The Coconino sun., 1927-11-25

of it was purchased by man named
Allard, who shipped them to Mon
tana.
The rest Jones sold to Spaniard
from California who shipped them to
rancher in that State near Mon
terey.
Jones then made trip to the Arc
tic regions in an attempt to bring out
of that country bunch of musk
oxen. Returning via the Yellowstone
region, he fell in with an old time
friend and pioneer, James Owens,
who for several years had been a
guide and park scout in the Yellow
stone National Park. Between them
the two old-timers conceived the idea
of starting a great game preserve
somewhere in the West, stocking it
with big game animals, deer, elk and
buffalo, with the intention of selling
hunting privileges at good stiff fig
ures Jones had previously explored
that vast uninhabited region in
Northern Arizona on the north side
of the Grand Canyon, where on the
"northrim" lay a huge uplift called
the Kaibab Plateau, shaped somewhat
like a great flatiron with the sharp
point to the north. Cut off from the
rest of the world on the south by
the Grand Canyon and surrounded
on the other sides by fifty-mile belt
of rough desert country, this table
land bulked several thousand feet
above everything else, its steep sides
covered with pinon and juniper trees,
while on its fairly level top was
c~I1 IT,
east Of it lay House Rock Valley" q
vast open prairie country, treeless
but covered with excellent range
grasses. The early Mormon pioneers
called this Kaibab Plateau the "Buck.
skin Mountain" due to the large herd
of deer found there and from which
the Navajo and other Indians an
nually secured large numbers Of
buckskins from their hunting.
It seemed an ideal location for
their scheme and a sort Of partner
ship. was formed between Jones,
Owens, and well-known Mormon
pioneer living in the region by the
name of E. D. Woolley.
The area included in the Kaibab
Plateau had been set aside by the
Federal Government in 1893 as g
forest reserve in order to preserve
the timber from fire and spoilation.
/ So Jones went to Washington in 1906
to lay his plan before the Federal
authorities in charge of the Govern
ment forest properties.
! The result of his visit was a writ
ten agreement between Jones and the
Federal authorities under which, on
/ T.. L. +r,I
mission to inclose large area of
/ land on the Kaibab Plateau on which
| to place the buffalo and other wild
animals he and his partner proposed
to bring into the region.
1t was Jones' tale of the great deer
herds on the Kaibab Plateau and his
| enthusiasm for the region as game
country that interested President
Roosevelt in the idea of making
large Federal game preserve there
and led to his order establishing in
1906 the Grand Canyon National
Game preserve, which covered the
entire plateau and part of the coun-
/ try adjacent to it.
| For many years Jones had been
obsessed with the idea of perfecting
a cross between the wild buffalo and
our native range cattle. He believed
sincerely that such a cross would
carry the beef values of the COW and
the extreme hardness Of the buffalo.
Thus the hybrids would be able to
withstand the hardship of the west
ern range winters and thrive on short
feed and scarcity of water This
cross was called "Cattalo," and, if my
memory serves me right, the word
was coined by Jones. Several other
western range men had experiment
/ ed on this cross, but Jones undoubt-
edly did the real pioneer work in
getting the cross into the public eye.
Jones also had another cross-breeding
idea in his head which involved
the crossing of the fat-tailed Persian
sheep with the Western Merino.
| Through this cross he believed he
could produce a very heavy-bodied,
unusually hardy animal suitable for
the hardships of the Western ranges.
These he named "Persiarino," an
other Of his coined words. As
matter of fact, the Cattalo proved a
rank failure, and the Persiarino, al
though very hairy and prolific, pro-
duced extremely coarse wool and
In July Of 1908 Jones unloaded at
Lund, Utah, small station on the
then recently completed Salt Lake
Los Angeles railroad, two cars of
buffalo. The exact number is mat
ter of dispute, but there were be-
tween 80 and 40 head in the ship
ment. Those buffalo were shipped
from Monterey, California, and oddly
enough were part of the identical
buffalo shipped to that point from
Garden City, Kansas, several years
before
1t has been impossible to learn the
causes that led up to the return Of
these buffalo to Jones. The Spaniard
who took them to Monterey intended
to do some experimenting in crossing
them with native cattle. Jones was
notably careless in his business
deals, and the supposition is that
they were taken back in satisfaction
of an unpaid note.
This shipment was met at Lund
by Forest Ranger T. G. Hoyt, who
was sent by the Government to help
drive the animals across the country
some 200 miles to their future home