin Brown.

Glenn Summerford is the impetus for this book, without whom Covington probably would never have met the snake handlers or written his account. Glenn was a preacher convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison for the attempted murder of his wife via rattlesnakes. During the trial, the prosecution argued that Glenn had been under the influence of alcohol and had tried to kill Darlene in a fit of jealousy; the defense argued that both had been drinking, and it was Darlene’s idea to put her hand in the snakes’ box. Glenn had been abusive to Darlene and her family members, as he had broken her mother’s jaw on a previous occasion. He was known as an alcoholic, a jealous man, and an adulterer. Because of previous convictions, he was susceptible to Alabama’s new Habitual Felony Offender Act. He won a subsequent custody battle between himself and Darlene regarding his son, Marty, despite being in prison; another daughter by a previous marriage was going to help him.

His church, The Church of Jesus with Signs Following, was a snake-handling church established in Scottsboro, Alabama, in a converted gas station and country store with a façade and a hand-painted and misspelled sign. Glenn’s actions divided the church. Some left just after his arrest, remaining loyal to Darlene, and some, such as Cecil and Carolyn Esslinder, stayed loyal to Glenn.

Darlene is the wife and victim of Glenn Summerford, whose case came to the attention of Dennis Covington while he was working for The New York Times. She is a member of a snake-handling church in Scottsboro, Alabama, and owner of several crates of rattlesnakes, stored on her property. Darlene is the subject of a poetic section of the text in Chapter 2, “The Trial,” where Covington uses a different point of view to delve into Darlene’s mindset during the night of her attempted murder.

Darlene is described as “fair-skinned and rangy” (43), with long auburn hair, striking eyes, and a seventh-grade education. Known as the foremost female snake handler in the Southeast, “her sullen expression and lupine eyes suggested a wilderness of thought” (36). She was born one of 13 children to a couple living on disability pay in the Sand Mountain town of Dutton. Darlene was pregnant at the time of the attempt on her life, but the baby survived and was growing fine in utero. At the time of the trial, she had gotten a job and moved into a trailer on a half-acre of land next to her mother’s house back in Dutton.

Vicki is Dennis Covington’s partner, who encouraged him to follow his interest in the snake-handling community after Glenn Summerford’s portion of the story had dried up. Covington and Vicki appear to have a healthy and communicative relationship, as they are able to verbalize their emotions with one another, and it seems to help Covington that she used to be a therapist. The two have been through some bad times together as alcoholics, but they got sober, lived together in El Salvador while Covington was covering the war there as a journalist, and have two daughters together. They live together in Birmingham, Alabama.

Vicki is a deacon in their home church. She attends several snake-handling services with Covington, but expresses discomfort in the way some of the preachers discuss the role of women in the church and interpret the Bible. The one thing she desires most is to get a blessing from Aunt Daisy through “the laying on of hands” (133), which she achieves at Steve and Diane’s wedding.

Melissa is one of two photographers recruited by Covington to cover the entirety of his investigation and immersion into the snake-handling community. Melissa is obligated to follow a strict dress code including ankle-length dresses, no pants, no makeup, and no haircutting. Melissa is very interested in the community in her own right, spending hours outside of work time discussing the handlers and preachers with Jim Neel and Covington. Covington first noticed her work in an outdoor exhibit in Birmingham after it was censored by police. She is described as being “warm, expansive, and maternal […] obsessed with their work, easy to travel with, and open to possibilities” (71).

She becomes the subject of a critical rant spearheaded by Carl Porter during his preaching at the wedding of Diane and Steve Frazier. Although she attempts to keep a low profile at these events, she does need to bring her camera into play, subsequently drawing attention to the fact that she is there alone and often working on Saturday nights.

Jim is the other photographer Covington recruited and is one of Covington’s oldest friends. Jim worked with him as a combat photographer in Central America during the 1980s. He is also a sculptor and a painter, “moody, private, and intense” (73).Jim is present with Covington in Scottsboro, Alabama; Jolo, Virginia; on Sand Mountain with the congregation at the brush arbor; and many other locations. He was the photographer when Covington took up serpents himself in the new church on Sand Mountain, known as the Old Rock House Holiness Church, began by Glenn Summerford’s cousins, Billy and Jimmy.

An End-Time Evangelist and snakehandler who leads services in New Hope, Charles grew up poor on the bank of the Tennessee River on a houseboat with a drunk stepfather. His own father was in prison, serving a life sentence for killing his second wife. At age 12, Charles had been shot in the stomach and seen two men get killed. He moved to Chicago at age 16 and back to the South, and then started riding a big rig twice a week to New York and bootlegging out of his own farm in Tennessee. At his worst moment, he considered taking his own life, but God’s voice spoke to him and told him to “set[his] house in order” (83).

Covington’s friendship with the McGlocklins begins at the services of The Church of Jesus with Signs Following in Scottsboro, after Aline is “taken out in the spirit, and[Covington] accompanied her on tambourine” (67). Covington’s first impression of Charles McGlocklin is that he is mentally insane, after the man tells him he has experienced visitations from angels, and that he used to preach to passing cars. He has an affinity for keeping snakes in his home. Charles believes the Holy Ghost moves on him. His wife, Aline, says she has witnessed it on occasions when he has taken up “fiery serpent[s]” (70) and when he laid hands on his wood-burning stove after being unable to handle a snake.