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.