H-K Ranch Added to Mazatzal Wilderness

By David Kirk

“What is that?”  I asked Michelle and Rudy Stadelman as we crested a hill and looked down toward the Verde River.  It had been a long morning in the car of bumping along a dirt road from Cave Creek, Arizona on the fringe of Phoenix.   Michelle had kept us entertained during the drive with stories of her family’s connection to the H-K Ranch and the Verde River.  Reid Haughey and I, representing The Wilderness Land Trust, were joining Rudy and Michelle to hike to the H-K Ranch.  Michelle’s family was considering selling the property to the US Forest Service for an addition to the Mazatzal Wilderness rather than market it for sale.   It was indicative of the family’s legacy with the land that they wanted to consider the option of adding the property to wilderness after owning it for more than sixty years.

 

Michelle shared wonderful stories of being a little girl and accompanying her father and extended family on sheep roundups and trail drives.  Being from Colorado, I had always pictured Arizona as a land full of traffic, golfers, and shopping centers, so I have to admit it was illuminating to hear her paint the picture of her family of Basque sheepherders. The Verde River provided the connection between the family’s winter sheep range south of Phoenix and the verdant summer pasture near Flagstaff.

 

The structure spanning the Verde that had caught my attention was the Verde River Sheep Bridge, an integral part of this sheep herding tradition.   The Sheep Bridge, under the direction of its previous owner, Dr. R.O. Raymond, was first constructed in 1943 by using scrap materials, used cable, and the group’s own labor and design.  They created a graceful suspension bridge that crossed the Verde and allowed them to move their sheep flocks back and forth across the river for shearing and branding as they trailed them along the Verde in the winter and summer.  The bridge eventually was removed in 1984, but was replaced with an updated replica in the late 1980s which now serves as access over the Verde for hikers and horseback riders heading into the wilderness. 

 

In 1945, Michelle’s grandfather, Tony Manterola, purchased from Dr. Raymond the Flagstaff Sheep Co., various other properties and this 107-acre H-K Ranch as base property just two miles up from the bridge.  We crossed the bridge on the trail that leads deeper into the Mazatzal wilderness and hiked up a side canyon containing Sycamore Creek to the property.  A perennial spring just upslope from the property supplies abundant clear water, and the sheltered canyon setting provides natural habitat for deer, bobcat, and bear.  A mixed forest of deciduous trees, so rare for the surrounding Sonoran desert, adds to the mosaic of saguaro cactus, prickly pear, and ocotillo.   

 

I’m very pleased to report that in December 2009, the Manterola family recently completed a transaction with the US Forest service to permanently add the H-K Ranch to the Mazatzal Wilderness.  In most transactions, The Wilderness Land Trust steps into the chain of title by purchasing a property from a private landowner and then holding the property until a public agency is able to secure the funding to purchase the property from the Trust.  In this situation, the Manterola family was able to deal directly with the Forest Service, and the Trust was able to act as an advisor and facilitator.

 

Rudy Stadelman, attorney for the Manterola family said, “The Wilderness Land Trust proved to be an invaluable resource in ‘shepherding’ us through this process.  The Trust’s intimate knowledge of the extensive and complex process involved in completing these transactions helped us to avoid numerous obstacles which would otherwise have seriously prolonged or possibly jeopardized the acquisition.  Although the Trust did not act as intermediary in this case, it was prepared to do so, and remained actively involved and instrumental in assisting both the Manterola family and the USFS in procuring this coveted addition to the Mazatzal Wilderness.” 

 

The Trust is grateful the Manterola family and US Forest Service preserved this ranching and wilderness legacy for generations to come.  To drive to the Sheep Bridge for a spectacular hike in the Mazatzal Wilderness, take USFS Road 19 “Bartlett Dam Road” east out of Cave Creek and then go north on USFS Road 24 until it intersects with USFS Road 269 “Bloody Basin Road.”  Turn east on Road 269 and follow it down to the trailhead at the Sheep Bridge along the Verde River.  Allow two to three hours one way for the drive and a few hours for walking along the river or hiking into the wilderness.