Wild turkeys apparently were very abundant during the 1800s in Arkansas, based on reports by early explorers and settlers. Early Arkansans readily utilized turkeys for food on a year-round basis; this over-exploitation combined with habitat destruction resulted in diminishing numbers of birds as the state became more settled.

By the early 1900s turkeys had been eliminated from large areas of the state. With the formation of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in 1915, regulations protecting turkeys were implemented, but turkey numbers continued to decrease, such that turkeys probably reached their lowest point in historic times during the 1930s.  In a mid-1940s survey of Arkansas game animals, an estimated 7,000 turkeys remained in Arkansas, mostly in the Gulf Coastal Plain and along the Mississippi River. Large areas, including most of the Ozarks and Ouachitas, had no turkeys left.

Since 1932, approximately 6,400 wild turkeys have been stocked in 73 of Arkansas's 75 counties, with the bulk of that number translocated between 1960-1990.  A large percentage of stocked turkeys were captured on Brandywine Island near West Memphis in the 1960s and 1970s. This effort has resulted in turkeys being restored to almost all suitable habitats in Arkansas.