at the turn of the 20th century, members of the wildlife conservation group boone and crockett club had determined that the extinction of the pronghorn was likely. in a letter from george bird grinnell, boone and crockett club chairman of the game preservation committee, to walter l. fisher, secretary of the interior, grinnell stated, "the club is much concerned about the fate of the pronghorn which appears to be everywhere rapidly diminishing." by the 1920s, hunting pressure had reduced the pronghorn population to about 13,000. boone and crockett club member charles alexander sheldon, in a letter to fellow member grinnell, wrote, "personally, i think that the antelope are doomed, yet every attempt should be made to save them." although the club had begun their efforts to save the pronghorn in 1910 by funding and restocking the wichita game refuge in kansas, the national bison range in montana, and the wind cave national park, in south dakota, most of the efforts were doomed since experience demonstrated that after initial increases the pronghorns would die off because of the fenced enclosures. in 1927, grinnell spearheaded efforts along with the help of t. gilbert pearson of grinnell's national audubon society to create the charles alexander sheldon antelope refuge in northern nevada. about 2900 acres of land were jointly purchased by the two organizations and subsequently turned over to the biological survey as a pronghorn refuge. this donation was contingent upon the government's adding 30,000 acres of surrounding public lands. on june 20, 1929, president hoover included the required public lands upon request of the department of agriculture and the department of the interior after learning that the boone and crockett club and the national audubon society were underwriting the private land buyout. on january 26, 1931, hoover signed the executive order for the refuge. on december 31, 1936, president franklin roosevelt signed an executive order creating a 549,000-acre tract; this was the true beginning for pronghorn recovery in north america.