This ^^^^^ is likely the reason why you still have a well-established Dec herd still today with its core area around the river…….When the native population started growing it probably grew rapidly and established a high density around the river before it started pushing outward up the creeks and into those hollers…….It could have pushed out well to the south of the river also……Depending on the timing of the releases that Sumter Co release around Flat Rock could have just gotten mixed in with the already forming river population…..It could be that those Sumpter releases ARE the river deer if they came from the extreme north end of Sumpter Co……I still don’t think you’d get the mid Dec action from those deer though……Mid Dec to Christmas is exactly what you would expect the native deer to have had……I bet a large portion of Jackson Co up through there is actually descendants of the native deer....more than folks realize