Syracuse.com - White deer tours resume this fall at the former Seneca Army Depot

[HuntingNY-News]

The tours are set for three weekends, Oct. 6-7; 13-14 and 20-21. Already, some 20 percent of the tickets have been sold.

Dennis Nett/photoA grazing white deer at the former Seneca Army Depot.Don’t wait.

If you’ve never seen the white deer population at the former Seneca Army Depot in Romulus and want to hear about the days when nuclear weapons were stored there, sign up now for a guided bus tour this fall.

Two weeks ago, the announcement came out that the tours would be resumed. Already, nearly 20 percent of the buses are filled, said Dennis Money, president of Seneca White Deer Inc., the group that’s orchestrating the tours.

The tours are set for three weekends, Oct. 6-7; 13-14 and 20-21. More information can be found on the group’s Web site at www.senecawhitedeer.org.

Money, who lives in Canandaigua, said the tours were first offered in 2006 for two weekends, and again in 2009 for six weekends.

“Every tour we’ve offered has been sold out,” he said, noting a total of 4,200 people attended.

“In fact, we turned away more than 500 people,” he added.

“Don’t wait too long to sign up. There’s no guarantee we can provide any additional buses.”

I went on one of the tours in 2009 for a story, and was impressed by the large numbers of all-white deer on the property – the largest herd of its kind in the world. What I found equally interesting was hearing about, and seeing the buildings (igloos) where nuclear weapons were kept.

“Although the deer were the main attraction, we found through the evaluation forms filled out by the visitors that they found the depot’s military history just as interesting,” Money said. “This fall, we’re going to have at least two actors on the buses playing the role of military police from the 1970s and addressing what their roles were at the time as far as maintaining security at the depot.”

Money said at one time, some 1,000 nuclear weapons were stored at the depot. The last one was removed in 1996, he said.

The former depot propery is currently owned by the Seneca County Industrial Agency.

Adult tickets for the bus tours are $15; seniors (61 and over) $12, and children ages 12 and younger are $8. Carry on babies are free.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog