The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-21
Plans to Exterminate the Wild
Horses of Northern Arizona.
THOUSANDS ON RANGES
SHEEP AND CATTLEMEN WILL
ORGANIZE HORSE HUNTS.
Some of the Animals Are of Very
Fine Stock-Ebb and Flow of the
Sutro Tunnel Tide = Wyoming
Sheep Men Will Patrol the Ranges
Gree Indians Return to Montana

A dispatch from Phoenix, AriZ-, says:
Wild ponies are becoming a pest in
northern Arizona. Their number is
constantly increasing and they are be
coming a menace. to the cattle range
sheep and cattle owners are looking
about for some means of relief. and it
is not unlikely they will organize a
series of grand rcdeos wherein the wild
horses will be gathered only TO be
shot.
There must be 10000 head of wild
horses in northern. Arizona" said VIII
s. Barnes. one of the largest cattle
owners in Navajo county, yesterday.
South of Holbrook they are the worst
nuisance that can be imagined 1t has
reached The point when we cannot
safely turn out a riding horse to craze.
We have to keep our saddle animals
and roundup horses stabbed all winter
or bring them down to Phoenix for
pasturage. The wild stock not only
eat up the feed that ought to go 10 the
cattle, but they run cattle off the
range. They have chased off all the
cattle from the west end of the Hash
Knife range. one of the best grass dis
triCts in northeastern Arizona 1t is
useless to put salt out for the stock,
for the wild horses chase away all the
cattle that come near it. AT this sea-
son of the year they are fat and have
shining hides They sweep over the
country in great bands, gathering up
any stray animals they may come
across. a horse is as good as lost that
joins them.
Some of these wild horses are of
good stock. Not long ago the Circle S.
ponies We're the very best in northern
Arizona. They were fine saddle ami
mails and their value correspondent.
Now there must be over 5000 OF these
ponies running wild and without a
brand. On the PuercO. in central
Apache county. there must be 5000
head of loose brOncllos and about the
same number are on the Navajo reser-
walton, the property of the Indians,
who do not seem to know what to do
with them.
Some of the Indians are getting
quite a revenue from the fat ponies.
which they sell to a Holbrook butcher
for So a head. Wh2- does the butcher
want with them? He is fatteninS hogs
on them Three dollars is the ruling
price for the wild horses. [ would like
10 sell a great many off my range ar
I that price. and some of them are very
we'll bred and would make valuable
horses if broken. The only time when
{ il is possible to capture any of the wild
stock IS in the early spring, before the
: grass mas come and when the ponies
are lean and weak. Then on the Es-
! peran2a range four light men are
mounted on horses especially trained
| and of speed and bottom The wild
I horses are started just after they nave
CRANK and are more "Iogy." and a
bunch of the animals is cut off from
/ the main herd and corraled. some
+ times it is necessary to shoot the lead
+ mares-for the females always head
the wild bunch"
Mr.. Barnes is a member of the live
stock board OF Arizona and viii Iay
tf1e matter before that body. with a
view to having the northern ranges
ridded Of their equine nests