I've read up on this for this area, but please allow me some wiggle room on the stats I offer because I don't recall the exact numbers.

Here in Missouri most game was pretty well decimated in the years between the beginning of the Civil War and the mid 1930s. Deer, bear, turkey, and elk were almost extinct (Elk were extinct, and are just now being reintroduced). Ozarkers really were eating possum by 1910 and glad to get it too. I have a recipe in an old cookbook for it ("The Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery"). Bear would have been a delicacy if you could find one.

I'm pretty sure that by 1940 there were only about 40 deer in the entire State, half of them were in a herd on private property about 10 miles from where I live, the rest were in a herd up north of Kansas City. It is very likely there were no bear as well, but some did remain in the Ozarks of Arkansas that made it up here.

It's estimated that we have more turkey here now than when europeans arrived. Deer populations are very strong, and bear have indeed made a remarkable come back too since then. Much of the gains have been made in the past 30 years, that is certainly true.

I whole heartedly agree that people need to get on board with population management. We have a very well funded Conservation Dept. here and they promote hunting very heavily. It's generally upper middle class suburbs that border farmland and NF where cries against hunting to thin populations are loudest. They are also the loudest to complain when these animals become a problem for them.