1923 newspaper article in WV

[Eric/WV]

This is an interesting newpapaper article from Wayne county WV in 1923. This old timer remembers killing a deer in the 1860's when deer were nearly extinct. He mentions borrowing a flintlock rifle from a neighbor to kill the deer. Intersting article.
[url] http://www.wvculture.org/history/wcn/wcn230809.html[/url]

 

[fho]

Eric/WV:

Is Wayne County close to Gassaway, W.V.

Olie

 

[taylorh]

How are deer populations now?
Taylor in Texas

 

[kentucky bucky]

Eric/WV:

Is Wayne County close to Gassaway, W.V.

Olie

I would think that Wayne Co. is about a 1 1/2 hour drive, maybe two from Gassaway,Wv.

 

[kentucky bucky]

How are deer populations now?
Taylor in Texas

They are everywhere in WV and all of the surrounding states. Some counties are thicker than others, but good hunting in every part of the states. The bear are back, too.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Latest stats show more deer now in North America than before the first White man came, or at anytime since.

 

[Eric/WV]

Wayne county is just south of the Ohio River on the western end of WV. It also borders the Big Sandy River and KY. The deer population is booming in WV now.

 

[Tumblernotch]

Wayne County is on the border with Kentucky and Ohio edged by the Tug Fork River and the Ohio River. Part of the city of Huntington is in Wayne Co. and I-64 passes through it on it's way to Kentucky. 12 Pole Creek empties into the Ohio near the old Camden Park amusement park.

 

[Gary]

School teacher allows kids to leave school to go a hunting. Kids borrow an old flintlock to hunt with. Sadly, this wouldn't happen in the world today. Terrific story!

 

[Wehrmacht]

I may be wrong in my theory,but here's what I think about the historic aspects of the whitetail population east of the Mississippi:

The deerskin trade between the Native Indians and European merchants/buyers/sellers in Colonial America was tremenduous beyond[url] belief.Trade[/url] guns,iron pots and implements,etc for deerskins.

About 1715 cattle were imported (first time)from Africa into Europe and the British Isles. Along with the cattle came a bovine disease that almost wiped out European cattle.Estimates are that 85%+ died of the imported disease.Leather was absolutely necessary to have,especially in England which dominated the European leather trade. So the stage was set...

Examine the Colonial tax records of exports back to England and the deerskins shipped will blow your mind! The Creek Indians alone, here around my area, funneled over 300,000 in a good year to Charleston,S.C.merchants,and there were only about 25,000 Creeks at most including old folks,women and kids! By 1815 the export of deerskins was down to a few thousand.The deer population had been exterpated from much of its former range.Creeks,for example hunted deer from the Florida Everglades to the Ohio River,from central Georgia to east Texas.

1815 was the year my folks (along with thousands more) moved out of the Carolina Backcountry into Creek Lands in Alabama. Ran 'em out! Traded Creeks rum for land :winking:. But there were no deer left hardly,and JUST LIKE THIS NEWSPAPER ARTICLE POINTS OUT....anybody see a deer...it was hunted down and killed!

IMO the whitetail population rebounded only after legislation in the 1920's-30's set up hunting seasons and funneled license and tax money back into conservation efforts.I forget what law or legislation it was,but part of hunting license fees were plowed back into wildlife management efforts which were in the formative stages of being developed.(Men like Aldo Leopold,Alan Derwood,et.al.were leaders in this).

Given that whitetails are browse animals,and primarily animals which do best where the forest has been disturbed by fire, axe or storm, our unregulated destruction of the Eastern Hardwood Forests actually helped the whitetail population to rebound to numbers probably in excess of those of 1700. That's what I think,but I may be totally wrong.My wife says I'm full of :bull: on most of my opinions :haha:.

 

[2172]

Der Forester...I think you got it right. The whitetail was extinct in NJ by 1900..probably a bit earlier. In the first decade of the 20th century the sportsmen of the state raised enough money to import 300 whitetail from Virginia...there was a moratorium on hunting them, I'm not sure if voluntary or imposed by[url] law...within[/url] 10 years of the import, there were enough to allow a limited season...the NJ hunting laws were passed about 1920 or so When I started hunting in NJ in 1950, there were maybe 25,000 deer in the whole state, and an annual kill of 7,500 was seen as heavy...haven't lived there for a while, but I believe that the population now is over 100,000, and the kill is often in the high teens...heck, cars get about 6,000 a year....here in the mountains of western NC, the deer is still coming back...poached almost out of existance in the hungry years...Hank

 

[NieuwKerk]

How are deer populations now?
Taylor in Texas

They're everywhere! They have become a nuisance in populated areas here in western PA. They are in my neighborhood and eat everyone's flowers. They have eaten my tulips and I have seen deer standing up on their hind legs eating the sunflower seeds right out of my birdfeeder. My neighbor across the street came back from hunting this past season at his cabin to find 11 deer in his back yard eating his flowers. He saw ONE deer and was shut out this hunting season. Some townships have even hired professional "exterminators", bowhunters with special licenses to hunt deer in populated residential areas. It doesn't help much.

In addition to the deer, we have a lot of wild turkeys in my area. I once counted 19 in my front yard. They stop traffic as they walk across the street. They, too, like the seeds that fall to the ground from the feeder.

I do not live in a rural area. I am about a quarter of a mile from a highway and less than a mile from a big shopping mall.

The fact is, they are going to live where there is food and safety from predators. Like us, they are enjoying "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness".

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Found this interesting: White European diseases saved California's wildlife by killing off the Indians starting in the 1500's. This theory will put some shattered PC people onto suicide watch.
[url] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060213090658.htm[/url]

 

[Tumblernotch]

Deer populations in WV have taken off like wildfire in recent years, but appear to be levelling off and declining in some areas. In my county and some of the others, coyotes are killing many of the fawns and very liberal bag limits have done a lot to reduce the herds. For several years I've not been able to put out a garden cause the deer would eat everything or trample it. The last couple of years, the mast production has been off in my area and many deer have migrated as well as squirrels. I only saw 2 deer in my woods this year, but the squirrels seem to be coming back. Maybe this year, with better mast production, we'll see a few more deer. But I hope not toomany! They cause a lot of problems.