Elk once roamed widely across Pennsylvania, from the Allegheny National Forest to Kettle Creek State Park, where the bugles of male bulls called female cows to mate, but by the mid-1800s the state's elk population had been reduced to a small area in Elk County, and the last native Pennsylvania elk was killed near Ridgway in 1867. Recognizing the elk's historic and geographic importance, the Pennsylvania Game Commission worked to restore the herd, releasing 177 elk from the Rocky Mountains between 1913 and 1926 and providing a safe haven for them to live and breed. Today, Pennsylvania's elk population has rebounded to about 600 animals, with calves born every year, and the Elk Scenic Drive follows a 127-mile route through three state forests and three state game lands, including places such as Gilbert Farm, Dent's Run on Winslow Hill, and the Hicks Run Wildlife Viewing area, where elk and other wildlife can be seen and heard in this varied landscape.