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Seneca Army Depot tours begin later this month

Seneca White Deer, Inc.

Bus tours of the former Seneca Army Depot, are about to get going again. The people taking the tours will likely be looking for a particular attraction…it is the white deer, of course, that have generated so much chatter and photos online in recent years.

The former army depot in Seneca County hasn’t been used for military purposes in a number of years but a local farm equipment company owner, Earl Martin, bought several thousand acres of the former depot and created Deer Haven Park, which he hopes will be a tourist attraction, since there already is a lot of interest in the white deer herd, an unusual genetic variation located at that site.

Dennis Money is president of the organization Seneca White Deer. He says last time they did a count a couple of years ago, there were about 75 white deer, and the number is likely less than that now. But he says tour-goers still have a decent chance to see them.

“We don’t guarantee you’re going to see a white deer, and I tell people, this is not a Walt Disney movie, we don’t have them tied to every tree. This is real life, some days you’re going to see a bunch and some days you’re going to see one,” Money told WXXI News.

Money says the whole idea of the tours, which were last held about five years ago, is to not only showcase the white deer, but the rich military and civilian history of that property.

“We’re going to be creative, we’re going to come up with different ideas, we’ve already talked about having biking trips and photography trips and teaching classes in wildlife biology."

The tours begin on November 16. You can get more information at www.senecawhitedeer.org

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.