Military Order of the Serpent.

When reading that rather chilling name, I figured it had to be a band of magic-sparkled villains from the “Librarians” TV series or maybe a group of super-secret bad guys conspiring to take over the government.

But it was real. And the Serpents even had sidekicks: the Military Order of the Lizard.

Many years ago these reptilian wannabees existed as actual human organizations right here in the Inland Empire, though their place in the sun ended three or four decades ago when they eventually died out.

I stumbled on these oddly named groups by finding a long-forgotten ribbon and medallion with the words, “Military Order of the Serpent,” while working as a volunteer inventorying materials at the San Bernardino County Museum. The medallion was part of the estat

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