The use of the Kaibab for grazing gradually increased. In 1877 the United Order of Orderville acquired most of the holdings on the northern Kaibab and controlled the range for about ten years, after which time lands and stock passed into private ownership.
During the late 80’s, John W. Young (son of the Mormon leader), representing the Mormon Church in England, conceived a grandiose scheme for interesting English aristocracy in the Kaibab as a private recreation area. He acquired the major holdings there and stocked it with cattle and horses. Dan Seegmiller of Kanab was placed in charge of operations. Young’s scheme fell through, but he was not discouraged. He enlarged his plan for making the Kaibab a great hunting ground and center of tourist travel with hotels and lodges for the English nobility. Some interest was shown, and several British sportsmen decided to investigate.
“Buffalo Bill” Cody was in England at the time with his wild west show, and was anxious to dispose of his animals there and recruit his stock in the United States. Young induced him to replenish in the Kaibab and to act as guide for the English representatives. Junius Wells went as Young’s agent. The trip was made in the summer of 1891. Dan Seegmiller took wagons to Flagstaff, Arizona, on the railroad, to meet Buffalo Bill and the Englishmen. He had with him Bill Crosby, Nate and Orza Adams and Brig Young (son of John W. Young). They returned via Lee’s Ferry to Houserock Valley and the Kaibab.
“Buffalo Bill” and cowboys at Kaibab, left to right. Ed Lamb, Nate Adams, George Adams, Orza Adams, Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), Walter Hamblin, Eb Brown. They helped him replenish his depleted stock. Courtesy Walter Hamblin.
Buffalo Bill, the Englishmen and local American christening McKinnon Point on North Rim in the fall of 1882. Their names on a paper tucked away in a tin can were found (about 1928) by a Park Ranger. Courtesy Walter Hamblin.
The party included Junius Wells, Buffalo Bill and his crack rifle-shot, John Baker and the Englishmen, Major McKinnon, Lord Ingram and Lord Milmey. They were entertained by the local cattlemen, including Anthony W. Ivins, E. D. Woolley, Ed Lamb, Jr., Walter Hamblin, Alex Cram, Ebenezer Brown and Al Huntington. The British agents, however, decided the Kaibab was too far away and too hard to reach. The party went out through Kanab where the presence of English lords and Buffalo Bill proved almost too much for the inhabitants.
The failure of the deal left John W. Young in difficulties. To clear the situation, the Kaibab Land and Cattle Company was organized and money borrowed from New York bankers. A little later, Cannon, Grant and Company of Salt Lake City took over the mortgage and Anthony W. Ivins became field manager. By skillful husbandry, Ivins redeemed the mortgage and tax sale. In 1896 he moved to Mexico and the Kaibab holdings and property were sold to Murdock and Fotheringham of Beaver, who soon sold out to the B. F. Saunders cattle outfit. He in turn, later sold to the Grand Canyon Cattle Company (E. J. Marshall Co.), still in control at the time the Kaibab National Forest was established (1908). It had been set aside as a national forest reserve in 1893.
Dan Seegmiller’s close association with the Kaibab and North Rim impressed him with its outstanding importance as a national vacation-land, a view shared by many. He continued, as long as he lived, to advertise its merits. About 1896, three years before his death, he drove a white top buggy from Kanab to Milford, picked up a New York party and escorted it over the Kaibab to the North Rim and back. After his partner’s death, E. D. Woolley began taking parties into the Kaibab and North Rim. He was the most prominent man of the Kanab region and logically the one to take the lead in its development from the north side of the Colorado River.