Mormon Settlement in Arizona / A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert

by James H. McClintock

Chapter Seventeen

Economic Conditions

Nature and Man Both Were Difficult

To the struggle with the elements, to the difficulties that attended the breaking of a stubborn soil and to the agricultural utilization of a widely-varying water supply, to the burdens of drought and flood and disease was added the intermittent hostility of stock interests that would have stopped all farming encroachment upon the open range. Concerning this phase of frontier life in Arizona, the following is from the pen of B.H. Roberts:

"The settlers in the St. Johns and Snowflake Stakes have met with great difficulties, first on account of the nature of the country itself, its variable periods of drought, sometimes long-continued, when the parched earth yields little on the ranges for the stock, and makes the supply of water for irrigation purposes uncertain; then came flood periods, that time and again destroyed reservoir dams and washed out miles of irrigating canals. This was also the region of great cattle and sheep companies, occupying the public domain with their herds, sometimes by lease from the government, sometimes by mere usurpation. The cattle and sheep companies and their employees waged fierce war upon each other for possession of the range, and both were opposed to the incoming of the settlers, as trespassers upon their preserves. The stock companies often infringed upon the settlers' rights, disturbed their peace, ran off their stock and resorted to occasional violence to discourage their settling in the country. Being 'Mormons,' the outlaw element of the community felt that they could trespass upon their rights with impunity, and the civil officers gave them none too warm a welcome into the Territory. The colonists, however, persisted in their efforts to form and maintain settlements in the face of all these discouraging circumstances. The fighting of the great cattle and sheep companies for possession of range privileges is now practically ended; the building of more substantial reservoirs is mastering the flood problems and the drought periods at the same time, and the Saints, by the uprightness of their lives, their industry, perseverance, and enterprise, have proven their value as citizens in the commonwealth, until the prejudices of the past, which gave them a cold reception on their advent into Arizona, and slight courtesy from the older settlers, have given way to more enlightened policies of friendship; and today peace and confidence and respect are accorded to the Latter-day Saints of Arizona."

A view of early-day range conditions along the Little Colorado lately was given by David E. Adams:

"When we came to Arizona in 1876, the hills and plains were covered with high grass and the country was not cut up with ravines and gullies as it is now. This has been brought about through over-stocking the ranges. On the Little Colorado we could cut hay for miles and miles in every direction. The Aztec Cattle Company brought tens of thousands of cattle into the country, claimed every other section, overstocked the range and fed out all the grass. Then the water, not being held back, followed the cattle trails and cut the country up. Later, tens of thousands of cattle died because of drought and lack of feed and disease. The river banks were covered with dead carcasses."

Breaking the ground in Arizona was found a very serious task, even on the plains or where Nature had provided ample rains. Where industry created an oasis, to it ever swarmed the wild life of the surrounding hills or deserts. Prairie dogs, rabbits and coyotes took toll from the pioneer farmer, sometimes robbing him of the whole of the meager store of foodstuffs so necessary to maintain his family and to secure his residence. From 1884 to 1891 there were occasional visitations, in the Little Colorado Valley, of grasshoppers. For several years the settlement of Alpine was reported "devastated" and for a couple of years at Ramah the crops were so taken by grasshoppers that the men had to go elsewhere for work to secure sustenance for their families. St. Johns, Erastus and Luna all suffered severely at times from insect devastation. Winters were of unusual severity.

Railroad Work Brought Bread

Just as the Saints of Utah benefited by the construction of the Central and Union Pacific railroads, so there was benefit in northeastern Arizona through the work of building the Atlantic and Pacific railroad in 1880-82. John W. Young and Jesse N. Smith, joined by Ammon M. Tenney, in the spring of 1880 took a contract for grading five miles, simply to secure bread for the people of the Little Colorado Valley. During the previous winter there had been a large immigration from Utah, where, erroneously, it had been reported the Arizonans had raised good crops, so comparatively little food was brought in. The limited crop of 1879 soon was consumed and the spring found the settlers almost starving. Lot Smith had loaned the people a quantity of wheat the previous season and much of the crop was due him.