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• DEER SEASONS During the mid-1850's the pioneers arriving in the territory of what is now Colorado found vast numbers of deer, elk, bighorn sheep and bear in the mountains west of Denver. Though most of these pioneers were initially in search of gold, many communities were established, and, because trade and store goods were limited and difficult to obtain, wild game was the primary source of meat for these people. As the communities became more permanent, their meat needs were supplied increasingly by professional exploiters of the abundant wildlife. Market hunters began to make such inroads on various big game populations that the citizens became alarmed. Gilbert N. Hunter estimated that 100,000 big game animals per year must have been killed to supply Colorado's population at [hat time. In 1667, the first game laws were enacted, which prohibited the taking of wildlife during the breeding season. Still, no specific seasons or licenses were in effect, but game laws became increasingly restrictive. By 1903, the first deer license was authorized at $1.00, but elk, antelope and bighorn sheep sea- sons were still closed, and bison had disappeared by the turn of the century. • The early 1900's represented the low point in Colorado's big game populations, but through sound wildlife management the game herds were built up [o the point that by 1960 they were some of the most abundant in the nation. This is similar to the history of big game in most of the western states. During the 1950's, however, the management of mule deer in the various western states was affected through many different types of regulations and administra- tive philosophies. Regardless of the management approach, whether it was ultra- conservative or super-exploitive, the mule deer trend has followed essentially the same pattern throughout the west; a gradual build-up of herds beginning in the 1920's, with a peaking somewhere in the late forties or early fifties to the early sixties, and then a general decline during the sixties and continuing to the present. During the period 1940 through 1977, Colorado has yielded a mule deer har- vest of nearly three million animals to almost five million hunters for an average success ratio of 57 per cent. This 38-year period covers an era of relatively gradual mule deer population increase until a peak was reached in • the late fifties and early sixties, at which time an accelerated decline to the recent past was experienced.