- Date
- 1938
- Kind
- Opening
- Where
- Beaver Island
- Participants
- I. H. Bartlett (enumerator)
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- wildlifeanimalsenvironmentconservationtourismheritage
- Within
- Beaver Island
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 1928.1
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.1
The formal order later reprinted in 1942 records that the five-year closure was ordered beginning November 15, 1938.2
Stocking and the herd estimate
The July 1938 report gives the stocking in more detail than a single figure. Conservation department investigators found no deer on the island before the release, and the initial 1927 planting consisted of 13 animals — seven doe fawns, three adult does, two buck fawns and one two-year-old buck — followed in 1928 by four more, two adult does and two doe fawns, for a total of 17.1 Deer-breeding tables developed from years of game-investigator observation put the theoretical maximum growth from that original stock at about 750 animals; allowing for illegal kills, predation and other mortality, Bartlett estimated the actual herd at about 500, while island residents themselves offered estimates ranging from 500 to 1,000.1
Bartlett’s spring investigation found an abundance of ground hemlock and cedar and what the article calls a “super-abundance” of hardwood reproduction serving as feed, evidence that the deer had spread across the island, and no signs of over-browsing.1 The formal closure order, signed and sealed September 9, 1938 by P. J. Hoffmaster, Director of the Department of Conservation, and reprinted in the Herald four years later, covered “the township of St. James, Town 39 N., Range 10 W., Big Beaver Island, Charlevoix County.”2
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
Footnotes
Read the document
8 pages, rendered from the held scan.
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 detailed 1927 (13 animals) and 1928 (4 animals) stocking composition totaling 17 deer, the breeding-table projection of about 750 against Bartlett's mortality-adjusted estimate of about 500 (resident estimates 500-1,000), Bartlett's spring habitat findings (feed abundance, spread, no over-browsing), the commission decision, and I. H. Bartlett's spring game-division investigation. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Held raw OCR preserves the source report independently of the normalized Markdown rendering.
- Project research record for Beaver Island wildlife management, 1938–1950.Preserves the reported 1927–1928 stocking, approximately 500-deer estimate, closure context, Bartlett investigation, and explicit limits on harvest and later herd outcomes. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.kb_research · beaver_island_wildlife_management_1938_1950
- 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. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
Added 1 August 2026 · revised 9 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island Deer Hunting Reopened for the 1938 Season”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/reopening-of-beaver-island-deer-hunting-1938/, accessed [date], citing Charlevoix County Herald, July 22, 1938, “Deer Hunting On Beaver Island.” (and 3 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-09. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “Beaver Island Deer Hunting Reopened for the 1938 Season”RIS for “Beaver Island Deer Hunting Reopened for the 1938 Season”