Jan. 19, igoi.T 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
47 
Colorado's Big Game and Its Future* 
BY D. C. BEAMAN. 
I HAVE been requested to furnish something on this 
question. 
A portion of what I shall say has been anticipated by 
newspaper publication, but there were some errors in 
dates, etc., and as its restatement is essential to the com- 
pleteness of this paper, I shall have to ask the forbear- 
ance of any who have already read it for its repetition 
here. 
Unless there is a speedy and radical change in protective 
measures there is no future for the big game of this 
State. 
A retrospect of thirty years will astonish those who 
have not given the subject close attention. 
As is well known, the deer and elk thirty years ago 
existed in great numbers east of the Continental Divide. 
Now they are practically exterminated in that portion of 
the State, except in North Park. 
The region known as the Gunnison country, which 
comprises the Cochetopa hills, the Elk and West Elk 
mountains, an area of about 4,000 square miles, was, twen- 
ty years ago, full of elk, deer and antelope. No one 
knows how many hundred thousand of them there were in 
that region, as it was only necessary to go a few miles 
from the town of Gunnison to get good hunting. 
Now they are so scarce that no one thinks of going 
there to hunt, and for several years Gunnison hunters 
have been going to Routt and Rio Blanco counties for 
their big game. 
Further north in the Huntsman's hills, on the Muddy 
and Divide creeks, the Grand and Battlement mesas, an 
area also of about 4,000 square miles, twelve years ago 
deer and elk were abundant. They are now scarcer there 
even than in the Gunnison region. 
The White River Plateau, the Flat Top Moiintains, the 
Trappers Lake and Williams Fork Basins — a vast 
natural garden of parks, groves and lakes of 1,800 square 
miles — was a game paradise fifteen years ago, and deer 
or elk were always in sight along the Trappers Lake 
trail, and in the Williams Fork Basin 1 have seen bands 
of elk numbering from 50 to 200, and deer were too 
plenty for good sport. I have not seen a deer or elk from 
that trail for more than three years, while the deer and 
elk have disappeared from the Williams Fork Basin, and 
I doubt if there is left in that whole region 5 per cent, of 
those there in 1885. 
From a camp on the White River, twelve miles below 
Trappers Lake, in October, 1889, I have seen 300 deer 
pass in sight along the hill trails between daylight and 
sunrise on their way to their winter range. None can be 
seen there now. 
There are, of course, a few deer left in the more in- 
accessible portions of these tegions, but as hunting 
grounds they are no longer considered. 
The deer of these regions which have not been killed 
have been gradually crowded north, until their summer 
range is in a region bounded by the Medicine Bow Range, 
the Wyoming line, the White River and the Eleventh 
Auxiliary Guide Meridian, a total area of about S.ooo 
square miles, but taking into account the portions from 
which they are excluded by the settlements and natural 
conditions, their actual summer range is probably little 
more than half that. 
In October, usually about the first full moon, they begin 
their migration to the lower regions westward. A few 
stop in the low hills and valleys of the streams, but the 
majority drift before the snow to a narrow strip west 
of the Twelfth Guide Meridian, north of the Grand 
River and south of Wyoming, some going over into 
Utah. Their present winter range in Colorado, excluding 
settlerncnts, etc., is probably less than 400 square miles, 
and with 1,000 hunters after them (more than two to the 
square mile) it will be seen how small a chance the deer 
have to escape destruction. 
The Destftfctioii of Deer and Elk. 
The destruction is traceable to several sources. There 
are_ probably 1,000 people residing in and near the game 
regions of the Grand, White and Bear rivers and their 
tributaries who kill from three to ten deer every year, 
some of them having little other meat the year round. 
They begin the killing in the spring and kill one occa- 
sionally during the summer. In the fall they kill and 
hang them up, or corn them like beef for winter supply. 
