billrquimby

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was a member of a 400-man expedition sent to Florida in 1528. Only four survived. They traveled across the Gulf of Mexico in crude boats they built themselves, reached Galveston Island, and were captured by Indians and enslaved. After escaping, they began walking westward, and eight years later met up with other Spaniards near what now is Culiacan, Sinaloa. Some say they crossed southern New Mexico and Arizona, others say they traveled farther south. It is an incredible story of survival. Anyone interested in the history of our region needs to read the various books about Cabeza de Vaca and this amazing journey. Ditto for the Coronado Expedition. Francisco Vasquez Coronado led some 300 conquistadores, more than 1,000 Indians, a few monks, and some slaves from deep into Mexico all the way to Kansas and back, searching for the seven golden cities of Cibola that a Spanish priest (Frey Marcos de Niza) claimed he had seen. The expedition crossed the Mogollon Rim and White Mountains, then followed the Zuni River to the Zuni pueblos. Scouting parties "discovered" the Grand Canyon. Some of the things about this expedition that I find most interesting: galleons were sent up the Colorado River from the Gulf of California to below what now is Kingman, hoping to resupply the expedition; Indian tribes sent word up and down the river that the Spaniards were present; everyone was close to starving when they reached Vernon, some died after eating toxic plants, but the others were saved by eating antelope they killed near St. Johns; scribes wrote about each day's trek and regularly sent dispatches back to Spain about the expedition's progress. You also may want to read about the more recent punitive expedition into Mexico after Pancho Villla in 1916-17, and some of the many books about the Apaches in Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico. The Southwest has a rich history that is not taught in our schools, unfortunately. Incidentally, I don't think an elk antler would survive above ground, exposed to weather and rodents for the 400-500 years or more after those ruins were abandoned. The one you found probably was dropped within the last few decades. If you found it inside a dwelling, someone may have left it there after finding it elsewhere nearby. Bill Quimby

Cabeza de Vaca reached this region in the very early 1500s and Coronado and his conquistadores got to Arizona about 20 years later. I was under the impression that many petroglyphs were more recent than that. For example, one of my clients has a winter home outside Santa Clara, Utah, and has rock art on his property that depicts the meeting of the local tribe with the Domínguez-Escalante expedition in 1776. How much later the early people were "writing" on rocks I can't say, but 1776 is only 235 years ago. I have relatives and knew people who hunted javelinas in Arizona Territory just 100 years after that. It is a fact that javelinas have been moving north, though, and not entirely on their own. The Game and Fish Department released a number of them near Prescott and elsewhere in the 1960s and 70s. When I was a boy in the 1940s, hunters were saying they weren't found north of the Gila River. We now know that wasn't true, of course, but it was true that their primary range was south of the river. What I'd really like to know is why there are few (if any) elk among many examples of Arizona rock art. Or, for that matter, why are there so few tools and jewelry made from elk bones and teeth in those trash piles? If there were Merriam elk here, shouldn't archaeologists be digging up piles of such stuff? Bill Quimby

I think you mean a "4x3," or even a "four-pointer." A "7 point" would be a 16-pointer eastern count. No matter. Congratulations on your first Arizona buck. Bill Quimby

I'd like someone to check a diagram of what I plan to do. Is there a member who is an experienced plumber? Bill Quimby

I may have dreamed this, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the remains of a bison calf had been dug up near Casa Grande and that someone had speculated it may have been captured elsewhere, brought here and treated as a deity. But I also may have read this in a novel. I simply don't remember. If there actually was such a find, this could help explain your petroglph. It also could have been made by someone who had seen bison in their known range. Some of those guys wandered all over the country, trading sea shells, flint, and other items where such things didn't exist. At any rate, bison are supposed to have been absent in Arizona long before our petroglyphs were made. Do you have any photos of petroglyphs showing elk and javelinas in Arizona? I don't know of any, and that's strange. Merriam elk and javelinas should have been around in good numbers. I've found lots of rock art clearly showing deer, antelope, bighorn, and birds, but no elk or pigs. Weird. Bill Quimby

Way to go, TJ. Don't worry. You have lots more hunts to do. Bill Quimby

Congratulations on your first buck. Keep hunting and keep writing. You obviously have talent for both. Bill Quimby

