The White Mountains of Apache County

By Catherine H. Ellis and D.L. Turner

Towns and communities such as Springerville, Eagar, Alpine, Nutrioso, Vernon, Greer, McNary, and Maverick of Apache County's White Mountains hold fascinating histories of outlaws and Arizona Rangers; Texas cattlemen and Mormon farmers; and New Mexico Hispanics and forest service men. Aldo Leopold was one of the forest service men who, in A Sand County Almanac, described the Boneyard, Campbell Blue, and Frijole Cienega. Of Paradise Valley, he wrote, "What else could you call it?" In 1913, the Good Roads Association described the roads winding through the area with "canyons that are flanked on every side by timber-covered, snow-clad peaks." It also noted that the area had become "an interesting point for the genuine home seeker, who will not likely want to continue his journey farther." That description remains true today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439637814

Catherine H. Ellis

Catherine Ellis and D. L. Turner consider it a privilege to help preserve this area's history. Turner developed an early appreciation for the White Mountains during childhood vacations. Ellis's father photographed aspen and wildlife each fall, leaving a legacy of spectacular scenes and an abiding love of the mountains. Likewise, the photographs in this book come mostly from those who love the valleys and mountains of eastern Arizona.

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INTRODUCTION

The mountains in today’s southern Apache County were called Sierra Blanca (White Mountains) by early Spanish and Hispanic explorers. Here the new grass of spring melds into summer flowers, and the gold of aspen leaves fades under winter snow. Flowing north from the White Mountains is the Little Colorado River called To Chaco by the Navajos and Rio Colorado Chiquito by the Spaniards. Its waters have been used to irrigate the land since pioneer times. In 1877, six-year-old Joseph Joe Pearce traveled with his family from Utah to Arizona and settled in the western White Mountains around Taylor and Heber. He later wrote, The forest was alive with game. The streams ran full of trout . . . the turkey came down within a mile of our ranch at Taylor. . . . The forest was thick with deer, every kind, black-tail, mule, white-tail. He also noted antelope, mountain lions, and mountain sheep. The White Mountains were also home to Merriam’s elk, a subspecies that was hunted to extinction by about 1895.

Pearce remembered growing up in a raw county, with toughs for my friends and toughs for my enemies, and never sure which a man was. He described learning to shoot a six-gun at age 14, and that I was really getting ready to be an outlaw or a law man, and in the West . . . there wasn’t often much more than a hairline of difference between the two. Cattle rustling and outlaw activities were particularly bad in Apache County, where Pearce lived as an adult. He, however, turned to law enforcement and served as a Forest Service ranger, an Arizona Ranger under Capt. Thomas Rynning, a line rider for the Apache Whiteriver Indian Reservation, a special county ranger for Apache County, and a livestock detective for the State Livestock Sanitary Board. By 1910, most outlaw activity had ceased. Pearce’s comments on some of the early residents of Apache County included the Slaughter boys, who worked their dad’s outfit on Black River. Pearce commented, They were just lively boys.... They wore their hair long and packed guns and liked to think of themselves as bad men when they really weren’t.

In 1909, much of the forest acreage in the White Mountains was designated a U.S. National Forest. Forest Rangers came in to regulate logging and grazing. Pearce wrote that the rangers had to mark trees for logging operations and estimate the number of board feet. Each tree to be cut had to have two notches, one above the cut and one that would remain on the stump. In the mill, each log had to have a U.S. cut into it, and I had to estimate the number of board feet in each log and make a report of how many board feet had been cut.

The friction between ranchers who had previously pastured cattle freely and Forest Service Rangers who wanted to limit cattle to prevent overgrazing was noted by forest supervisor Kenner Kartchner. He described meeting with ranchers in New Mexico and wrote, Our proposals went over rather lukewarm, but at the close we were invited to a dance up the canyon, which had been planned to coincide with the meeting. Kartchner, a noted fiddler in northern Arizona, but unknown in New Mexico, volunteered to relieve, or spell off, the fiddler, Mrs. Jack Young. Kartchner recalled that the hush that fell over the crowd, especially ranchers we had met with that afternoon, bespoke their utter astonishment at the thoughts of such a thing. When he began Leather Breeches, a familiar Texas hoedown, the crowd was first stunned and then whooped and hollered, stomped and laughed. Kartchner observed, Almost to a man, those present at the afternoon meeting gathered around to shake hands, congratulate, ask where I was from, and express amazement at the combination of a deputy forest supervisor and country fiddler. We had reached a hearty common ground that I enjoyed as much as they. When the dance was over, Kartchner’s companion, O. L. Coleman, remarked that our meeting would have been far more successful had the dance been held first.

Since Henry Ford’s time, the mountains have attracted visitors from across the state and nation. The towns of Springerville and Eagar, also known as Round Valley, are often called the Gateway to the White Mountains. In 1913, the Good Roads Association published a series of Arizona maps that stated, "The towns of Springerville and Eager [sic], in eastern Arizona, situated as they are on the natural automobile route from coast to coast, will be found an oasis to the weary traveler, where he can find hotel accomodations [sic] and supplies suited for his immediate needs, adjacent to and the outfitting point for the great hunting and fishing regions of the beautiful white mountains."

Early automobile pathfinder Anthon L. Westgard’s first trip through the White Mountains was in November 1910. On his second trip in April 1911, he encountered poor roads around Springerville. When traveling west, his party spent eight days covering 42 miles. Westgard wrote, We do not measure stretches between towns by distance any longer, but by time. In November of that year, he was guide for a caravan of Garford cars with paying tourists sponsored by the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the Raymond and Whitcomb Company. When they reached the White Mountains this time, the cars sank to their hubs in the mud, then the mercury sank also, down to zero. The men spent 12 hours jacking up the cars and placing logs under the wheels for mile after mile.

Automobile travel was primitive and difficult when trying to keep a schedule. For residents, however, excursions were easier because travel could simply be taken when the weather was good. On August 5, 1913, Gustav and Louise Becker of Springerville, Naomi and Olga Becker of New Orleans, and Lydia Franz of Clifton traveled to Fort Apache and, stopping at Corydon Cooley’s ranch house, signed his guest book. Both Cooley’s guest book and Becker’s garage register show regular coast to coast visitors after 1910. Westgard thought that Arizona should encourage tourism more and wrote, I have for years traveled through their territory, [and] have written widely of the wonderful attractions, scenically, archaeologically, and otherwise. Then he noted that Springerville (undoubtedly through the efforts of Gustav Becker) was the