Mogollon Estates Homeowners Association

Cattle to Arizona Territory

Above Photo of Hashknife crew in 1886

Henry Kinsley,Tex Roxy, George Smith, Peck... Short for “Peck’s BadBoy”, Tom Pickett, Buck Lancaster, Don McDonald, George R. Agassiz, William Jefferson Wilson, Edward James Simpson, Frank A. Ames, Captain Henry Warren, William Vinal

Some of those listed above had hard endings, William Jefferson Wilson for example was hung by a lynch mob August 4, 1888. He is buried with Jamie Stott and James Scott about two miles southeast of Black Canyon Lake.
Henry Warren had a wagon train attacked by Comanche and Kiowa warriors in the spring of 1871. Seven teamsters killed.
William Vinal was a surveyor... a very busy man in those days!

Congress gave approximately 40 miles north and south of the railroad right of way to the railroad company for building the railroad through this part of Arizona Territory. Not the entire land but every odd section of the land.
In general terms if you look at what the railroad then sold to the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, Ltd. in 1885 was odd sections from Holbrook to Flagstaff and from the railroad to the Mogollon Rim. The railroad basically parallels Interstate 40 from Holbrook to Flagstaff.
Originally it turned out to be somewhere around 1.25 million acres that the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, Ltd. owned in 1885. Problem... Not all odd and even sections were surveyed!
That meant those who were already using that land may or may not be sure of the location and those that bought the land were not sure where their new property started or ended... so they tried to control it all until a survey was complete. That was the genisis of some arguments that ended in bloodshed.
Pretty sure the Graham/Tewksbury feud was prolonged and intensified due to the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, Ltd. using the land for the purposes for which it was bought - cattle.
Seems the Daggs Brothers were using the free graze off the western end of the new Aztec Land and Cattle Company, Ltd.- or as it became known as - the Hashknife. Things boiled over into a full on feud when the Daggs Brothers pushed 3000 sheep over the Mogollon Rim into Pleasant Valley where Young, Arizona stands today. The Shepard of that bunch of sheep was killed and the feud was on in earnest in the spring of 1887.

Near by Things...

Cowboys

Above Photo of Stott, Scott and Wilson Graves.

Today you can drive down the 107 Forest Service Road to the 107a Forest Service Road and end up at the Jamie Stott Ranch. Why is that important? Because that is where James Dennis Houck and associates arrested Jamie along with James Scott and William Jefferson Wilson. They proceeded to take them near Black Canyon Lake and hang them!
Tough times!

Below is the lonesome grave of the sheepherder that brought the Daggs Brothers herd into Pleasant Valley.

Cattle

Cattle graze on nearly all parts of the forest in the summer.

Most grazing land in this area is owned by the National Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management, or the federal government. So cattlemen today lease ground from the government to graze their cows on, then move them from area to area during summer and ship out to market or to winter grounds in the fall.

Ranches

Above Flying W, below is the OW Ranch

Many ranches still exist in this area. Most have reduced there size of "patented" land to that area near the Ranch house and associated buildings. The "Q", the "OW" and many more are still operating with some cattle although the cattle may not be their main source of income. Dude ranches, that is ranches that allow visitors to stay and partake of a life that once was... seems to be the monetary source of the day.

Hashknife HQ 1886