Those planks seem a better idea than the WM's sheet of plywood. After an elk is loaded, they take up much less space. Incidentally, he also had a socket on his roll bar that he fit his electric winch into. Azlance: My friends and I are in our right minds and we've hauled out a lot of elk without cutting them up. We've also cut various cow elk in two pieces when there were only two of us to load them. One guy got in the truck (usually me) and lifted using a rope collar we tied on the cows' necks. The other helped by boosting. We did the same with the rear halves. Never had the opportunity to do this with a really big bull, though. On my second elk hunt, in about 1960 more or less, three of us shot two spike bulls behind Mexican Hay Lake. We used my 1947 CJ2A Jeep to drag them to a tree where we ran a rope through a pulley we had tied to a limb and used the Jeep's electric winch to load them onto that little Jeep. There was just enough room left for me to squeeze into the seat and drive. The other two guys sat on the elk, with elk legs and heads hanging off the Jeep, pointing in every direction. Our camp was at the bridge above Eagar, so we didn't have to go far, but we must have presented quite a sight to anyone who saw us coming off that mountain. Over the last few years, I've seen four different trucks in Springerville with big bulls -- whole -- on TOP of two quads in the beds of those trucks. That must take some good ol' Arizona ingenuity to get that job done. Bill Quimby

I'm really dense. The flowers confused me, probably because the crematorium packaged my mother's ashes in a plain. cube-shaped white plastic box. Bill Quimby

I give up. What is it? Bill Quimby

I once made a raft trip starting on the San Francisco River at the mines at Clifton down to the Gila River and on to Safford. I forget what time of year it was, but the water was at its highest. You probably can get river-flow data from the Salt River Project office in Phoenix. If not, someone there can point you in the right direction. This was many years ago and our "expedition" was organized by Sierra Club members and others who wanted wilderness status for the Gila Box, and it furnished all the rafts, food and gear, except for our sleeping bags. I think each raft held six people, and we had five or six rafts, if I remember correctly. It was a two-day trip and we camped out one night along the way. We were joined at sundown by John and Cindy McCain and their helicopter pilot. (They flew back to town the next morning after listening to a pitch by the sponsoring group.) I remember only one set of rapids -- it was against a steep wall on a sharp curve in the river -- and it tossed one of the rafts and everyone aboard. The rest of the trip was uneventful. I later made the same trip down the mostly dry riverbed with a Jeep club, when there were only a few pools of water remaining. My newspaper columns about those trips advocated allowing motorized travel through the Box during the dry seasons, but Congress obviously agreed with the wilderness advocates. I also did three trips down Grand Canyon. Two of them were non-motorized; the third was motorized. All were with commercial rafting operators, though. There may be some rafting opportunities below Painted Rock Dam near Gila Bend down to Yuma, but it's been a long time since I visited that area. I would suggest that you get river flow data for the river you're interested in "doing," and get someone with an airplane to fly you over it before taking off. You also will need someone to shuttle your vehicle to your take-out point, of course. The run from Coolidge Dam (San Carlos Lake) to Winkleman at high water would be interesting, too, but I don't know whether the San Carlos Apaches would allow it. I've heard that some people also run the Verde River. There also are some commercial river runners operating on the Salt River from Salt River Canyon down to Roosevelt Lake. Here again, tribal permission would be needed. If I were outfitting myself for running Arizona's smaller rivers, I'd want the best quality four- or six-man raft and personal floatation devices available. I don't think helmets would be needed for most rivers, but it wouldn't hurt to have them. I definitely would want several large waterproof bags made for rafting (not garbage sacks) and a couple of large steel ammo boxes. You'll need them to store your tents, sleeping bags, spare clothes and food on your raft. I've never been in a kayak (they scare me and I'm too large for most of them anyway), but the people who like them have lots of fun in Grand Canyon. I've watched them run big rapids, then portage back upstream and run them again and again. The problem with kayaks, of course, is that you still will need a raft to carry your food and gear. There probably are books out there that can tell you everything you will need for rafting. Check the internet. Have fun. Wish I were younger. I'd like to join you. Bill Quimby

Please describe what it is. I'm curious and my modem is too slow to play a video. Bill Quimby

