White turkeys are more common the closer you get to farms and ranches. For a while in the 1970s and 1980s, a lot of "wild turkey" poults were advertised for sale in farm and ranch magazines. Evidently, quite a few folks bought these and raised them, turning them loose in an effort to bolster resident wild turkey populations.
I am guessing that most of these were from Merriam's stock, as that subspecies is the one that flourishes in captivity. However, a significant number of those poults were actually from domestic turkeys. There are turkey biologists that believe that our wild Merriam's are descended from turkeys raised by ancient pueblo people in Mexico and by the Anisazi during the period from about 1100-1400 AD.
