History of Livestock Grazing on the Tonto National Forest

Excerpts from a speech given by Senior Forest Ranger Fred W. Croxen at the Tonto Grazing Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, November,1926.

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The history of grazing on the Tonto Forest from the time of early settlement to the present is the subject that has been assigned to me. This covers so much that a book could be written on it and makes me wish that I had the ability to do so.

The few oldtimers from whom I have secured my data are among the first settlers on the Tonto, and while their dates may not always be correct and they may not agree in some regards among themselves, I feel that all are reliable men and the information secured from them as to conditions in the past is reliable. They are healthy people who have seen this range at its best, have seen the stock industry rise to the peak and descend to its present condition. Stories told by these old men while I have been with them sound like fairy tales, for everything differed so much in those days from what we see of the ragged end of it all at the present time.

Arizona had been traversed in the northern and southern parts for several decades before white men ventured to any extent into the part now covered by the Tonto Forest, for the early California gold rush was on and the greater part of the people had eyes only for that. There was little trading to be done with the Indians of these parts, as they were treacherous and warlike, and the travelers were only too glad to stay to the main routes of travel and let this, then, little known, country alone.

Shortly after the Civil War, the government began to renew interest in this remote and arid country and established a few army posts throughout the territory, most of which were poorly manned. The troops made scouting trips throughout the country in the late 1860's and 1870's. A few prospectors, traders, packers and other venturous characters accompanied the troops, found indications of the precious metals in the mountains and took out stories of the fine grasses and ideal climate to others of their kind who were interested. The cattlemen, always anxious to spread out and find newer and better ranges for their cattle soon brought small herds to these mountains, growing these herds into larger ones, while larger herds were driven in at later dates.

Florance A. Packard, probably the oldest living man to settle in Tonto Basin, came from California to the Salt River Valley in 1874, where he was told of the Greenback Valley by an army officer. He came to Greenback, liked it and settled there in 1875. He came as a professional lion hunter, for the territory paid a bounty of $20 at that time, and was a keen observer. He told of Blackfoot and Crowfoot Grama grass that touched ones stirrups when riding through it, where no grama grass grows at present. The Pine Bunch grass grew all over the Sierra Anchas in the pine type and lower down than the pine timber on the north slopes. There were perennial grasses on the mesas along Tonto Creek where only brush grows at the present time.

Top of Dutchwoman Butte, Tonto Basin, Tonto National Forest, October 1997. A relict desert grassland that's never been grazed by cattle due to its inaccessibility. (Photo by Steve Gallizioli.)

Mr. Packard says that Tonto Creek was timbered with the local creek bottom type of timber from bluff to bluff, the water seeped rather than flowed down through a series of sloughs and fish over a foot in length could be caught with little trouble. Today, this same creek bottom is little more than a gravel bar from bluff to bluff. Most of the old trees are gone, some have been cut for fuel, many others cut down for the cattle during drouths and the winters when the feed was scarce on the range, and many have been washed away during the floods that have rushed down this stream nearly every year since the range started to deplete. The same condition applies to practically every stream of any size on the Tonto.

Lower Tonto Creek, Tonto National Forest, November 1997.

The first real flood to come down the Tonto Creek was in 1891 after it had rained steadily for twelve days and nights. At this time the country was fully stocked, the ground had been trampled hard, much of the grass was short, or gone, gullies had started and the water came rushing down. This flood took a good deal of the agricultural land from the ranches along the creek and was so high that it filled the gorge where it entered Salt River at the present site of the Roosevelt Dam and backed a house up Salt River about a mile.

E. M. (Chub) Watkins, whose father, Captain W. C. Watkins, settled on Tonto Creek in 1882 at what is now known as the H4 Ranch, tells about the same story of early conditions as Mr. Packard. He says Curley Mesquite grass covered the foothills but did not extend to so low an elevation as at present, these lower elevations having been covered by grama and other grasses now gone. His people came from Indian Territory and brought the finest horses that ever came to this part of the state, if not the entire state, owned a bunch of greyhounds as well, and used to run jack rabbits all over the mesas a long Tonto Creek from the box to the mouth. There were no washes at all in those days, where at present arroyas many feet deep are found and at places cannot be crossed.

Cliff C. Griffin, the present owner of the 76 Quarter Circle Ranch on Tonto at the mouth of the Wild Rye Creek, came to Salt River and settled in 1884 on some of the part now covered by the Roosevelt Reservoir. He says the principal grass was Black Grama and a species of Sage. The Black Grama used to cover the slopes on each side of the river. In those days this came up in bunches, approximately five inches at the base, grew to a height of two to two and one-half feet with a sheaf-like spread of two to two and one-half feet. This was very nutritious, making the finest kind of feed for cattle. He says in early days the settlers used to chop this grass for hay, using heavy hoes for chopping and with a hoe, rake and fork he could fill a wagon in two hours with this grass.

