Summary
The July 22, 1938 Charlevoix County Herald reported that Beaver Island would reopen to deer hunting that fall after a decade-long closure. It estimated the island’s herd at about 500 deer and said the herd had grown from 17 animals stocked in 1927 and 1928.[^deer1938]
The report says hunting had been prohibited after the stocking and that the Michigan conservation commission decided not to renew the closure. I. H. Bartlett of the department’s game division had investigated the island in the spring and reported enough deer to hunt, abundant feed and cover, and no signs of over-browsing.[^deer1938]
The formal order later reprinted in 1942 records that the five-year closure was ordered beginning November 15, 1938.1
Evidence and limits
The event is dated to 1938, the year of the newspaper report and announced season. The reopening report itself does not give the exact commission meeting date or opening day; the later reprint supplies a formal closure-order date and effective period, but not the actual number of animals harvested or what happened to the herd afterward. The 500-deer figure is the newspaper’s estimate, not a modern wildlife census.
Open questions
- What official commission order ended the closure, and what were the 1938 season dates and limits?
- Can the 1927–28 stocking records identify the source and transport of the 17 deer?
- What full name and later career records identify I. H. Bartlett?
- What harvest, browse, or later population records document the result of reopening?
See also
- Beaver Island
- I. H. Bartlett (1938 Beaver Island deer survey)
- Perch Fishing and Bird Hunting on Beaver Island in 1950
- Michigan Conservation Commission Beaver Island Deer Closure Order (1938)
- Michigan Conservation Commission (Beaver Island game orders)
Footnotes
-
Charlevoix County Herald, October 9, 1942, reprinting the State of Michigan Conservation Commission deer order signed September 9, 1938. ↩
Sources
- Charlevoix County Herald, July 22, 1938, “Deer Hunting On Beaver Island.”Reports that deer hunting would reopen on Beaver Island in fall 1938 after a decade-long closure; gives the 1927 and 1928 stocking history, an estimated herd of about 500, the commission decision, and I. H. Bartlett’s spring game-division investigation.
- Charlevoix County Herald, July 22, 1938, raw issue OCR.Held raw OCR preserves the source report independently of the normalized Markdown rendering.
- State of Michigan, Order of the Conservation Commission — Deer — Certain Area Beaver Island, September 9, 1938; reprinted in Charlevoix County Herald, October 9, 1942.The later reprint supplies the formal five-year closure order beginning November 15, 1938 and identifies P. J. Hoffmaster as Director of the Department of Conservation.