Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/742011
perspective, Ernest Thompson Seton's estimates for deer densities in pre-European America ranged from 10 to 20 per square mile, an estimate that is still considered to be the ideal number in ideal habitat. Lewis and Clark would have been thrilled to see that many deer. In three days on Schuett's ranch I found just one small group of five mule deer does, and that may be symbolic of the differences between mulies and whitetails as well as the differences between 1805 and 2015. The mule deer is currently the only western big game species whose numbers are declining. The relationship between elk and wolves has been well documented in areas drawn by the easy forage provided by alfalfa, corn, and other crops. Because the elk congregate in large herds, it is easier to estimate their numbers (about 1,200 to 1,500 in a single herd on the western edge of the Schuett Ranch), but the whitetails come together in much smaller units, usually half-a-dozen to a dozen animals. Only by driving the ranch roads and glassing the vast, level pastures does the magnitude of the aggregate number become apparent. And magnitude is the right word. Blade Schuett, who along with his father owns the ranch, estimates 1,500 whitetails on 6,000 acres, which works out to more than 150 deer per square mile. To put that in all parties, especially Meriwether Lewis, in spite of his having been President Jefferson's private secretary. A member of the expedition has trouble with his feet after walking "bearfoot;" mountains "ly parrallel" to the river; Clark takes a different "rout" than Lewis; and Lewis writes about his "sperits [being] much revived" by the sight of a herd of elk, and "game being very scarce and shy." Game may have been scarce and shy in 1805, but 210 years later it is only shy. The broad expanse of the Beaverhead Valley that surrounds Dillon is largely agricultural, with very large farms thick with elk and whitetails. The elk are driven down from the surrounding mountains by wolves, and the whitetails are S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S • 111