Theodore Roosevelt Game Preserve
Nile Township, Scioto County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
Ohio’s first wildlife area, The Theodore Roosevelt Game Preserve, was established in 1922. Its aim was to reestablish wildlife by creating a game and reforestation preserve on 15,000 acres of land, purchased using funds from hunting license fees
Erected by Ohio History Connection
The Story
In 1922, Ohio set aside 15,000 acres of worn-over land in the hills of Scioto County as its first wildlife area, funding the purchase entirely through hunting-license fees so that sportsmen themselves paid to rebuild what earlier decades of unregulated hunting and clearing had stripped away. The plan paired reforestation with the reintroduction of game, letting depleted woods and animal populations recover together. The preserve took its name from Theodore Roosevelt, the president who had made conservation a national cause, and who had died just three years before.
Why it matters
It marks an early, practical turn in American conservation, when protecting wildlife shifted from private sentiment to public policy paid for by the people who used the land. Efforts like this became the template for the state wildlife-management systems that blanket the country today.
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Related people
- · Theodore Roosevelt
Related events
- · Establishment of the Theodore Roosevelt Game Preserve (1922)
Themes & tags
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