Deer Diary: Who repopulated North Georgia with deer?
By the late 1890s North Georgia virtually extinguished all its deer population. Overhunting, not disease, was the cause of their downfall. And as the stories go, it wasn't until the "Barefoot Ranger" Arthur Woody brought in 5 deer from North Carolina circa 1927-1928 to the Rock Creek Refuge near Suches and Hightower Gap, that deer began to come back. By the 1940s, the work paid off and controlled hunts were offered by the State of Georgia.
Research online will tell you this and more about Ranger Woody. What it won't tell you is Pickens and Dawson County had its very own conservationist who also brought deer in from the northern states. And of course, that man was Colonel Sam Tate.
In 1928, at Tate Mountain School, Colonel Tate began reintroducing northern deer back into Pickens and Dawson County. The deer were kept in a corral near the school.
By 1932, Col. Tate's herd at the Tate Mountain School had grown to over 100 and he started
releasing them back into the wild.
We all know Colonel Tate was a visionary. He built schools, roads, an industry, helped bring the railroad to Tate, a neighborhood, stores, two lakes, a golf course, world class lodge, etc. What many of us didn't know, is that he should have been getting the credit for the reintroduction of our wonderful herds of deer.
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