The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-12
GREAT HUNTING INDEED.
DELLoMTs FOR SPoRTsHEN FOUND
IN ARIZONA WILD&.
Mig Game ana Little. Eeathered and Furred.
20 Ne HAD IN Limitiess Abundance "A First
nIk Hunt-Great BaEr Made Hscentiy-
Arisona,s wild Turkeys and Tho Ir wnya-


hundred sporssmen In the Att ATTIC coast
States who know from experience what hunt
ing Is out here. 1t is an expensive journey to
como here, and It takes time; ~nevertiia less scores
Of Bportsmen come across tho contii tent about
Thanksgiving Day every year for n flew weeks
OF shooting. Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant
Secretary OF the Navy, led one Of tho first large
parties Of New York and Philadelpl ia huntorti
10 Arizona In tho fall OF 1889. Tho ! lte Mayor
Carter II. Har rison Of Chicago pilot ID a largo
party Of Chicago business and protest. ional men
to northeastern Arizona q year later. Some Of
the party have been coming every November
and December since then and have bro, ight their
friends with them 1t IS not uncoml non now.
adRys for a dozen or q score of wealthy men 10
travel acroEs tho continent in a private car,
leave the car at Winslow. Holbrook, Williams,
Ash Fork, or Flagstaff and go Off fur q fort
nights hunting amid the light SHOWS
While there Is never a day In the whole year
that game worthy OF any hunters ami ttion can
not DO had in almost any locality in northeast
ern Arizona, tho season from about I be middle
OF October to the middle Of January Is by long
odds the best for all-round shooting. At this
time the autumnal rains have washed clonn the
face of nature. The grass is greentr on tho
mountain sides than at any other seas oD. The
atmosphere is clear. keen, and frosty, and ono
can discern objects forty miles away ms easily
as at one-tenth that distance in tho Eastern
States. The fenthered and furry Ga IN Q arc at
their best. The light, dry air Of the MIC untains.
spiccd with the odor Of the acres Of pine and
hemlock forests, hegets an astonishing appetite.
Dyspeptics forget that they have 3 tomachs.
Then, too, there is an abundance Of Go I'd forage
grass, and springs are bubbling with water at
this season in the somi-tropics. These arc essen.
tial to tho hunting parties that m ist travel
about in wagons and on horseback after they
quit the railroad.
Where do the sportsmen go for gar ne in this
reRioni Anywhere from Navajo station in
eastern Arizona to Ash Fork, 800 m lies west
ward. Fourteen varieties of furry gitmc. rang
ing from l.O0o-pound elks and 7OO-ps ,und bears
to half.pound gray squirrels. and SKI cen varie-
ties of feathered game, from sixt compound
turkeys to delicious mountain quails. are to DO
had. The mountain streams are alive with
trout. Almost every day in the fall months the
passengers on the trains see deer bounding over
the crags and through the pine fore SITS Of this
region. The drivers on the stages to the Grand
Canon of the Colorado point out to the passen-
gers deer, catamounts, mountain goats, be-
sides dozens of varieties Of gamo birds. On
Nov. 8 o young man on his way to the Grand
Cahon stood on the seat of the stage and shot a
deer a quarter OF a mile away. Further away
to the west, over among the foothills that fringe
the base of the San Francisco Mountains, the
cowboys frequently SEQ black and brown bears,
once in q long while a grizzly. A few weeks
ago a locomotive ran into two blac'G bears near
Williams, and not infreQuently a deer ia thrown
from the track by O locomotives cowcatcher.
The tenderfoot hunter out in tho Territories
may find adventures outside Of shooting game.
He may hear any evening about the big camp
fire of pine cones and logs stories that will set
his nerves tingling about the warfare of the
Apaches and the Navajos. To the sportsman
with a liking for archaeology, the richest and
most bewilderinR wide fields lie all about.
Scarcely a days hunt can be made in any.direc-
ton without coming across traces of an ancient
and unknown civilization.
The sirloin of tho hunting preserves in this
part of Arizona lies about sixty miles southeast
Of Holbrook. The first three hours Of the trip
are spent in going slowly over a desolate trail.
The wagon wheels sink in tho snnd and the
horses pull with all their might. Then a little
valley with a grove Of trees is reached. and be-
yond lies a broad plain in which the grass Is
green. Mountains with snow-capped peaks
rear themselves as a background to the scene.
Squirrels leap and scamper among the trees;
quails iutter here and there and wild pigeons
sail gracefully away at tho approach of the
horses and wagon. Tho guide points over to
the right or left q dozen miles and asks you to
sec tho peculiar grayish specks that are set off
Dy the uark mountain blQeS- some OF Inem
are moving. and you see that they are like
mountain goats with large horns.
There they be-" says the guide. Yes,
them's antelope. and, by Jocks, there's q big
bunch O. them this mornin'."
A whole day the wagon winds along the trail.
and antelope may be seen at almost every turn.
A few are only u mile away. Years ago they
used to run in bands of 600 and 7O0-occasion-
ally even 1000. Nowadays the Indians have
made such ~onslaughts on the beautiful crea-
lures that bands OF 800 are about the largest.
are. The guide will make camp close beside
the little Navajo Greek that comes cold as ice
may prepare at leisure for as much hunting as
he likes. Tho land belongs to Uncle Sam for
LEAGUES in any direction. and there's no one TO
Very few localities offer the shooter 30 wide a
variety of game and such, abundance. The
trees abound in gray squirrels. the uplands arc
populous with mountain quails and the craggy
releases in the mountain sides are the lairs Of
wildcats and pantherp., Twenty-Five miles over
TO tho south wild turkeys roost by thousands
at night, Scores of deer roam through tho
the person who stations himself. rifle in hand.
amid a clump OF cedars at dawn or sunset and
a asss not oS b gSs a t sssE' i Is is { victim %aI9t Of fos sitser E sIlnG;
year several black bears are taken in Red and
Pima cahons, further oyer to the south. Only
cisco, found tracks Of several other bears so
fluNu ldTbGT LHdu LILO sOupoNilticE IC BOI IuhJ
he came back hastily to Holbrook with his
pingle bear pelt, satisfied to leave the big fell
lows for other hunters.
Accounts of some OF the wagonloads of game
brought to Hoibrook from this locality every fail
and early winter may seem almost incredible
TO Eastern sportsmen. On Oct. 80 last n party
OF three sportsmen from st. Louis and two cow
boys, who had been out hunting for eight days,
brought to Holbrook for shipment East four
teen deer, six antelope. and the skins of a bear
had killed and eaten two more deer. five an
telope, and twenty wild turkeys. besides quail
and squirrels until they were tired. Several
years ago a company oficowtoys came back to
Ninslow after a ten days hunt with nineteen
turkeys. TO feed all tho cowboys and their
friends In town for two days.
The sportsman whose ambition yearns for
bigger achievements than hunting antelope and
~ nay prove us pr3wess sInne 50 Or ~
dividing line between Arizona and New Mexico;
NAL ever roamed the American continent for
the spOrtsnlsn. 1t requires many hours of hard
climbing, and the hunter will have aching legs
and MEmE. for tho tourney 10 the ranges OF tho