he Arizona Strip, the lands north of the Grand Canyon and south of Utah, qualifies as one of the West’s most spectacular and lonely regions. Thanks to its generally arid climate and long history of livestock grazing, it also qualifies as some of the region’s most biologically degraded landscape. Beginning in the 1870s, Mormon settlers started using the region for raising domestic animals and by 1887, an estimated 20,000 cattle and at least 200,000 sheep relentlessly devoured the local flora. While the domestic hordes inflicted botanical carnage, the cattlemen and sheepmen, aware of the competition for dwindling forage, cultivated a sometimes violent rivalry. This typically western way of doing things culminated in sabotage, occasional bloodshed, environmental degradation, and a wealth of marginally erotic sheep herder jokes.

In 1909, when 10,000 sheep moved through House Rock Valley, the concerned local cattlemen decided to stick it to the sheepmen by draining the few small, precious watering reservoirs available for stock. Before long 10,000 thirst-crazed sheep reached the canyon rim near Cathedral Wash and, as sheep will, took the last few fateful steps to unlimited water 700 vertical feet below. The expansive, fluffy flow of bleats, bones, blood and wool cascaded over the edge and according to one witness, momentarily dammed the river. Not all 10,000 perished. Later, at least five sheepish survivors were happily grazing near Soap Creek rapid when Julius Stone’s hungry river party shot and ate one.

Kim Crumbo

References:
Coder, Christopher. 1994. Historical Archaeology. In: Helen Fairley et al., The Grand Canyon River Corridor Survey Project: Archaeological Survey along the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Separation Canyon. National Park Service, Grand Canyon and the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies, Flagstaff, AZ. Cooperative Agreement No. 9AA-40-07920. Pp.113-146.
Mitchell, John E. and Duane Freeman. 1993. Wildlife-livestock-Fire Interactions on the North Kaibab: A Historical Review. General Technical Report RM-222. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. 12 pp.
Rider, Rowland, and Deidre Paulsen. 1985. The Rollaway Saloon: Cowboy Tales of the Arizona Strip. Utah State University Press, Logan. 114 pp.
Woodbury, Angus M. 1944. A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks. Utah Historical Quarterly (July-October):110-223. Revised edition printed separately by the Utah Historical Society, 1950.
Stone, Julius. 1932. Canyon Country: The Romance of a Drop of Water and a Grain of Sand. G.P. Putman’s Sons, New York.