Tag: Holbrook Arizona

Dry weather continues in the state of Arizona.

Weather for the first week of June hadn’t changed much for some areas of the state.  Carlos Castillo, the Holbrook sheepman, had been in Flagstaff the first of the week. His sheep are on the range near that city. Castillo was concerned for he reported dry winds have done much damage to the range in that Holbrook section and more rain is badly needed. Sounds like 2021 is repeating what happened in 1921.

Shipments of sheep into Kansas City was down from last week by 500 sheep, from 7,000 to 6,500. This number includes all western states. Prices for lambs were 25 cents lower than the week before too.

On a positive note, there were two new brands issued for the sheep outfits of Bankhead & Henderson and Granville Fain. Someone was doing well or hoped that the weather would change for the better.

As to the fire danger, Fire Chief L. R. Lessell, of the Coconino Forest service office, reported 31 fires in forest for the first six months. Sixteen of the fires burnt less than a quarter of an acre and the others burned up to ten acres. Not wanting to jinx 2021, I will refrain from commenting on fires in the state.  I do know that fire mitigation is on many people’s minds and hopefully a fire mitigation program using sheep and goats can be accomplished here in Arizona.

And here is your sheep fix for the weekend courtesy of Rovey Dairy Farm in Glendale, Arizona.

H. H. Scorse

An update to an earlier article “Where do I live” – A friend sent me some information about H. H. Scorse after he read the forementioned blog. He told me that there are still Scorse in the Holbrook area.  Obviously Scorse had lived a while in the Holbrook area as the H. H. Scorse Mercantile building was built in 1890.  He leased the building in 1896 to Julius Wetzler for the Wetzler Brothers mercantile store. They ran their business for four years then in 1900 it was operated as the Henry H. Scorse mercantile. There are several older buildings in Holbrook with the Arizona Rancho built in 1881 and the Navajo County Sheriff office building was built in 1882. The former building was used by the Hashknife Cattle Company. These are the two oldest buildings I have found at press time; there may be older ones.

Scorse built a second building in 1922 as it was a trading post in the 1960s according to my source anad is owned by Paul Ortega today. I’m glad these old buildings have been preserved. I can’t wait to see them myself. Pictures of Scorse’s buildings: