Article about Escudilla and Aldo Leopold

[azbackpackr]

http://www.wmicentral.com/site/dav.cfm? ... 7541&ssp=6

Find all 6 pages by clicking on button that says "next page."

[joebartels]

Interesting they try to disable coping of their information yet it's so friggen loaded with advertisements I have zero interest in checking out the rest of their site. Leads me to be weary of other intentions.

[azbackpackr]

Huh? Just thought you might like to read it. I didn't even think about trying to copy and paste it--after all, I have it in Word in my computer! I could post that version on here, if you really want me to--anyway, they don't edit my stuff. But then, how to load the photos onto the forum? I'd have to download those onto the HAZ, and after doing that I've never been successful getting them to show up on the forum. Img + url + *Img but it never works.

[joebartels]

Elizabeth I enjoyed your article immensely and will be checking out Escudilla very soon. I was just voicing my opinion about the site which I believe Aldo would feel the same! A revamp of the article system on HAZ has been in order for a long time, it's just a never ending todo list. Thanks for posting the link

[azbackpackr]

Yeah, that White Mtn. Independent website is always a pain in the kazoo.

If you want a hiking pal up Escudilla, let me know. I occasionally have a day off work!

[JimmyLyding]

Great article Elizabeth. I really enjoyed it, and you reinforced my idea that Escudilla is on my to-do list.
Your article inspired me to look through one of my copies of 'The Grizzly in the Southwest' by David Brown (1985). It claims that the last grizzly (estimated at 2-3 years old) killed in Arizona was taken by Richard (Dick) R. Miller in Stray Horse Canyon northeast of Clifton. It also states that Miller thought he found evidence of another young bear and an adult female in the area (pages 157-158).

However, that anectdote pales in comparison to Aldo Leopold's quote:
"The government trapper who took the grizzly knew he had made Escudilla safe for cows. He did not know he had toppled the spire off an edifice a-building since the morning stars sang together.
The bureau chief who sent the trapper was a biologist versed in the architecture of evolution, but he did not know that spires might be as important as cows. He did not foresee that within two decades the cow country would become tourist country, and as such have greater need of bears than of beefsteaks.
The Congressmen who voted money to clear the ranges of bears were the sons of pioneers. They acclaimed the superior virtues of the frontiersman, but they strove with might and main to make an end of the frontier.
We forest officers, who acquiesced in the extinguishment of the bear, knew a local rancher who had plowed up a dagger engraved with the name of Coronado's captains. We spoke harshly of the Spaniards who in their zeal for gold and converts, had needlessly extinguished the native Indians. It did not occur to us that we, too, were the captains of an invastion too sure of its own righteousness.
Escudilla still hangs on the horizona, but when you see it you no longer think of bears. It's only a mountain now."
-Aldo Leopold (1949) from beforementioned Brown, page 3.

http://hikearizona.com/phoZOOM.php?ZIP=83227
Thank you ryanandjuliabuff for one of the best photosets I've ever seen!

[azbackpackr]

Thanks very much! I love that passage, and I would like to have quoted the entire paragraph in the article, but felt comfortable with only the shorter quote--I didn't know if permission to quote would be needed from the publisher, etc.

So, does Brown's book say what year that griz was killed at Strayhorse? I had a hard time even finding the 1936 date for Bigfoot on the internet, and even wondered when quoting that date if it was correct for the Bigfoot tale. I had previously believed it was in the 20's or early 30's.

So, the Gila and White Mountains being connected, I wonder when the last griz in the Gila was killed?

[JimmyLyding]

Forgot that part. The Stray Horse grizzly was taken by Miller in 1935. I'll check on old Big Foot later. I know I read about him in 'The Last Grizzly and Other Southwerstern Bear Stories' by David E. Brown & John A. Murray (editors), 1988. Unfortunately that book doesn't have an index so I'll have to root around for it.

[JimmyLyding]

Just discovered that Old Bigfoot of Escudilla was taken in July 1910

[azbackpackr]

Ok, well, my internet search gave bad info, probably. So my article turns out to have at least one inaccuracy in it! Oh, well.