In 1932, deer were not so abundant around Harrison County as they are now. Back then, it was estimated that there only about 2500 deer in all of Missouri and they were mostly in the southern Ozark counties. So, when Grant Price’s fox hounds scared up at two-point buck on the Hank Small farm southeast of town, it was quite a surprise to all. The buck was first seen on a tract of land owned by Albert Harding. The hounds chased the buck up the public road by the Hugh Scott farm, then northeast to just east of the J. P. Jackson home. It was last seen going northeast.
Deer season that year only lasted three days and was closed October 29. It was speculated that deer may have traveled up from the south to escape hunters and although hunters all Ridgeway were looking, the deer’s whereabouts were still unknown. (Ridgeway Journal, Dec 1, 1932).
The Missouri Department of Conservation closed deer hunting in the 1930s and, with careful management, the deer population slowly revived. The first archery season was held in 1946 in only Taney County, and though 73 bowhunters (including five women), tried, none brought home a deer. It took six years before the first archer, a man named Jack Compton, shot a legal deer. (“Fifty Years of Archery Deer Hunting”, Tom Cwynar, Oct 2, 1996)
