So, Where’s Big Turtle Creek?

It really only exists for us, which is OK because most people think we live on a different planet.  Technically, it’s a the bottom of a half a mile of canyon in the Tabletop Mountains in the cross-timbers of southern Oklahoma.  It holds a little  water here and there, so being Okies we optimistically call it a creek.  Down at the very bottom of the canyon, most of which is on our land, is a water hole that holds water year-round from a spring about 20 feet above it.  Last summer while we had a rented backhoe for doing some clearing on the new homestead, Doodad (that’s my husband) decided to dredge out the hole so it would hold more water.  In the process, he dredged up about a 50 pound snapping turtle, which promptly escaped the bucket.  That, along with the fact that over the years we’ve found many large turtle shells (though not as big as this one) on this end of the creek, led our granddaughter to proclaim it “Big Turtle Creek.”