Jake the Snake brings N.S. community together with 3,000 painted rocks
EASTERN PASSAGE, N.S. — There’s a snake, hundreds of metres long, just beneath the boardwalk in Fisherman’s Cove, growing bigger by the day.
Jake the Snake, a community art project that asks people to paint a rock and add it to the chain, is nearly 3,000 rocks strong and growing.
Suzanne Switzer started the snake in June this year. She said she never thought it would be so popular.
“When COVID started, we were homebound, and we just started painting rocks … there was just too many,” Switzer said in an interview. “My partner said, ‘Can you get rid of them?’ So, we went down to the boardwalk … and we (posted on Facebook) ‘Anyone want to add rocks or create a rock snake?’ And that day — maybe 500 rocks showed up before 1 p.m. that afternoon, and they never stopped coming.”
Jake is so long that the stones run along both sides of the gravel paths that connect sections of the boardwalk, looping around at the end.
The snake is coming up on its two-month anniversary and isn’t showing any signs of stopping. Parents, children and elders alike bring rocks by the dozen each day. One family brought a bucket containing 70 rocks just this week. Switzer would know — she comes down to the boardwalk twice a day to count the rocks, adding to the tally.
“I just can’t express the gratitude that I feel every time I come down here,” she said. “I was just hoping people would come together and enjoy it. It’s a community thing … but it went beyond that.”
The painted rocks come in many shapes, sizes and designs. Ranging from pop culture references to memorials for loved ones, sports teams to foodstuffs, there isn’t a dull bone (or stone) in the growing snake’s body.
Tourists visiting Nova Scotia have made their contribution to Jake, with painted rocks coming from Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Newfoundland, and others.
For Switzer, the snake almost acts as a timeline of events since June, with certain painted rocks commemorating different events. Canada day saw a collection of Canada flag rocks pop up. The day after the passing of rock n’ roll queen Tina Turner, a rock with a tribute to her was added to the chain.
“It just seems to encompass everything,” Switzer said. “They just tell a story all the way around us, woven all through here.”
Switzer hopes that Jake can set a new world record for the longest rock snake.
There’s still some ground to cover to reach that goal; the current record for the largest display of painted stones is held by the French group Les petits rocks de Bouvesse, according to Guinness World Records. The record was set in June 2022, with 31,731 painted pebbles.
To chronicle the story of Jake, Switzer is writing a book about the stone snake. She expects to be finished around the holiday season this year.
