About Us

Why the name RattleGator?

Our Story:

Deep in the mountains of Colorado, a creature has been spotted that is so fierce, and so elusive, few have ever seen it, and even fewer have lived to tell about it.  No pictures have been captured of this creature as of yet, it is much too fast for modern cameras.  It is half rattlesnake, and half alligator and twice as mean as either one.  These creatures have been spotted in the woods of Michigan, in the mountains of Colorado, and deep in the south of Florida and in many other locations around the globe.  We named our business RattleGator to help bring awareness to these magnificent creatures.

The REAL Story:

We are a family owned business, just me my wife Michelle, and my two girls Allison and Courtney.   A long time ago, sometime around the late 1990’s we were out camping in the mountains of Colorado where we live.  We were sitting around a campfire enjoying the cool Colorado evenings, roasting marshmallows, and making smores, and feeding the fire.  All of a sudden our two dogs, Lady and Cheyenne, a yellow lab and a golden retriever looked off into the darkness around us and started barking.  Of course this scarred all of my girls. And as young children my kids, like most others, looked to me, their father, and protector to reassure them that everything was going to be ok, and that nothing out there could hurt them.  However, I’m a dad. And I’ve been accused on occasion of being somewhat of a smartalec.  I couldn’t just make it easy on them.

Now the dogs could have heard anything from a bear, to a twig dropping from a tree. Who knows.  But when the kids asked me “Dad what was that?”, I don’t know why, I don’t know where I got it from, it just came to me (Probable from some horrible thing my own father did to me when I was young).

I told them it was ‘A RattleGator’   A creature half rattlesnake (which we do have in Colorado) and half Alligator (which we do not have in Colorado, since we have very little water, and it gets cold here).

Of course I would protect them from such things, and we would be fine.  (We all had to go back in the trailer at that point because they were scarred).

Now, to make matters worse, (again, I’m a dad) a year or two later we made a trip to Disney World, and stayed at the Disney campground.  One night we were walking to the outdoor movie theatre they have, when what should run in front of us but an armadillo.  My kids, being from Colorado have never seen an armadillo.  They once again looked to me for guidance and protection.  So what did I do?  When that asked, “What was that!”  I of course answered “I think that was a baby RattleGator.”

And thus the RattleGator was forever part of our family.  Anytime there was a noise, or something unknown, it was always suspected of being a RattleGator.

So when we decided to take my hobby of woodworking and turn it into a business, we struggled for weeks trying to decide on a name.  Until one night, my youngest daughter Courtney said “Why don’t we call it RattleGator?”

And there you have it.  The story of our name.