Dave":137pjk0b said:
The buck was found dead at some superfund clean up site. Probably poisoned by all the toxic fumes. They had stunted his growth. Had he not been exposed to all that pollution he would have made the book for sure. Most likely found by a federal employee wearing loafers but no neck tie because it was casual Friday.
That is my story.
Dave, despite the fact that Jogeephus had the most interesting guess, you have hit the target about as close as I expected.
This buck and many others in his size range, lived out their life and died of natural causes on the Rocky Mountain Arsenal just 20 minutes in traffic from downtown Denver ( I know, I drove it almost everyday for 5 years). Although it is not a Superfund site, it does fall under the superfund statutes as a Federal Facility. A Federal Facility is a Superfund class action where the responsible party is a US Government Agency. In this case, it was the Department of Defense. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was operated from about 1910 until 1990. It was primarily a chemical weapons manufacturing area. The US Army studied, developed and experimented with the deployment of chemical weapons. They also conducted research on biological weapons. The building where this picture was taken is gone. Dismantled as part of the clean-up but it had its history. That building for 80 years was under the command of a succession of about 15 US Generals.
In 2010, most of the serious remediation was completed and starting in about 2005, the US Fish and Wildlife Service began taking over responsibility for the Arsenal. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal is now a National Wildlife Refuge. It has deer, bison, pronghorn, etc. The area has a good genetic line of Mule Deer. Those antlers and several like it are pick ups by the US FWS.
