Early sheep rancher John Hyrum Fuller

The Arizona National Livestock Show Ranch Histories mainly has stories of the men and women who had cattle in Arizona but once in awhile there are stories about some of them having sheep and sometimes both sheep and cattle. (there are 36 volumes in this and I am slowly making my way through them.  More sheep stories will be written as the sheep ranchers stories are told in these volumes).

Once such person who had first sheep than cattle and then seemed to have both was John Fuller who bought H. S. Bly sheep outfit with Mr. Pollock in 1911.  Bly’s sheep and now Fuller-Pollock were located south of Winslow.  They wintered around Jack’s Canyon and had a camp west of Sunset Mountain which today is off of Hwy 87 which takes you to Winslow.  They didn’t keep the sheep long but sold and the permit for grazing sheep was turned to one to run cattle.  In 1913, Fuller bought the sheep outfit of Harry Melburn which had his sheep in the area of Canyon Diablo and also bought Dick Hart’s sheep which were on the range south of East Clear Creek.  The sheep were wintered on the range north of the forest boundary and East Sunset Mountain and East Clear Creek.  This is all near Hwy 87.    Fuller also owned Moqui Ranch.  In 1916 a terrible snowstorm meant the loss of many sheep and cattle.  He sold the ranch, sheep and some of the cattle to Mr. Pollock.

Chevelon Creek runs through the old sheep headquarters of the Ohaco Sheep Company, Ltd. which I have previously written about.  Clear Creek is clearly marked.  Lower Tillman was the area that Fermin Echeverria ran sheep.  Canyon Diablo on this map shows it to be north of I-40 but there was also one south of the interstate and may have been a continuation of the canyon.  I am not sure.  North of the area marked Cottonwood Wash and bordering the Navajo Nation, Aja had their ranch.  This area is all the Mogollon Plateau and as the darker area appears on the map, this would be the area below the Mogollon Rim.  Sunset Mountain would be most likely above where Clear Creek is marked.  I will update as I track down a better map, but this will give those readers not familiar with Arizona a general idea of where the sheep were run.  I might add at this point that the Mogollon Rim was also the border of where sheep were allowed, north of it, and where cattle were allowed, anywhere.  For more on sheep-cattle conflicts there are many internet sources to learn about this somewhat misnamed feud.