- Babbitt Ranches

BA BBIT T
R A NCHES
R
AUGUST 2007
Babbitt Ranches
PO Box 520 s Flagstaff, AZ 86002 s 928.774.6199 s www.babbittranches.com
Cedar Ranch Camp Forever
On a visit to Cedar Ranch Camp you would
have no idea you’re in the middle of the
desert. The 640-acre high-desert island
on the CO Bar Ranch has springs running
through it, 11 different species of trees and a
unique dash of Arizona history.
This unusual parcel of private land,
surrounded by the Coconino National
Forest, became an important stage coach
stop when some of the Grand Canyon’s first
tourists enjoyed an authentic cowboy
meal there. Now, besides its ecological
and historical values, it has become an
important property for open space
values as well.
Little by little, the entire 640 acres is
expected to be protected as open space for
public access and enjoyment into perpetuity.
A portion of the property may earn this
special designation by November.
Meantime, Babbitt Ranches is actively
exploring more opportunities for open
space and continued public access on other
Babbitt properties.
BR
Babbitt Ranches, along with the Trust
for Public Lands and the Arizona State
Land Department, is seeking funding
through Forest Legacy, a newly
established conservation easement
program, to protect the property from
future development.
Forest Legacy is designed to promote,
support and fund efforts to acquire
land within the National Forest, land
such as Cedar Ranch Camp.
Get Caught Up in the Web
Log on to www.babbittranches.com
and you will no doubt be impressed by
the new look and efficiency of the userfriendly Web site.
Thanks to a makeover by Indigo 8, the
site is a far more interactive resource for
those accessing or updating information.
The new design is particularly helpful
for folks who are researching Babbitt
Ranches horses and bloodlines.
BR
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w w w. b a b b i t t r a n c h e s . c o m
Babbitt Ranches Adopts Constitution
A Commitment to Tradition,
Character, Excellence
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Tradition, character and excellence have
been bred into Babbitt Ranches for more
than a century. The values that make the
people of Babbitt Ranches who they are
and the characteristics that have shaped
the organization into a lasting legacy
now have been captured and articulated
in a constitution comprised of five
documents.
The Babbitt Ranches Constitution
is designed to guide the future and
reinforce the past. It serves as a
touch-stone as opportunities and
challenges are discussed and decisions
are made.
The Conversation Council Creed
serves as the foundation for Babbitt
Ranches’ relationships and discussions.
It is a reminder that diversity is what
promotes better decisions, along with the
ability to let go of the need to be right.
“Our character will be demonstrated
through our patience, kindness, humility,
respectfulness, selflessness, forgiveness,
honesty and resilience. We acknowledge
that it is not our differences that may
divide us, it is our judgments about each
other that do,” the Creed states.
The Babbitt Ranches Philosophy
and Multiple Bottom Line focuses on
learning and understanding, and assigns
responsibility and obligation in order
to grow as an organization. They integrate
organizational, ecological, economical and
community values into the organization’s
decisions and include an Equity Model
Development Outline, the framework for
succession building and management.
BR Constitution continued on back page…
Efforts Underway to Preserve
Historic Stage Line
The Grand Canyon-Flagstaff Stage Coach
Line changed that. As easy as buying a
train ticket, Atlantic & Pacific Railroad
passengers could purchase a side excursion
to the grandest canyon of them all.
“It was a major effort to travel in
those days. Many people were
seeing the West for the first
time. They were awestruck.
The whole experience of
getting to Flagstaff was scenic
and novel. Then the stagecoach
passengers went through even
more beautiful country to get
to the Canyon. And finally,
passengers took that first look
into the gorge, where they
had that unforgettable ‘Wow!’
experience. What a trip it
was!” said historian Richard
Mangum.
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“It’s pretty clear this trail helped shape
what we see today at the Grand Canyon,
in Flagstaff, on Babbitt Ranches and even
with native cultures once tourists came
to northern Arizona,” said Kim Watson,
a National Park Service retiree who now
works as a lecturer and instructor for the
Eppley Institute for Parks and Public Lands
at Indiana University.
“It was the first road or trail in northern
Arizona built with the idea of recreation in
mind,” said John Nelson, Forest Service
recreation staff officer for the Peaks and
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They had heard about the wide open spaces,
the Painted Desert, the antelope, the bald
eagle and the cowboys. And, of course, they
had heard unbelievable descriptions of the
Grand Canyon. But in the late 1800s, most
folks in the United States lived east of the
Mississippi and most of them didn’t travel
beyond their home county.
