THE LAST RECORDS OF DEER IN WALWORTH 
COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 
By N. Hollister. 
Authentic accounts of any of the larger mammals in central or 
'.southern Wisconsin are of great value and must be collected soon 
if they are to be preserved with accuracy as to dates and circum- 
.stances. Many species are already gone from the entire state 
and of some of these there is not a local specimen in existence 
nor a specific record in literature. Even in the extreme northern 
counties conspicuous species are now rapidly disappearing and 
each record of their occurrence or capture is worthy of note. 
Wild deer were exterminated in southeastern Wisconsin near- 
ly sixty years ago. During various visits at home in the past few 
years I have been collecting from some of the older residents 
data relating to their occurrence in the vicinity of Delavan, Wal- 
worth County, and believe that the information thus gathered will 
prove of interest. 
Deer were formerly abundant in Walworth County and in the 
early forties plenty still remained. The late Silas Bowker of 
Delavan told me of often seeing numbers of them between Dela- 
van Lake and Geneva Lake, which locality he claimed was the 
best deer country in Walworth County. Others tell of many in 
the northwestern part of the county, and it seems probable that 
though deer were generally distributed throughout the county the 
vicinities of Delavan Lake and Richmond were their favorite re- 
sorts. I. P. Larnard, of Delavan, tells me that Wm. Hollister, 
deceased, saw about fifty in one herd on the edge of the Big 
Marsh, between Delavan and Whitewater, in 1842. 
After this date the deer rapidly decreased. Mr. Larnard states 
that they soon left the lake woods and Richmond, and never re- 
turned in any numbers. In September, 1846, Mr. Larnard shot 
one from a bunch of five or six in what is now Isham's Grove, on 
the outskirts of Delavan. After killing this one he rapidly loaded 
his rifle and snapped three caps in an endeavor to shoot a fine buck 
which came out and stood in plain sight during the whole per- 
formance but trotted ofif, to his great disgust, before he could find 
a cap which would explode. This, Mr. Larnard believes, was 
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