Sapsucker Woods Pond

In Sapsucker Woods pond there is an ancient snapping turtle that locals says is a as wide as a manhole cover. Visitors to the nature center on the western bank of the pond say they sometimes see it from the cedar plank observation deck. Every tourist will turn the viewing stations down from the horizon and towards the water. John Gelbert, an expert birder who, after retiring from the state power and gas commission, would only turn his Swarvoski scope downward whenever he saw the people rush to the banister and crane over the railing.

"There it is!"

"Its huge!"

"No, its just the sun hitting some logs!"

"NO! It moved! I swear"

The nature center had yet to capitalize on this albeit when there as a rash of sightings there would be more cars in the lot. More  people taking the Route 23 bus line all the way from town, which was an hour and 15 minute loop around all the hills to Sapsucker Woods pond. They sold more sodas and stuffed Audubon birds that sang when you squeezed them.

My neighbor, Mr. Rollarino, had a penchant for scanning the local paper and the crime blotter every morning. He was the only person on the block to still get the Journal and I, the only person, who would talk to him. This is no comment on him. He is very friendly. Retired and originally from Torino, Italy. He worked as a glazier there and then moved here to work at Corning. He had one grown child now in the Marine Corps and a wife who passed a few years ago. Cancer. But, the neighbor was now mostly renter who ebbed and flowed. I ended up stuck there and with Mr. Rollarino.

He would scan the blotter and point out the ludicrous to me. Sometimes he waited till I got back and from work which let me know it was something very impressive.

"Look at this! At the pond up the road!"

And in the paper the blotter narrated how the Sheriff apprehended 3 men in a row boat. It said they were inebriated and had on there person several lengths of rope, broom sticks, fishing rods, and what was described as a home made net.

"They were hunting for it! The turtle!"

I decided to buy a copy of the Journal the next day as the headline was about the arrest. Indeed they had tried to row out and catch the turtle coming around 4am. They failed to factor in the birders there to whom 4am is the start of the day and it was Mr. Gelbert who saw them and hollered. He claimed they screamed "Fuck you" back at him which is why he called the police. The assumption was they had gone turtle hunting but the suspects made no statement.
A fourth suspect was seen on a kayak but rowed to shore before he could be caught and ran into the woods. The kayak had no state boat registration sticker. The sheriff was attempting to secure prints from it. Aside from the center they may also face charges from the state department of natural resources for illegal hunting and possible ecosystem degradation.

"The hills on which Sapsucker rests are actually a rare ecosystem in the state," said a Dr. James Conifer from the dept of natural resources in the article. "They are a Swamp White Oak Swamp with the namesake pond itself being the largest depression that filled in over years. There are sedges we never see anywhere else." He did not mention the turtle which, if it existed, must also be quite rare. Wasn't that like hunting a white tiger? An albino elephant?

When this week became Saturday I drove out to the pond. There were more people there than I had ever seen and they all peered into the inky water scanning for bubbles. On the far side there were poles cast but no people attending to them. Someone from the center would tromp out and knock them down every two hours or so.

"The kayaker is putting them back up!" said a father there with his children. "He is still hunting the turtle."

When I told Mr. Rollarino about this he said he would scan the blotter for the next hit. "I will tell you if they succeed!" And he poked his folded paper putting a divot right where the blotter section appears below the ads for puppies.

The Sunday paper then had a write up about the legendary turtle in the life section. "The Onondaga Indians, original owners of this land, believed a turtle held up the world. These were likely inspired by local snapping turtles and can be seen in other myths worldwide." The article was then accompanied by crayon pictures of the turtle children had left at the nature center

Mr. Rollarino then started telling me about other crimes. Someone falling out of a window. Someone stopped for putting gas in a garbage bag at the Sunoco. The turtle never appeared again in the blotter.