“Babbitt Ranches…
are working to help
people understand
and appreciate how
things developed
in this part of the
country.”
– John Nelson
The primitive wagon road stretching from
Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon opened the
way for tourism in northern Arizona. The
stage line survived only nine years, but in
that short time it drove its mark into Arizona
history.
Today, a group composed of the National
Park Service, Forest Service, Babbitt
Ranches and others is working to preserve
the road, and that bumpy, dusty piece of the
Old West.
Mormon Lake Ranger Districts. “Before
that the Grand Canyon hadn’t really been
discovered as a tourist destination. While
Native Americans had known about it for
centuries, there were mostly miners up there
in the late 1800s, no tourists.”
John Hance was a miner with a vision. He and
rancher William Hull began bringing visitors
to the canyon in a buckboard. Hance built a
tent camp on the South Rim for tourists who
made the journey, a tiresome trip that took
two days each way.
Soon, businessmen and railroad officials
realized the economic potential of attracting
visitors to Flagstaff as The Gateway to the
Grand Canyon. They improved the road
and figured out how to make the trip to the
canyon in one day with three relay stations
to change out the teams of six horses. One
stop was at Cedar Ranch on what is now the
CO Bar.
“For early tourists, there was that sense of
adventure. They’d arrive in Flagstaff on a
train and trust their fates to these folks in a
stagecoach,” said Watson. “They’d go to all
that work to see their first view of the canyon.
And words failed them.”
In Richard and Sherry Mangum’s book
Grand Canyon-Flagstaff Stage Coach Line,
they capture comments made by guests. Los
Angeles Times writer Col. H. G. Otis wrote
in 1895: The camp lies in a little depression
near the rim of the canyon, which cannot
be seen at all from the camp. Two minutes’
walk, however, carries the beholder up
another short slope, and suddenly the awful
majesty of the Grand Canyon is revealed to
his startled vision. . .
By 1901, the railroad was running trains
from Williams to the Grand Canyon. Not
long after that automobiles began to make the
trip. Soon, the stage line was just a memory
in America’s transportation history.
“There are places where the route is eroded
and we are trying to figure out a way to
protect and interpret the trail,” said Nelson.
“Babbitt Ranches has a very keen interest
and awareness of the history of the stage line.
They are working to help people understand
and appreciate how things developed in this
part of the country.”
The group is exploring a historic trail
nomination to protect the road, the structures
and the 100-year-old artifacts. A nonmotorized way to get into the park may be
part of the plan to preserve the old route.
“Babbitt Ranches has always been publicspirited and eager to participate in anything
for the good of the community and the
area,” said Mangum. “The Babbitts’ history
demonstrates that time and again. With this
background, making a recreational asset out
of the old stage line is a natural fit.”
BR
Oh Baby! Hundreds Come Out
To See Babbitts’ Colts
Forty-one pedigreed colts and yearlings for
sale, a crowd of anxious bidders, a hearty
traditional cowboy meal and blue skies that
stretch on forever over the Spider Web Ranch
add up to another picture perfect Babbitt
Ranches Colt Sale.
All of the fillies and horses were sold with
the highest bid for $5,200 on a Dash for
Cash bay. “I bought a bay colt last year for
$8,400. I figure I got a deal this year!” said
Jim Cave, a Kingman businessman who
bought the horse. “I always go with Harvey’s
pick.”
Harvey Howell has been with the Babbitt
Ranches horse program since 1971. “I really
like the blood on that bay. When we caught
him and handled him he showed a lot of
quiet sense. Looking at him now, he’ll be
1,250 pounds when he’s mature. He’ll make
someone a really nice roper.”
Jim Jennings AQHA
Grey and Debbie Farrell of Tonalea were
successful bidders on three fillies—a
palomino, a sorrel and a bay. They bought
two the year before. “We’re looking for a
filly to breed our stud,” said Debbie. “We
like the Sun Frost, Proudgun and Driftwood
bloodlines for speed and ranch work,” said
Grey.
Shawn Smith of Leupp came to the colt
sale for the first time this year and bought
a colt for rodeo roping competition. “It’s an
investment. I think it will pay for itself.”
This was Debbie Hayes’ fourth year at the
colt sale. While standing in line to purchase
her buckskin for $2,400, she was offered
$100 more to sell to another
bidder. She turned him
down. “I bought a
filly last year
and loved
her temperament.” Hayes has a ranch in
Desert Hills.
