Decatur County Research Articles

Mule Deer Record for Iowa

During the 1954 deer season, Osmer Sissel, a farmer living near Leon, Decatur County, Iowa, killed a deer on his farm. Mr. Sissel, 71 years of age and a native to this section of Iowa, had seen only three of four deer in the previous four years and did not expect to see a deer during the season. Fortunately, he took the deer to the biology checking station located approximately 13 miles north of Leon at the Decatur-Clarke County line. Although the hunter knew only that he had bagged a deer, Robert Barratt, Area Game Manager and Eiden Stempel, Quail Biologist, of the Iowa Conservation Commission who were operating the checking station, recognized the animal as a yearling mule deer. They weighed and aged the 1½ year old buck and obtained the head and tail. It weighed 116 pounds, hog-dressed, but with the heart and lungs still in the carcass....