Submitted by: Ron Stewart
Over the years I've worked for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, two areas seem to draw the most big game questions, the Book Cliffs for elk, deer and bison, and the deer herds on Taylor Mountain, Dry Fork or Diamond Mountain, all areas in the South Slope Vernal Unit. Usually there is a story to go with question.
The question usually goes something like this: "what happened to the deer on ???, I can remember or my dad can remember …" The answer isn't a simple one. This is the start of a series of articles about the dynamics of the herds on the South Slope Vernal Unit.
A walk down memory lane
Back in 1996, I gave a radio report on what the herds would have looked like when Utah became a State, 100 years ago. On returning to my office, I was told a few people had already called about the show and was given a few phone numbers. Most of the callers felt I was wrong because during the radio show, I talked about how few deer there were around the turn of the century. They did not believe it or me when I said the deer hunt was closed for five years between 1908 and 1913. I could only refer them to the historical record.
However, one older gentleman made an impression. Unfortunately I didn't catch his name as by this time I had already dealt with the other calls. His was different; he thanked me for reminding him of one of his strongest, early memories. When I asked him to share the memory, this is what he said.
"When I was about 12 years old, [placing it around 1913] my father came racing back from Dry Fork Canyon where he was cutting logs [working for a timber company]. As he raced into the yard, he threw the reins of his horse to one of my brothers. He yelled for mom to pack a lunch and gather some quilts and blankets. He then told me to help him hitch up the wagon.
"The horse was ridden hard, which was something he [the father] didn't normally do. When the horse was taken care of, the wagon packed and all of us on board, we set off for Dry Fork. Even though we begged to know what was going on, for the miles it took to retrace his ride, Dad only answered, 'wait and see.' He was really enjoying our misery, while Mom enjoyed the adventure.
"Hours later, Dad proudly showed us a deer track, a single clear track in the mud near where he was logging."
My caller then laughed and voiced my thoughts. "Can you imagine someone being so excited he would take an entire day off work to race down from the mountain, pack up the family and then trek back for hours just to show them a deer track?"
Paul Caldwell's Memories
Other early memories come from Paul Caldwell, born in 1923. Like most of the children born in the early 1920's, his first memories often involved the Great Depression.
"Most folks living in the Basin then, during the Depression [1930's], lived off of the land; on what we could grow or raise and what we could find or hunt. Everyone was poor, no money, so like many other families, we lived off deer. When I was nine, I helped herd sheep on Diamond Mountain, seems like we'd eat deer one week and next, eat a mutton. Year round was like that.
"When we got back [1945 – 6], there were deer everywhere [Paul went into the military in 1943 and served in the Second World War.] You could go anywhere on the mountain [Taylor and Diamond mountains] and take your pick, pick and choose through the four-points. There was also a lot of sheep then, must have been 25 – 30,000 on the mountain, few cattle, this was mostly sheep country. [We] didn't see many elk either."
"In the 'heydays,' 40's and 50's, we could go out in the jeep [into the mountains] and see deer everywhere. No one had one then [4-wheel drives], only knew of three in the valley. During the hunts, we'd drive up Dry Fork, would see all the tractors parked on the face. That's how people would get up there then. There were no roads.
"Today, roads are everywhere; deer don't have a place to go [escape.] They can't escape the hunters, [those] with the modern scopes and rifles can shoot up to a thousand yards. Might not even know they hit one. Back then we used open sight 30-30's, and would follow up on every shot. Not only was it ethical, it was close and you didn't have to walk far. I wonder now with the newer, long range stuff, if maybe some animals are hit but the shooter doesn't know it or care enough to walk out and check.
"Then they started either sex hunts [1951], by the 60's, we could go days and days in the jeep and not see a deer, not one buck. When we did [see a deer] we'd spend 20 minutes, just looking at it through the binoculars. We wouldn't kill the does, hunting regs was either sex, but we wouldn't kill the does.
"That's what killed the herds [shooting does]. It was better when they made it buck only [1975]. It got better but [hunters were] still lucky to find a buck of any kind to shoot. There were a few good years, with more deer, but not many.
"We saw our first deer in the valley around the early 70's. Thought it was pretty neat, thought we wouldn't have to go so far to hunt.
"In the late 70's and early 80's we started seeing deer again. We had buck-only hunting [1975] and for those that wanted, you could take a buck with a bow and another with a rifle or muzzleloader [1979 – 1985]. We'd started to see a few dumb two-points around Taylor. It seemed like the deer were starting to flourish in the valleys in the early 70's, took longer in the mountains. By end of the 70's, seemed like lots of deer but not many bucks, only little ones.
"In the 40's and 50's, we'd horse pack, often way back into the Green's Draw country. We'd come out with big bucks and see lots of deer. Now, starting back in the 80's, [we] only see a deer once in a while. Wouldn't even think it was deer country, more grass, see more elk now by far.
"Today, places where we'd see maybe a 100 deer, we see just a few…droughts and heavy winters. We had the heavy winters and floods back in 83-84 followed by a few years of drought [seven years]. Same thing happened in early 90s, and then again in 2000's [seven to nine years of drought depending on location, followed by heavy winters.]
"Deer herds can't survive on a winter range damaged by years of drought, especially when it's followed by a heavy winter. The mountains have lots of summer range, but winter range is scarce. People have been building on it, not much left, especially in a heavy winter. This year will be another bad one, too much snow and cold weather."
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