campaigns. Numbers gradually increased after the mid-1950s 

 despite some continued control efforts with toxicants through 

 1971. 



History of the Mule Deer Population 



Mule deer apparently were common in the vicinity of our 

 study area during the early 19th Century. As the Lewis and 

 Clark expedition moved through the area in 1805, their 

 journals note that on May 19 the party killed a minimum of 10 

 deer, on May 20, Clark killed two deer and "the hunters killed 

 . . . several deer merely for their skins", and on May 23, Clark 

 killed four deer in the morning and saw a number of deer in 

 the afternoon" (DeVoto 1953, Burroughs 1961). Later records 

 suggest that deer also were common during the mid-to-late 

 1800s. Koch (1941), citing journals of his father and others 

 wintering along the Missouri River immediately below our study 

 area in 1869-70, states "[they] ...were able to go out every 

 two or three days, about as one goes to the market now, and 

 bring in a deer or antelope..." Similarly, Hornaday (1908) 

 recounted a successful hunting trip for mule deer bucks in 

 "bad-lands" along the Missouri east of our study area during 

 October 1901. Up to that time deer apparently were so common 

 that "...certain ranchmen of the North Side [of the river] had 

 slaughtered great numbers of... deer to feed their dogs." 



These sketchy early records indicate only that mule deer 

 were widely distributed and occurred in some abundance during 

 recent historical times. They tell us little about absolute 

 or relative numbers or fluctuations through time. Of this we 

 can only speculate based on more recent population 

 characteristics and habitat relationships of mule deer in the 

 area. It is unlikely, however, that deer were more widely 

 distributed or generally more abundant in historical times 

 than today. They may also have been subject to equal or 

 greater temporal fluctuations in occurrence. 



Relative moisture indexes calculated from tree-ring data 

 (Fig. 3.8) indicate consistently wide variation in 

 environmental conditions through the years. Periods of 

 drought were interspersed with years of ample moisture, and 

 mild with severe winters. Relatively dry to average 

 conditions prevailed during the time of the Lewis and Clark 

 passage through the area and during the 1860s and 1870s. The 

 1880s were relatively moist and included the exceptionally 

 severe winter of 1886-87 during which more than half of the 

 cattle herds in the area died. Deer must have suffered 

 substantially as well. All of this would suggest that mule 

 deer numbers and distribution probably fluctuated greatly 

 throughout the 1800s and earlier as they do today. 



76 