“I wasn’t looking to buy!” said Lisa Nelson of
Flagstaff, a proud new owner of a buckskin
colt. She and her husband, John, have been
coming to the sale for the past decade. “It
feels really great!”
Babbitt Ranches won the honor of Remuda of
the Year from the American Quarter Horse
Association in 2005. “Even if we didn’t win
the award, here’s what we consider winning.
A lady will shake hands with me and tell me
she bought a colt five years ago and say ‘that’s
the nicest horse I ever could dream about.’
That’s what we’re looking for,” said Howell.
Babbitt Ranches’ horse breeding program
dates back to the ‘40s. The organization
enjoyed another successful colt sale this
year with the help of auctioneer Ron Berndt.
Babbitt Ranches is celebrating its 121st
anniversary.
BR
Elk, Pronghorn, Hawks and Songbirds
Benefit from Babbitts’ Projects
Nearly $2 million in funding will help elk
find water, pronghorn see predators and
disappearing grasslands return. Babbitt
Ranches has been awarded several grants
obligating all three ranches to long-term land
stewardship projects.
learn about and better understand the land,
and to minimize impacts,” said Babbitt
Ranches President Bill Cordasco. “It
will enable us to improve areas that need
improvement and enhance the overall health
of the area.”
The largest, totaling some $900,000, affects
the Espee and Cataract ranches and comes
from the Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS). The Conservation Security
Program grant focuses on the Havasu
Canyon Watershed and calls for monitoring
the area’s riparian corridors, air quality,
water supply and distribution, and declining
wildlife. It also commits landowners to largescale regional planning.
Babbitt Ranches also is joining forces with
the Arizona Game and Fish Department on
grant projects aimed at restoring historic
grasslands on the CO Bar.
“Funding for the Havasu Canyon Watershed
will promote a relationship among Babbitts,
the Havasupai Tribe, the Kaibab National
Forest, the state and other landowners to
“The invasion of pinyon and juniper trees
is a broad-scale problem for a lot of acres
that used to be grassland,” said Arizona
Game and Fish Department Landowner
Relations Program Coordinator for Flagstaff
John Goodwin. “The habitat that is being
encroached upon is important for birds of
prey, ferruginous hawks, burrowing owls,
pronghorn, prairie dogs and migrating
songbirds. When grassland becomes
woodland, these species suffer.”
Through the state’s Landowner Incentive
Program, $280,000 has been identified for
the removal of pinyon and juniper trees on
5,000 acres.
The Arizona Department of Agriculture also
is focused on grassland restoration. Two
grants, worth a total of $275,000, will fund
another 5,500 to 6,000 acres of pinyon and
juniper treatment.
A grant from the Wildlife Habitat Incentive
Program (WHIP) through the NRCS,
obligates more than $93,000 to treat more
than 1,200 acres of grassland that has been
taken over by pinyon and juniper trees.
A second WHIP grant will fund the treatment
of 1,200 acres in the amount of $97,000.
Pinyon and juniper trees will be removed
and water catchment tanks will be installed
for wildlife.
And a third WHIP grant will provide
$156,000 to restore grassland on 1,500
acres. A wildlife drinker will be installed,
along with escape ramps in water tanks.
“These escape ramps are heavy steel mesh
ramps that attach to the side of the tank,”
said Goodwin. “Tanks are 8- to 10-feet
across and a couple of feet deep. If birds and
small mammals fall in, there’s no way to get
out, so they drown. These ramps will enable
them to climb back out.”
On nearly all of these projects, the Arizona
Game and Fish Department is providing
funding.
“The Game and Fish Department has been
a long-time partner with Babbitt Ranches,”
said Goodwin. “Babbitt Ranches has always
been enthusiastic about helping wildlife,
especially pronghorn habitat. They go over
and above what would be expected in doing
what they can to help wildlife.”
BR
Move Over Prairie Dogs!
A Masked Mammal May
Be Coming to Town
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A new face may be popping up on Babbitt
Ranches’ Espee Ranch. The distinctive
masked face of the black-footed ferret could
be peeking out from prairie dog burrows
if Arizona Game and Fish Department
biologists find enough prairie dogs to sustain
a population of the endangered species.
”The black-footed ferret is a highly specialized
predator that primarily preys upon prairie
dogs and lives in prairie dog towns or colonies.
This predator cannot survive without prairie
dogs,” said Carrie King, black-footed ferret
program coordinator for the Arizona Game
and Fish Department.
