The Coconino sun., 1927-11-25

they were not paid Tor by Allaru OF
his successor Kennedy, and Jones
was obliged to take them back.
Forest Ranger Hoyt was again sent
over to meet this second shipment
which drove easily excepting one
animal, big and very old bull that
refused absolutely to go further. The
men in charge of the shipment were
forced to leave him, but word
reached them that the lone animal
was creating havoc at Hurricane, so
while the men kept the bunch on the
trail Hoyt went back to see what
could be done with the straggler.
Arrived at Hurricane, Hoyt found the
King of the Prairies parked in the
middle of the community alfalfa field
taking life easy but making things
decidedly interesting for anyone who
undertook to dislodge him. Hoyt was
an expert cowboy and finally man.
aged to rope the buffalo, and, with
the help of every man and boy in
the settlement, dragged him by the
saddle horn to a corral in the middle
of the village, where he tied him to
cedar tree with the heaviest rope
that was to be found. Hoyt then
agreed to pay for the care of the
buffalo until word could be received
from Jones as to his future.
The rope was long enough to allow
the bull to reach an irrigation ditch
that ran through the corral and twice
q day several terribly scared Mormon
kids forked alfalfa hay over the cor
raj fence where the animal could
reach it, and then ran for their lives
Eventually the old chap, cross and
sore from the rough handling he had
received, made a vicious lunge at
several adventurous kids who had
entered the corral to inspect this
latest addition to the fauna of Utah
and Arizona, and broke the rope that
held him. They broke the record get
ting out of the way of those keen
black horns.
Then "Bison americanus" sought
revenge for the indignities placed
upon him by running amuck through
the village. He tore down fences;
ravished green fields and gardens;
! gored two or three horses; chased
4 all the town milk cows out on the
1 desert, and for several days kept the
residents of the little hamlet in an
uproar. Then seeking new fields to
conquer he started on the back trail
/ for Lund, which town he finally
reached leaving behind him trail of
ruin and desolation in the way Of
/ stampeded freight teams he met or
passed along the way. Every horse
! that came in sight or smell of him
at once proceeded to throw not one
4 but several fits, stampeding off into
I, oIs oxeA
I less of reins or the load behind
! them. One freighter with ten-mule
team dragging sleepily up a long
/ grade met his Bisonship at sharp
turn of the road. The leaders took
one look at the monster, wheeled,
and swung back, dragging with them
the other teams until the whole out
fit was tied up in one struggling
mass around the huge freight wagon.
The driver, sitting sidewise on the
near wheel mule, jumped to the
ground and met the oncoming bull
with a shower of rocks, barely max
ing the top of the high hind wheel
of his wagon ahead of those keen
horns.
Eventually Hoyt arrived on the
scene at Lund, shot the bull, sold
all the meat he could, and took the
hide and head to his ranger cabin
as trophy of what was probably
the very first buffalo hunt ever held
in Arizona.
| In 1907 Jones purchased eight
! young bulls from the buffalo herd of
Mr.. Austin Corbin in New Hamp-
shire. These were placed in the herd
on the Kaibab together with num-
Der Of Galloway cows with the idea
of crossing the buffalo with those
coal black cattle and securing a hide
with better color and hair. The cross
proved unsatisfactory, however, and
the experiment was failure.
The transplanted buffalo, true to
their primal instinct, refused to re-
main in the fenced inclosure in the
mountains where they were first
placed and proceeded to make their
way down into the open prairie
country in House Rock Valley, where
they made themselves very much at
| home
In the fall of 1909 Jones, finding
his venture improbable and tiring of
the whole experiment of crossing
buffalo with native cattle, gathered
together all the buffalo he could
round up, drove the bunch to Lund
and shipped them to New Mexico.
These he eventually sold to a cattle-
man near Fort Summer, who still has
them or their descendants in an in
closed pasture near there where on
their ancient grazing grounds they
appear to be we'll content.
The fifteen or twenty buffalo left
in the House Rock valley by Jones
were purchased by two or three local
cattlemen and have increased until
recently they numbered more than
100 head. They are such nuisance
on the range, however, that frequent
efforts have been made to drive them
out of the country with herds OF
steers en- route to shipping points on
the railroad.
Invariably the buffalo, after few
hours on the trail toward civilization,
have decided that they like House
Rock valley very we'll and in spite Of
everything the cowboys could do to
keep them with the steers, every