In the elk region elk are killed by them mostly after the 
season closes. Ninety per cent, of these residents pay no 
attention whatever to game laws, and never will until they 
are generally otherwise enforced and it becomes dan- 
gerous to violate them. 
They themselves will not deny this, except when talking 
for publication, and not always then, as one of them in a 
recent letter to a Denver paper says, "You will never find 
a settler in the game region who kills any more than he 
has use for, and only when he needs the meat." There 
was some excuse for this when beef was scarce, but there 
is none now, except that the law is generallv violated by 
others. 
More than all others, if there are any degrees in in- 
terest, are these residents interested in game preserva- 
tion, that they may have it at hand for all future time as 
a luxury, instead of heedlessly using it for daily consump- 
tion while it lasts, with the certain consequence' that it will 
soon be beyond reach by them even as a luxury. 
A conservative estimate of the deer thus killed an- 
nually for several years past is 6,000, and no doubt largely 
exceeds the number killed by all others. 
No considerable effort is made to enforce - the law 
against residents. Indeed, it is almost useless .'to try it 
and expect conviction. - - ' 
In some cases the juries stubbornly refuse to convict 
where the evidence is conclusive. I doubt if they would 
do so except on a plea of guilty, and may be hot then. 
In other cases county commissioners- have refused to 
allow fees to witnesses for the- prosecuti-on, and district 
attorneys refused to prosecute. 
This sort of a spirit and prejudice against the game 
law IS still too prevalent, when a resident' is' concerned. 
The non-resident does not have it always so easy. 
Next in order probably come the Indians and market- 
hunters, who perhaps kill another 2,ooq. 
these fail even to get one deer each, while an equal num- 
ber probably exceed the legal limit. While hunters of 
this class do not kill so many as the residents, they per- 
haps waste a greater proportion. 
One camp of six men near the camp where I was this 
fall, killed only eight deer, but they did not bring into 
camp the forequarters of a single one of them. They were 
non-residents — men of means- — and a game warden could 
have got enough out of their fines to pay his salary and 
expenses for three months. 
But I never saw a game warden in the mountains in 
the hunting season. I would be as much surprised to 
see one as I would to see a buffalo. 
The tourist and city hunter falls back on the excuse 
that the residents also violate the law, and thus the ex- 
cuses go round in a circle and few are disposed to obey the 
law when others violate it with impunity. 
Probably a high estimate of the number killed yearly 
by the tourists and city hunters would be 1,000, prior to 
this season, when possibly it was some in excess of that. 
These estimates refer only to northwest Colorado and 
have been arrived at by a tolerably general observation 
and diligent inquiry wherever information was avail- 
able. 
These estimates are all doubtless low enough, but the 
total of 9,000 is sufficiently appalling, and as it will, if 
there is no change in the means of protection, be much 
greater for the next year or two, it is apparent that no 
increase in the game will keep pace with such destruc- 
tion, and that long before posterity gets action the game 
will be gone. 
The Killing of Does. 
Not content with the opportunity to kill bucks for moje 
than two months each year, the game destroyers are 
clamoring for the legal right to kill does also, on the 
silly pretense that the large number of does seen without 
fawns indicates a scarcity of bucks. 
It is true that bucks as well as does are scarcer now 
than formerly, and it is also true that what bucks there 
are are more wary than formerly, made so by being 
hunted more. Instead of following close on the migratory 
bands of does as in former years they hang back, the older 
ones until compelled by the deepening snows to brave 
the army of meat hunters which they know await them 
in their winter range. This wariness has increased from 
year to year, until it has worked a permanent change in 
their migration habits where there is much hunting, and 
those who judge of their number by the number herding 
with the does, judge superficially. 
During the summer season one will report seeing does 
only, while another will see numerous bucks. In fact 
this year there have been an unusual number of phe- 
nomenally large buck heads brought in. 
None of these reports amounts to anything in the way 
of comparison. 
These conditions originate from the natural separation 
of the sexes prevailing during most of the year. 