The two-foot-long endangered ferret
was thought to be extinct, twice. In the
late 1800s there was an effort to get
rid of prairie dogs, because they were
considered pests. In 1981, a rancher’s dog
in Wyoming brought a black-footed ferret
to its owner. Upon further investigation,
wildlife biologists were able to locate
about 150 black-footed ferrets living in the
prairie dog colony on the ranch. However,
after an epidemic of canine distemper and
plague decimated the population, the last
18 black-footed ferrets were trapped and
removed and the captive breeding program
began.
Through the efforts of wildlife biologists,
the black-footed ferret population has
increased. Eleven years ago, 35 blackfooted ferrets were released in the Aubrey
Valley on the Boquillas Ranch, adjacent to
Babbitt Ranches to the west. This became
the fourth of 11 reintroduction sites in
the United States and the only one on
Jennifer Cordova
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Tagging . Project Photo
Mike Lockhart
Anesthesia . Project Photo
private land. The grassland of the Aubrey
Valley was selected because it has one of
the highest concentrations of prairie dogs
in Arizona.
Currently, King and other biologists are
mapping prairie dog colonies on the Espee
Ranch. They will be monitoring diseases
like canine distemper and plague, which are
deadly to prairie dogs and ferrets.
“Babbitt Ranches has expressed interest
in bringing black-footed ferrets back to the
Colorado Plateau,” said King. “This is a
unique opportunity where reintroduction
can occur on private land without effecting
the local economy, land management
practices or rural values. Prairie dogs like
grazed land because they can see predators
in the short grass and black-footed ferrets
are self-sustaining wild animals.”
The agency is about halfway through the
process of mapping prairie dog towns on
the Espee Ranch. Information is expected
to be available by October to determine
if the area is biologically feasible for the
reintroduction of black-footed ferrets.
“Babbitt
Ranches
are known for being
excellent stewards
of the land and have
received a national
award,” said King.
“The Arizona Game
and Fish Department
and Babbitt Ranches
have a long history
of working well
together.”
“Babbitt Ranches
are known for
being excellent
stewards of
the land and
have received a
national award.”
– Carrie King
Spotlighting . Internet Photo
Kit . Phoenix Zoo
The
black-footed
ferret is the only
ferret native to North
America. At one time
the nocturnal creature
scurried across all 12
western states.
BR
JC Amberlin
Jennifer Cordova
Book Captures a Century
of Arizona’s Ranching Families
The Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association
is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a
centennial book. Keepers of the Range
– The Story of the Arizona Cattle
Growers’ Association traces the history
of the state’s ranching families back to the
early 1900s.
Jim Jennings AQHA
The book features a color painting by ACGA
member Shawn Cameron and historic
photographs from the Arizona Historical
Foundation and the ACGA Matt Culley
Photo Contest. Also included are sketches
from ACGA member Kathy McCraine.
Ordinarily it would sell for $70; however,
a grant from the Kemper and Ethel Marley
Foundation is helping to cover the cost.
Keepers of the Range is available now for
$35 to ACGA, ACFA, ASC and AWPA
members, plus shipping and handling.
Proceeds from the sale of the book will go
to the ACGA and Arizona Cattle Industry
Research and Education Foundation. For
information about how to purchase a copy,
contact the Babbitt Ranches Flagstaff office,
928-774-6199.
BR
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BR Constitution continued…
The Land Ethic describes Babbitt
Ranches’ role as a land steward. Babbitt
Ranches is in the business of owning
land. On that land the organization can
do and has done many things including
raising livestock, breeding quarter horses,
preserving cultural and historic sites,
harvesting gravel, providing recreational
opportunities and improving wildlife
habitat. Through it all is an obligation
and responsibility to minimize impacts.
“Health is the capacity of the land
for self-renewal,” said Aldo Leopold.
“Conservation is our effort to understand
and preserve this capacity.”
Sustainable Community Principles
recognizes the importance of living off
interest, not principal, and that growth
ultimately is limited by the carrying
capacity of the environment in northern
Arizona and the region. To Babbitt
Ranches, sustainability applies to the
future of the business, the communities
and the land, and is the cornerstone of
the Babbitt philosophy. In borrowing a
quote from Abraham Lincoln, the Babbitt
organization believes, “If we could first
know where we are and whither we are
tending, we could better judge what to do
and how to do it.”
The overall Commitment to the
Babbitt Ranches Constitution is about
Participation. As Lincoln said, “We do
the very best we know how—the very best
we can; and we mean to keep on doing
so until the end. If the end brings us out
wrong, then ten angels swearing we were
right would make no difference.”
BR
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