White deer captivating audiences

NEW LONDON – Two all-white whitetail deer have been the talk of the town lately. They’re often spotted in the field south of Beckert Road in the Township of Mukwa. On any given evening a half dozen or more cars and trucks pull off the side of the road to view the herd of deer in the field, sometimes crowned by not one, but two all-white whitetail deer.
Beckert Road is the town line between the City of New London and Mukwa. Tyson Foods owns the fields and John Mares farms the fields.
“We watch them right out the window from the living room chair, you can see them come out in that field,” said Gary Burmiester. “They stand out like a spark plug. People drive-by, stop and take pictures all the time.”
Burmiester says both deer aren’t always together. Most of the time there is just the one, but occasionally you’ll see them both out at once.
On Sunday night, Anthony Brandt and Josh Muskevitsch of Hortonville were headed home from a walleye outing on the Wolf River and saw both bucks 20-yards off the road near the intersection of Beckert Road and Wyman Street. It was right at dark.

“You could see them plain as day,” said Muskevitsch.
He and Brandt are among hundreds who have seen the two deer in those fields.
Jim St. Marie and his son Michael own 140 acres just a couple 40 acres south of the field. They began seeing the bucks last year.
“There were definitely two of them,” said St. Marie.
There’s an 8-point and then there’s a fork buck [as of last fall], he said.
The St. Maries photographed the fork buck in June of 2024 on trail cameras, and Michael took a video of the 8-point from 30-yards away while bow hunting in the fall.
In Wisconsin, albino and all-white deer are protected under NR 10.02 and may not be harvested.
According to the UW-Stevens Point Museum of Natural History, albino deer are rare. They have pink eyes, noses, ears and hooves. Their birth rate could range from 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 100,000.
White deer with brown spots, known as piebald deer, are still rare but a bit more common. The current law does not protect a piebald deer.
Recently the UW-Stevens Point Museum of Natural History attained a rare true albino buck that was hit by a car and was received through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The museum will include the rare addition to its collection of mounts.
In the meantime, if people want to see the living versions they’ll have to drive down Beckert Road and hope for the best.
Lee Besaw, who lives on Bean City Road, first saw one of the bucks last year across from his house in John Rowls’ field near Most Precious Blood Cemetery. He saw it again last Wednesday off Beckert Road on his way home.
Besaw called the newspaper and a photographer was dispatched.
That day, last Wednesday, about a dozen other cars stopped along the road to watch and take photos.
Two traveling custodians for the City of New London have parked their vehicle along the road and watched the deer during their lunch breaks a few times.
“It’s kind of a highlight of our day,” said one of them.
St. Marie explained the deer have definitely made their presence known in the area.
We’ve seen them throughout the property bow hunting. Obviously, they stan right out. “You can see them coming from a mile away,” he said.
“The one has been in Casey’s pit off Bean City Road near the cemetery. He’s been as far south as us, I’m sure he’s been over on Manske’s Dairy Farm near Bean City Ballroom. He’s been around,” said St. Marie.
Dale Stiebs, a retired Tyson Foods worker, has seen them often in the field on his way fishing or checking trap lines.
“I saw one standing out on the lawn in front of the high school Monday morning,” he said.
That same morning, April 7, Doug Dey who lives on County Trunk W saw one dead near the intersection of County W and Lyons Road.
“It was one of them,” Dey said in a text exchange Monday night with the Waupaca County Post. “That sucks, I was looking forward to seeing horn development this summer,” he said.
Stiebs said he saw one in the field along Beckert Road again Monday night, April 7. “So I know that at least one is still alive.”