This separation has become more marked as the bucks 
grow more wary. During the summer and fall seasons 
before migration begins does only will be found in one 
section or one mountain, while on another, but a few 
miles away, there will be bucks only, and in most cases 
the old bucks will be found in a secluded region, with a 
few or no j'oung bucks with them. 
The fawnless does are not always barren does. The 
fawn from the day of its birth has to run the gauntlet 
of a score of enemies, among them the wolf, the coyote, 
the wildcat, the hmx, the mountain lion and the eagle, and 
the wonder is that any escape. No doubt 25 per cent, of 
the fawns born are thus destroyed before they are three 
weeks cid. A doe whose fawn lives but a few days can- 
not be distinguished from a barren one, and no one can 
with certainty tell a barren doe until she is dead, and much 
of this cry of barren does is mere speculation, and most 
of it comes from those who kill them anyhow, but prefer 
to have the law sanction it. 
It has been stated that formerly does usually had two 
fawns, whereas now they seldom have more than one. 
This is a natural result of being more frequently disturbed 
in the breeding season. 
A very general observation, with careful and extended 
inquiries from guides and others, shows that the pro- 
portion of bucks to does this year is about 25 per cent., 
certainly not less than 20. 
The deer are like the sheep in respect to procreation, 
and when we consider that one buck deer is good for the 
service of 50 to 100 does, the cry of a scarcity of bucks 
for procreative purposes is absurd. 
Maine is the only State having an open season on 
does, so far as I know. Complaints have been made this 
year by correspondents of the Forest and Stream that 
deer are growing scarce there, and the Game Commis- 
sioner of that State says the closing of the season on does 
is being agitated. 
The time may come for an open season on does in 
Colorado, but it is not yet. 
The Elfc. 
The extermination of the elk is nearly accomplished, 
but it has been little, if any, accelerated by the short and 
late open season of the present law. 
Elk were killed under the old law (having no open sea- 
son), regardless of sex or age, and have been rapidly 
decreasing, and it was on that account that it was desired 
by many that those who were law-abiding should have 
the same chance as those who were not. 
Complaint has been made that the present open season 
(Oct. 25 to Nov. 5) is so late that the snow is deep 
where they are, and they are hard to get at, and sug- 
gestions have been made to change it to September. 
There are several objections to such a change. The 
rutting season is in September, and the killing of bulls at 
that time would mean the cutting off of the heads and 
leaving the carcasses to rot' or if by chance the meat 
should be fit to eat, the weather is too warm to save and 
consume such great carcasses. 
The present open season gives the bulls about a month 
to recuperate flesh during a time when the food is good, 
and it was made late for that reason and that they might 
be difficult to get at and thus give them a better chance 
to escape the hunter. 
Any change in th| seaspi^ except to make it shorter or 
The closing of it without absolute enforcement would 
simply mean the shutting out of law-abiding hunters with- 
out materially delaying their fast approaching doom. 
Without perfect enforcement of the law they will be 
gone in less than three years. 
The Mountain Sheep. 
The mountain sheep have probably slightly increased in 
the last ten years. This is not so much due to there being 
no open season as to the fact that prior to that time the 
mountains were full of prospectors whose avocation took 
them into the higher ranges where the sheep were vsnthin 
easy reach, and many were killed by them. 
The inaccessibility of their haunts has protected them 
from the ordinary hunter, and for this reason they have 
not decreased like other game, althoitgh some are killed 
every year by those who live near them and some by other 
hunters. 
A short open season was provided in the draft of the 
present law, on the theory that the horns being the main 
object, the killing would be confined mostly to the large 
rams, leaving the younger ones, which would propagate 
more vigorous progeny, and as there is a surplus of rams 
it would not materially, if at all, interfere with their 
increase, also that the law-abiding hunter would then 
have some interest in preventing the killing out of season, 
while without an open season he has no chance, and is 
more or less indifferent. 
Objection was made to it, however, and it was stricken 
out. 
The principal question is. Shall the lawless be permitted 
to continue killing them while the other people are shut 
out? 
The Antelope. 
Except during the past three years, antelope have been 
less hunted than formerly. The scarcity of deer and the 
long travel required to reach them in the last three years 
has sent out many antelope hunters, and they are becom- 
ing scarcer. 
The Remedy. 
The original draft of the presciit game law was well 
adapted to conditions then existing, and would have 
averted the crisis then obviously and rapidly approach- 
ing, and which is now upon us. 
The Legislature, however, eliminated or changed many 
of its best features, so that it has been to a great extent a 
failure so far as the preservation of the big game is 
concerned. 
If these features can be restored by the coming Legisla- 
ture, and the most vigorous enforcement inaugurated, 
there is still hope. Otherwise there is no future for our 
big game, and the sportsmen of the State must soon quit 
hunting or go elsewhere to do it. 
A discouraging feature of the situation is that 'those 
most interested manifest the least concern. 
These are the residents of the game regions and the 
hunter of limited means. When the game in their imme- 
diate localities is gone their hunting is over. 
The hunter of means has a much less personal in- 
terest. The vast game regions of the Northwest Terri- 
tories are open to him, and the expense of reaching them 
is to him unimportant. 
If the residents of the game regions would abide by 
and aid in the strict enforcenjent of the law, the battle 
would be half won. 
The other half must be won by such increase in pro- 
tective measures as will keep pace with the great improve- 
ment in guns and ammunition and the enormous increase 
in hunters, the latter having increased in the last few 
years nearly or quite 100 per cent. 
It is an unquestioned fact that some of the Eastern 
States have, by a rigid enforcement of game laws, so in- 
creased their game that they are already strong bidders 
against Colorado for hunting tourists, while British Co- 
lumbia and Alaska are attracting Colorado hunters. 
Notwithstanding the complaint as to the lack of en- 
forcement of our game laws, it is nevertheless a fact that 
they are as well enforced as our other State laws. The 
latter are daily violated in the presence of officers, with 
few real efforts at enforcement. 
Game laws should, however, be enforced much more 
strictly for the reason that the failure as to other laws 
still leaves sufficient people alive to do business, while the 
failure as to game laws means the annihilation of the 
game. 
The Federal Government spends ten times more for 
forest protection in Colorado than the State does to pro- 
tect its game. 
Game Preserves. 
The project of a national game preserve, to include the 
summer and winter ranges of the deer, has been talked of. 
This question was threshed out in 1891, when meetings 
were held in Denver favoring it, and in Meeker oppos- 
ing it. 
The White River cattlemen were unanimous in opposi- 
tion to it, because they feared that their cattle would be 
excluded. There is no reason why the presence of cattle 
in a game preserve should be objected to. Indeed, their 
presence and that of the range riders would be of great 
advantage in keeping down fires and keeping out lawless 
hunters. 
But the cattlemen were jealous of any restrictions upon 
the freedom of the range, and the whole scheme was 
knocked out by the kick of the White River steer. 
It is likely that a renewal of the effort would meet with 
the same opposition. 
The more limited State scheme, aiming to constitute 
the winter range of the deer a sort of a refuge for them, 
will meet the opposition from the residents there, on the 
same grounds, and on the additional ground that they 
depend on getting their game after it goes down. They 
have never been, willing to go as far for their game as 
those do who reside out of the game regions. 
It was this demand that lengthened the open season of 
the present law to Nov. 5. 
This scheme for protecting the deer in a definite area, 
comprismg their winter range, and without reference to 
date, is a good one theoretically, but practically the fail- 
ure to enforce a law of this kind woyld be the same as 
one having reference to dates alQ:pe, 
It will also be found that ^ attempt to pass any 
m !poiciiJ| fQlel| ^9 $1^^ ^^i^^ of the |ain,f, fe||. 
