Whitetailed deer unquestionably are Ohio's most popular game animal. In 2007, hunters bagged 237,316 deer, and they'll probably do just as well or better this year.
Actually, deer long have influenced the life of Buckeye settlers and citizens, so much so that in 1988, the Ohio General Assembly made the whitetailed deer Ohio's official state mammal. They couldn't have made a better choice because these wary and fine eating animals have had an important place in the state's history for thousands of years.
They moved into Ohio at the end of the Ice Age and found life much to their liking. Admittedly, much of the land soon was covered by trees, some so huge that Daniel Boone and a friend lived in a beech tree near the Ohio River on a winter trapping expedition. Deer also find little food in a major forest.
There always were prairies here and there, burned areas that grew up in brushy succession, swamps, marshes, and vast fields of reeds, enough to ensure plenty of "edge" that deer need for browsing. So, although their population never was close to current numbers in the near ideal habitat of today, there were plenty for wolves and panthers, and plenty for the Wyandots and Shawnee, Huron and Eries who hunted them at every opportunity with sturdy little bows and spear throwers. A favorite meal among these native people was venison stewed in sweet maple sap, food enjoyed by successful hunters every spring.
It wasn't until Europeans moved into the state that deer numbers began to plummet. The biggest problem among early pioneers was there almost was no hard money. In fact, coins were so scarce that I've read the big pennies of the time often were cut into several pieces, or "bits," which is why we still mention small items as being worth two bits or four bits. Deer hides took up the currency slack and regularly were used as barter for everything from a couple of piglets to a barrel of flour.
The slang term "buck" referring to a dollar dates to the days when deerskins or buckskins were used for trade. According to a 1779 report, "A large buckskin is valued at a Spanish dollar, two doeskins are regarded as equal in value to one buckskin." With this kind of pressure and rapidly improving firearms, the population gradually disappeared. By 1904, whitetails no longer existed in Ohio. Luckily, it didn't stay that way.
During the 1920s and '30s, a limited stocking program began, and at the same time a few animals began to drift in from Pennsylvania and Michigan or swam the river from West Virginia and Kentucky.
By 1937, deer were reported in 28 Ohio counties, and by 1943 enough were present for a regulated hunting season to occur in select counties. That year 8,500 permits were sold and 168 animals harvested, which works out to a hunter success ratio of about one in 50 gunners. Obviously, things have changed dramatically since that first hunt.
It goes without saying that numbers of animals killed steadily increased. In 1950, 19 counties held hunting season with 22,728 hunters bagging a record 3,500 animals. By 1974 the count had gone past 10,000 whitetails. I still remember a hunter who lived about 10 miles from my home in 1950. He killed a small 6-point buck and hung it in his barn. People came from miles around to see the animal --so many that they jammed his farm parking lot. Again, things have changed since then.
Today, Ohio's deer herd numbers around 600,000, and Division of Wildlife biologists confidently are expecting a kill of at least 200,000. That number should hold for the next season and the one after that because the animals are being carefully managed these days. Hopefully it will provide good hunting for years.