Settlers made a quick end to Ohio’s elk, though some think a sort-of comeback is desirable.
The killing of the last free-ranging elk occurred in Ohio, probably inside Ashtabula County, after statehood in 1803 and before the Indians living in vestigial common, Wyandots, were exiled in 1843.
Eastern elk in Ohio had been extirpated, which is to say eradicated, through a combination of factors, not excluding hunting, by 1840. The last breathing eastern elk was shot Sept. 1, 1877, in Pennsylvania. The lineage was declared extinct in 1880 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service…