In the late ’90s I was walking up the main road to the back entrance of the Palace. I encountered a very large turtle on the side of the road opposite the Palace driveway. It had a shell that was about 12″ in diameter, so I knew that it was very old. I was a cleaning woman for the guest facilities at the back of the Palace at that time, so I got a black plastic garbage bag from the storeroom. When I leaned over the turtle with the bag outstretched, to move it back across the road, it leaped several inches in the air at me. I knew then that it was a snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina serpentina) and could bite off my finger if I got too close. Eventually, it turned back around towards the Palace lake, crossed the lawn, and dove in.

A few weeks ago (mid-May), I went out for a walk around noon. I spied a lump in the road and went to examine it. I saw that it was a turtle that was baking in the hot sun. Using a branch, I spent about half an hour trying to get it back into the bushes along the roadside, on the down hill side towards water. I was amazed at how firm a grip it had, even with only one foot holding on. It stayed in one spot, beside a piece of log, the whole afternoon. I called to the Schrader Nature Center at Oglebay, but they did not want it.
Before dusk, one of the neighbors came by on a tractor. The wheels went over the spot where I thought the turtle was hiding. After checking underneath all of the bushes and not finding remnants of squashed turtle, I realized that it had made its escape. After I looked it up online, I discovered that it was an eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina).