18 Nebraskaland • June 2022
The Turtle
Family
The Rutten Family of
Cedar Rapids Pass on
a Hunting Tradition
he Ruttens of Cedar Rapids do something that no one
else does: hunt snapping turtles with their bare hands.
Every summer, the Rutten "boys" — geared in old tennis
shoes, jeans and a T-shirt — ease down into the greasy,
stagnant oxbow lake on the fl ood-prone family property,
called "The Island." Each man carries a pitchfork, while other
family members wait on the bank ready with gunny sacks.
Walking abreast, the hunters blindly poke at the odorous,
muddy water. The swamp is full of clay-like mud, snags and
vegetation, and the eff ort is slow going. They're looking for
that familiar "thunk" sound — that's when they know there's
a snapper near their feet. The tone of a pitchfork tine bumping
against a turtle's back is diff erent than the sound that a log
would make, says Ben Rutten, the family's patriarch. You only
need to hear it once, then the sound becomes unmistakable.
When a snapper is located, heart-pounding excitement
ensues. The hunter who found it quickly applies gentle
pressure onto the turtle's back with one foot — just enough
weight to pin down the animal and give others time to wade
up and help. Then comes the harrowing part: getting the
pitchfork underneath the turtle to lift it from the water and
grabbing it by the tail — and hopefully, not its agile, beak-like
head.
The Ruttens are only interested in snappers of a certain
size. Turtles less than 8 pounds are too small, and anything
over 30 pounds is breeding stock and thrown back. Those
that fi t the criteria are carried onto the bank, where helpers
on land transfer them to the pickup truck. In Cedar Rapids,
T
Story and photos by
Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley
