If you were an Arizona Basque, the place to have been this past weekend was at the first Basque Bash where 150-180 of your fellow Basque attended a fun gathering at the Auza Ranch.  There was food and lots of getting reacquainted with past friends.  As an invited guest and the historian for the Arizona sheep industry, I was able to gather information on many Basque whose parents or grandparents were in the sheep business.  Some of their names I was hearing for the first time!  The families who helped me gather the information for my book about their families and others who had at one time been in the sheep business, had forgotten about them, too.  The event started with MariAlice Bidegain who had wanted a family reunion for a long time and once it got started it just blossomed into all Basque in the state being invited.  One of the Bidegain’s was Pete Bidegain, a French Basque.  He left France in 1906 and went to Flagstaff a day after arriving in America.  In his years as a sheep man he worked for the Campbell Brothers and Dr. Raymond.  I will add more on the story once I have the details written in a more concise matter and can add from the family members what they remember.   I have added just a few pictures from the event!

One evening I began to glance through the stories of ranchers in the Pioneer Stockman Ranch Histories, Vol XIX (year 2000).  There are many little snippets of information on the sheep industry found within these stories.  I had picked up the book to read about another person but got curious about the other ranchers within the pages of the tome. The first person in the book was C. Dilbert Pierce, a cattleman.  Now I’m not here to write about cattle, but sheep, and Pierce didn’t have sheep.  He had bought a small ranch east of Meyer on the Agua Fria River with a good portion of it being state lease land.  It just so happened that the state lease land had a sheep trail crossing it! In Pierce words, “The first year I learned why we bought this ranch perhaps on the cheap side.  One of the sheep drives from the Salt River Valley to Arizona high country went the length of the ranch.  The sheep cleaned up the grass and everything else edible as they passed through.  Today, the sheep are trucked — anyway we sold this place.” (pg. 7)  Clearly, Mr. Pierce did not have a fondness for sheep!  Unfortunately, Mr. Pierce does not state the year that he bought the ranch.  It will be another item to add to my list to determine a date, who he bought the land from and who bought it.  The reason this would be of interest is the that trail is still viable today and actually is the only one still in use.

In an article in The Buckeye Star, July 6, 2018, a flock of 200 sheep are being used in the Willcox area to keep Johnson grass, tumbleweed and mesquite trees from overgrowing the solar panels.  The Red Horse II solar and wind farm belongs to a Houston company and “contracts with Tucson Electric Power to provide renewable energy”.  Rusty Cocke owns the sheep grazing here.  Any shade on the solar panels reduces the efficiency of the units.  The arrangement is good both for the owners of the solar panels and Rusty as landscaping services are less for the owners and Rusty has plenty of feed for his sheep.

Sheep and goats are used in other locations than Arizona to eat invasive vegetation.  Some wineries are also using the animals before the grapes begin to form on the vines to keep undergrowth in check.  If the vines are high enough the sheep will not graze on the grapes.  The article states that Rusty would like to help the vineyards in southern Arizona.  Sheep, cows and goats can be used to keep our forest healthy and less prone to forest fires.  Each have their own niche.

As a side note, I learned this summer from a sheep owner in Kentucky that sheep really like beets too.  Ballyhoo Farm, Bagdad, Kentucky has also advertised her sheep to be used as lawnmowers in her area.  Many homes have huge yards and what better way to keep the graze trimmed.  It is better for the environment and free fertilizer is added to the grass.  Sheep would be quieter than the lawn mower even if it would take a little longer for the grass to be trimmed.  A good sheep dog would be all that is needed. I would call that a win-win situation.

This title is a copyrighted quote by Minna White who has given me permission.  Thank you Minna.  It is a great title for this blog!

Frank and Elsie Auza at Verde River Sheep Bridge

Frank Auza on Verde River Sheep Bridge

These pictures were taken of the original bridge.   Photographs courtesy of the Williams Visitor Center Auza Collection copied May 2018.  The concrete abutments are still visible today but the new bridge was moved to the left of the first picture.

An historical picture of the Verde River Bridge.

Picture of the Verde River Bridge that was rebuilt in the 1980s.  The bridge became unsafe due to the number of wooden pieces stolen for campers to use for firewood.  This picture was taken January 2017.

I was talking with a friend, Ken, today who said he had a picture of the old Verde River Sheep Bridge he took when he and his dad visited it many years ago.  This would have been the original bridge and not the one that can be visited today (see picture above).  He has a picture, which he needs to find and send me, of a Gila Monster crossing the bridge while they were there.  Ken thought that the bridge had been built in the late 1800s but that is not the case.  Here is part of the story of the bridge.

Frank Auza worked for the Flagstaff Sheep Company owned by Dr. Raymond.  Dr. Raymond had applied to the Tonto National Forest for permission to build the bridge along his trail allotment.  Different sheep companies had assigned trail rights along one of the many designated livestock trails in Arizona.  At one time, there were 66 in Arizona and about this time in the early 1940s, there may have been about 12 trails left. (I’ll write more about this in another blog).  Auza and the other sheep men would cross their sheep along the river which during normal flow, the sheep would cross.  During high water, it was too dangerous for the sheep, donkeys and the men to try to cross the waters.  Many sheep were lost when the men would try to cross the river as the sheep could be easily sweep down the fast moving stream.  Which led to the construction of the bridge.

During WWII, any construction material to build bridges had to be approved by the War Department.  After savaging as much of the material that Frank and the other men could from abandoned mines, they applied to the War Department for the remaining materials.  They were granted permission to buy the materials and the bridge was built.  During WWII, the soldier’s uniform was made from wool and the soldier ate a great deal of mutton.  It was in the best interest of the War Department to insure the survival of as many of the sheep as possible.  There was a movement to have children belong to organizations to raise sheep as it took twenty sheep to supply all the wool needed to clothe one soldier.

This is just a summary of the main events to building the bridge.  I’ll include more pictures in the days ahead.  I have collected more stories over the past couple of weeks and will post as time allows.

Jose Aleman with sheep.  Jose worked for John Aleman but if I remember correctly, he was not related to the Aleman’s.  Unknown date.

Priest praying with Etchamendy family.  Many families told of this practice to ask for safe travels on the trail and for ewes giving birth.  This would have been taken someplace in the east valley of Phoenix where the Etchamendy grazed their sheep in the winter months.  Unknown date.

The Manterola family.  left to right – Marie Guappone, Sylvia Manterola, Joe Manterola, Carmen Auza.   Picture taken November 2017 during interview for their family induction into the Arizona Farmer and Rancher Hall of Fame 2018.  Joe Manterola, his parents and family are featured in the article “The Survivors” published in the summer issue of the Range Magazine.

Mrs. Frances Aleman has played an important role in not only the Arizona Sheep Industry but on the national level. An earlier blog was written about Frances and the beginnings of the Making it With Wool contest. We now turn our attention to her work on the national level. As part of the American Sheep Producers Council assigned the task of documenting the sheep industry across the country Frances traveled to many state woolgrowers associations asking each group to submit information on their members and she wrote hundreds of letters asking families to contribute their stories. Hers and many others tireless efforts resulted in Sheep and Men – An American Saga! The book documents the industry from the 1930s to the 1970s on the national level.  It was published in the late 1970s.  Just a few facts from the book will be listed here.

The early history of the sheep brought to the New World can be traced to Christopher Columbus in 1493 to the Caribbean.

Sheep are on the mainland of the Americas by 1521 when Cortes brings them into Mexico.

By 1611, Jamestown has sheep that will be raised for their wool and meat.  Jamestown had sheep in 1607 but they were consumed during the famine that hit the colony the next year.

The first national livestock association was the National Wool Growers Association which was established in 1865 in Syracuse, New York.

One chapter in the book is titled “the Basque in Arizona”.  Jean Etchamendy, Gumersindo Marcos, Jean Pierre “Pete” Espil, John Aleman, Manuel Aja, Miguel Echeverria, etc., are some of the Basque sheepherders/ranchers in Sheep and Men and further detailed in my book Where Have All the Sheep Gone?  As I documented, the Basque came from both France and Spain to work for a rancher with sheep and would take their pay in sheep which allowed them to start their own operations when they had enough sheep.  Both books offer anyone interested in the American sheep industry a good overall perspective of the hard working sheepherder and rancher who played an important role in the economic development of this country.

I believe that my book is unique in the fact that it gathers the stories from the families in the industry, which to my knowledge, has not been completed in any other state.  If there is such a book, please let me know so I can read about other sheep families.  I visited three Kentucky sheep farms in June to learn more about their eastern operations and to compare to the western operations.  A blog with pictures will follow on this topic.

I am collecting more family stories to preserve this history. If you are a former sheep rancher in Arizona or know someone who was, please contact me by placing a comment on this story or via email at bjaquay@icloud.com.  Thanks for reading my blog.  I hope that you enjoy and also learn some history of the sheep industry.

Fermin fell in love at first sight after meeting Benancia Erro Miranda in Flagstaff.  Benancia’s mother had immigrated into California in the early 1890s.  The Miranda family and Echeverria were from close native villages in Spain.  Benancia came to Flagstaff from California to work for her uncle, Gregorio Erro, who owned one of two Basque boarding houses.  She would help sheepherders who came through the boarding house with any translations that were needed or other problems that they needed an English spokesperson.  After only a few months of courting, the couple married in Los Angeles on October 5, 1918, returning to Arizona for Fermin to continue in the sheep business.

Fermin and Benancia would split their time between Wickenburg and Winslow.  Sheep are grazed in the summer months in the high cool forest lands around Winslow and to the east and further north toward the canyon.  The animals would be trailed there each spring. Sheep, burros for carrying supplies, dogs for protection and dogs for helping to move the sheep would be accompanied by a herder or two as they walked for six or more weeks to the cooler forest where grazing was plentiful.  Fermin would go with the herders.  When the temperatures began to cool, the ewes which are now pregnant,  would be moved to the warmer desert areas.  Here in this setting, the lambing would begin usually in November and continue until February.  This practice of the migration of sheep between summer and winter pastures is known as transhumance.  It is unique to the western states but not to other countries.

The couple’s first home was purchased in Winslow.   The couple was blessed with five children; Fermin Matias born in Los Angeles, Ellen in Wickenburg, John Philip in Winslow,  Rachel Marie in Wickenburg and Irene in Winslow.  The children traveled each summer to the family home in Winslow along with the families of Fermin’s partners.  The children would play together as the families lived in the same ranch house or very near one another.  As the children grew they learned a work ethic that is so common among the Basque as they were given chores and expected to carry them out.  Fermin and the other men would spend time among the sheep and herders.  The men would make supply runs to purchase weekly supplies that the herders needed.  Other times the whole family would take a trip to the sheep camp taking fried chicken and hand-beaten cakes that the women had prepared.  Mothers taught their daughters how to cook traditional Basque food.  Everyone would enjoy the camaraderie for the day with the herders.  The children would carve their names or animals or other things in the aspen trees.  The herders also would carve designs, their names, where they were from in Basque country, or to give directions.  This is a trait of the Basque.  A photographic documentation of many of these carvings has been made by the forest service and others allowing future generations to see them.

Back at the ranch house, many evenings were spent playing games or listening to someone play a musical instrument.  As Irene Echeverria Aja said one day to me, “Quality family time was spent in the evenings.  We made do with what we had growing up in the fields around our homes and we used our imagination to invent ways to keep ourselves entertained!”  After spending the summer in the cool forest of northern Arizona a return trip to Wickenburg occurred in October for the children to attend school.

Fermin Echeverria passed away February 7, 1974 followed by his wife February 17, 1976.  Fermin and Benancia had instilled in their five children to be true to their Basque Country but to have a great love for their adopted country, the United States.

More information on the Echeverria family is found in Where Have All the Sheep Gone? Sheep Herders and Ranchers in Arizona – a Disappearing Industry.

Pedro and Fermin headed northward riding on a buckboard.  Fermin would be given provisions for his stay with the sheep.  This was flour, sugar, coffee, salt, salt pork, rice, prunes, raisins and beans.  A Dutch oven, an ax, a bedroll and a canvas tent rounded out his equipment.  All his supplies were carried by the two burros he was given.  His salary for a month was $35 for watching and carrying for the sheep 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Fermin worked for Pedro Arrese for two years.  Because he had no place to spend his money he saved it.

He did finally met up with his brothers a few months after starting work for Arrese.  Miguel and Matias had formed an outfit with Mike Ohaco.  With some of the money he had saved, he also invested in that outfit.  The outfit needed money to pay for winter supplies.  During this time, Pedro had given Fermin a raise of $5 a month, but when he found out that Fermin had invested in another outfit, but just not any outfit, his brothers, Pedro reneged on the raise.

Just seven years after arriving in Arizona, Fermin he was able to purchase his brother, Matias, interest in the Ohaco Sheep Company.  Matias was drafted into the military.  The next year, Fermin would find love and get married.  Story continued tomorrow.

Fermin was the third son to migrate to the United States.  The Echeverria family migrated from Viscarret, Navarra, Spain, i.e., part of the Basque area in the Pyrenees. (There are also French Basque which will be presented in other blogs.)  Fermin followed his older brothers, Miguel and Matias, who in 1910 were working in Arizona.  Leaving by ship from Le Havre, France, Fermin made his way to the United States.  He told his family of the moment he spotted the Statue of Liberty as the ship pulled into the harbor.  He never forgot his roots back in Basque country, but America was now his home!  Like all immigrants of this time period, Fermin was required to pass a physical examination to enter the country.  Once he was processed at Ellis Island, he boarded a train for Arizona.

When Fermin arrived in Phoenix he was expecting one of his two brothers to meet him.  Unfortunately the letter he had sent to them did not arrive in time for Miguel and Matias to meet him.  He approached some men who he heard speaking Spanish.  He learned that his brothers were far away with a sheep outfit.  One of the men, Pedro Arrese, another Basque, offered him work.  Fermin agreed.  Part 2 tomorrow.   This is part of the story on the Echeverria family from my book Where Have All the Sheep Gone? Sheep Herders and Ranchers in Arizona-A Disappearing Industry.