William Craig, at present a resident of Payson, later settling on Weber Creek, on the Pine District with his pardner, Paul Vogel, a Frenchman, came to old Marysville, a small mining camp three miles west of the present site of Payson, February 10, 1881. He says Black and Crowfoot Grama covered the ridges and foothills at that time and Curley Mesquite was mostly along the draws. This speaks well for the mesquite grass and bears out the statement of lots of stockmen that, "if it wasn't for the Curley Mesquite, there wouldn't be any grass."

Mr. Craig says Big Green Valley, which is now the Chas. E. Chilson Ranch, Long Valley, where the present town of Payson is located, and Little Green Valley, fourteen miles northeast of Payson, were waist high in grass and certainly pretty to look at. He says the Pine Bunch grass in the pine timber under the Mogollon Rim was three feet high and stood in great bunches. The cattle and horses that grazed on it ate only the heads.

Sheepmen first set fire to the Pine Bunch grass under the Rim when passing through, so they would have young tender feed for their sheep the next trip. Those sheepmen were from New Mexico and Daggs Brothers and others from the Little Colorado slope. The influx of Texans, Colonel Jess M. Ellison, on Ellison Creek; Walter Moore on Moore Creek a little west of Ellison Creek; Sam Haught, Sr., who settled on the head of the East Verde with his sons, Sam, Jr., and Fred; and others killed lots of Pine grass by following their former method of the plains by burning the old mature grass. The roots of the Pine grass are very close to the top of the ground so it was soon killed out in this way. There is little of this grass to be found under the Rim at present.

Revilo Fuller, a resident of the Pine Settlement, first came to Tonto Basin in 1877. He says, "on Hardscrabble Mesa there was a Red Topped grass that had a good head and grew to a height of about sixteen inches. This was not a bunch grass but grew on stems, similar to Blue Stem." There is none of this grass to be found now.

All the men interviewed state that there was little brush in the country at the time stock was first brought in, and it was possible to drive a wagon nearly anywhere one desired. The little that there was in nature, was only on some of the mountains and some of the slopes. Chub Watkins stated that nearly all the north slope of Mt. Ord was a Pine Bunch grass country. At present this is one of the brushiest pieces of range on the Tonto, as anyone will agree who has been unfortunate enough to have come in contact with it.

Such was the condition of the country, the streams and the grasses at the advent of white men with their herds of cattle, horses and sheep. It is little wonder that research shows they flocked to this stockman's paradise with its fine grasses, well watered ranges and ideal climate.

One thing that was of assistance to new settlers coming into the Tonto Basin country was the roads that were built by the army under the regime of General Stoneman. It was he who first built the road from Fort McDowell on the Verde River to Camp Reno in Tonto Basin, and from Camp Reno up through the Basin and connected with the military road built from Camp Verde to Fort Apache. Both of these roads were used by the incoming early settlers. Stoneman Lake on the Coconino Forest is named after General Stoneman.

As I have mentioned, the stockmen soon came in after the Apaches were somewhat overcome by the soldiers, they having heard such glowing accounts of the Tonto Basin from these soldiers, scouts, prospectors and packers. The early influx was from California and Oregon, while some came from the Mormon settIements in Utah, later settlers came from Texas and New Mexico.

All the oldtimers consulted agree that the range was fully stocked about 1890, as many herds had been brought in by that time and cattle increased faster in those days than they do now. All agree that the peak was reached about 1900 and say there were from 15 to 20 head of cattle on the range at that time where there is only one at present. Florance Packard and Chub Watkins say that along Tonto Creek where now 150 head of cattle is considered a good roundup for one day, that they used to roundup at least 2000 head and it took two days to work the bunch. This was the case all over the country. There was little sale for cattle and those sold went for a low price. Nobody wanted them. As a result the stockmen kept on branding their calves and letting their herds increase.

The range was not only grazed out but was trampled out as well. Moisture did not go down to the remaining grass roots and the cow trails were fast becoming gullies which drained the country like a tin roof. Sheet erosion started in many places, especially on the steep slopes and the thin soil was soon washed away and only rocks were left.

Cliff Griffin says that from 1894 to 1904, after the great herds of cattle had grazed over the Salt River country, there was no rooted grass, only browse and annuals remaining. And this was only 30 years after the first cattle had been placed on the range.

The drought of 1904, the worst since the coming of white men to these parts, at which time it failed to rain for eighteen months, hit the range country, and cattle on the overstocked and depleted ranges died in bunches. Since that time there has never been nearly as many cattle as there was prior to that time-and there never will be. To quote the last words of Florance Packard when he finished telling me of oldtime conditions,

"The range is not overstocked at present, it is just worn out and gone."