History of the Corbin Preserve 



By Richard H. Manville 



Director, Bird and Mammal Laboratories, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 



[With 4 plates] 



In the late 19tli century it was fashionable for some of the new 

 magnates of industry and finance to establish preserves for the propa- 

 gation of game and for the sport it provided. Many of these pre- 

 serves have been neglected and have reverted to their natural state; 

 others have been absorbed by Federal or State agencies and are now 

 maintained as refuges ; some have continued as private tracts, admin- 

 istered much as when they were established. Among the latter is the 

 Corbin Preserve in New Hampshire, one of the largest and most 

 successful of these areas — in a sense a holdover of the old European 

 system of game management, with the harvest a privilege of the 

 favored classes. It provides an interesting chapter in sociology, in 

 history, and in the development of wildlife management — a profession 

 which, as we know it today, was undreamed of in the 1890's. The 

 Corbin Preserve witnessed some of the early gropings toward a scien- 

 tific method of handling game, replete with successes, failures, and 

 sometimes surprising results. 



In the days before governmental agencies took an interest in these 

 matters, such conservation as we had was practiced by private agen- 

 cies. To them we owe a great debt of gratitude, for without their 

 (ifforts some of our game species might not have survived. Private 

 game preserves usually were developed on lands of moderate value, 

 where game was or might become abundant, and where it was pos- 

 sible to prevent trespass. Ultimately these preserves played an im- 

 portant role in the preservation of game, as well as in providing 

 recreation and diversion. At the turn of the century most of them 

 were still in an experimental stage, and many later were abandoned 

 or absorbed. But the Corbin Preserve thrived and is a going concern 

 today — unique in the annals of American game preserves. 



Austin Corbin (1827-1896), a native of New Hampshire, went west 

 and became eminently successful in banking, railroads, and other 



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