As the seasons come and go and the years roll by, one thing has remained constant alongside Grey Reef Road near one of Wyoming’s favorite stretches of the North Platte River — Old Snappy and her offspring.
Old Snappy is the name locals have given a large common snapping turtle that could very well be the same turtle a fisheries biologist set free there 45 years ago.
“I always make it a point on a warm, sunny day to stop and see if I can spot them (the turtles),” fishing guide Trent Tatum told Cowboy State Daily.
He’s co-owner of the North Platte Lodge and The Reef Fly Shop Cottages and RV in Alcova. The turtles like to sun themselves along a particular drainage visible from the road near the lodge, he said.
Bill Wichers said there’s a good chance that the momma turtle is the same one he set free in the late 1970s, when he was a fisheries biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
“There seems to be one that shows up in the same area, about the same size, so that could be the same turtle,” he said.
Came From Buffalo Area
If Old Snappy is indeed the same turtle, she came from a farm pond near Buffalo. And she came for a photo op.
Wichers at the time was a Game and Fish fisheries biologist stationed in Buffalo.
He learned that his mentor, University of Wyoming zoology and physiology professor George Baxter, needed a photo of a snapping turtle. Baxter intended to use the photo for a book, “Amphibians and Reptiles of Wyoming,” which he was co-authoring with the agency’s then-Fish Division Supervisor Michael Stone.
And it so happened that Wichers had just live trapped the turtle, which at the time was “a juvenile” weighing about 8-10 pounds.
So, he hauled the turtle to the Casper area for a photo session. The book was published in 1980.
Once the photo was taken, rather than haul the turtle all the way back with him, Wichers decided to set it free in the North Platte River near Grey Reef Road.
That section of the river is native range for snapping turtle, so he figured the critter would thrive there.
And indeed, it seems she did.
Wichers went on to become the regional fisheries supervisor for the Casper area and frequently went fishing on the North Platte.
“I saw a turtle several times that I think was the same turtle I’d set free there,” said Wichers, who is now retired and lives in Hamilton, Montana.
Widespread In Wyoming
Common snapping turtles are native across eastern Wyoming, according to Baxter and Stone’s book. They prefer still or calm water, such as ponds or large pools in rivers.
Wichers said they like to eat fish either that they’ve found dead or that they occasionally catch themselves.
They spend most of their time in the water, “but they’ll come up on land to lay their eggs or to move from one body of water to another,” he said.
They can get up to 20 pounds or more, but are still small compared to alligator snapping turtles, which live in the Southern states and can weight more than 100 pounds.
Even though they’re the smaller variety, common snapping turtles are nothing to mess with, Wichers said.
“If you grab them by the tail, they can’t get you. But if you leave your fingers dangling around their mouth, they’ll chomp you really good,” he said.
The book states that common snapping turtles are known to live at least 20 years. So, it’s entirely possible that Old Snappy is the turtle he turned loose, or perhaps a first-generation offspring, Wichers said.
Road Rescue
Old Snappy and the other turtles are a delight for locals and visitors, Tatum said. So long as people keep a respectful distance, the turtles stay out of trouble.
“I haven’t heard of any anglers accidentally hooking them or catching them,” he said.
There was one time Tatum felt compelled to intervene to get Old Snappy out of danger.
“There was a time we had some considerable runoff from a storm and I saw her trying to walk across the road,” he said. “I grabbed her carapace (shell) behind her head with one hand and her tail with the other hand and picked her up and got her off the road, because I didn’t want her getting run over,” he said.
He said Old Snappy had some real heft to her.
“She had to have weighed at least 20 pounds, maybe even closer to 30,” Tatum said.
Old Snappy and the other turtles have established themselves in that section of the rivers’ ecosystem, and have no shortage of fans among humans, he said.
“They’re just really cool critters,” Tatum said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