Hope I didn't come off as criticizing you. I truly want to congratulate you on your fine first buck. You obviously worked hard to get it, and to get it out by yourself. As a newcomer to Arizona whitetail hunting, you may be interested in knowing that it is rare for Coues white-tailed deer, unlike most of the other whitetail subspecies, to grow more than three fully developed antler tines and an eyeguard per side. You can look at a lot of bucks before you'll see a true 4x4 (10 points eastern count). A 5x5 (12 points eastern count) buck is downright rare, except for a deer with non-typical antlers. Another difference between "western" and "eastern" antler counting is that out here we usually don't count tines that aren't really developed. "Back east" (in my family, that's everywhere east of El Paso) hunters count every bump they can "hang a ring on." Bill Quimby "

My slow dial-up modem here in Tucson doesn't allow me to view videos, but I am assuming he has rigged up a winch to load an elk. A wildlife manager loaded (with no help from me or anyone else) an injured 6x6 bull he had to shoot in my yard in Greer a couple of years ago. He used an electric winch mounted high up on a roll bar in the front of his truck's bed, and winched the bull into the bed on a piece of 3/4-inch plywood. It took him less than five minutes to attach the winch, drag out the plywood, load the bull and plywood and drive away. We never learned what was wrong with that bull, but it had laid down near where I park my truck and couldn't get up. The Game and Fish Department guy said it would be tested for chronic wasting disease. CWD has never been found in an Arizona elk, or so they say, so we can only assume the bull had been hit by a vehicle on the road through North Woods above us and managed to stumble downhill to our place. (A small herd crosses that road and walks through our yard every evening to reach a meadow across from us.) You really don't need a winch if you can back your truck up to an elk and have two guys to help you. Here's how we used to do it: 1. Remove your truck's tailgate. Most will allow you to take it off without tools. 2. All three of you need to "sit" the elk on its rump as best as you can, with its head and neck in the bed and its shoulder resting against the bumper. 3. When you get the elk balanced, one of you quickly climbs into the truck and and pulls on the antlers while the other two men lift and push. If the truck is pointed slightly downhill the elk will slide right in. Years ago, I helped load five elk on the Jicarilla reservation in New Mexico this way, and we've done it with all of our elk our group has killed since then. The trick is to remove the tailgate. We tried keeping the gate attached to load a small spike bull once, but had to remove it to get the job done. In Africa, our trackers backed the truck into a trench they'd dug and winched my Cape buffalo -- whole -- into it. The trench was deep enough that the bull and the truck's bed were at approximately the same height. I always wanted to try that with an elk, but never did. Bill Quimby

Good story, TJ. It makes me want to hunt hogs again. Wish I could still draw a bow. Good luck on your next hunt. Bill Quimby

At my age, I just want to wake up every morning in 2011. Bill Quimby

At my age, I just want to wake up every morning in 2011. Bill Quimby

It's a fine picture and a great trophy for a young hunter and she should treasure both. I only was trying to point out why an editor probably would not choose it for a cover, especially when its format calls for small photos tightly cropped. To see what I mean, squint your eyes as you look at her face and watch the details blend together. More would be lost when printed on the paper used for the regs. Also, look at the faces on the photos on the 2011 spring regulations. There's not a single shadow on any of the three faces. And see how close the girl and the man with her are to the bison's head. Bill Quimby

I think so, too. However, my retired editor's instincts and training tell me that it is unlikely. The girl's face is in shadows and will not reproduce well on the paper and web press printing method used for the regulations booklets. In addition, even if her face were well-lighted, it may be too small to show that she is a young hunter when the photo is cropped and reduced to the size and shape it needs to be. Even if the photo didn't have these problems, it may be a few years before whoever selects the cover photos will want to show another young hunter with a bison, especially if there are good photos of other species to choose. The girl's family may want to look through their photos for one where her face is well illuminated and closer to the bison's head. This will make her trophy look smaller, of course, but it could increase the odds of an editor using her on a cover. Bill Quimby

Dewey: Your arrows are beautiful! I admire your craftsmanship and your desire to truly go "traditional." I have a couple of questions: == Do you make your own arrowheads, too? == If so, where do you find the flint, assuming that's what you use. == Is that sinew you use on the fletching? Bill Quimby Incidentally, I suggest that you take photos and notes of all the steps of making and hunting with your bows, arrows, and other gear and use them to write a book after you've taken a few animals with them. I'll be happy to provide any help you need and buy your first copy.

Congratulations on your buck, but by "western" count, it's a 3x3. (Eyeguards don't count.) Looks like you dragged it at least a mile. Bill Quimby

What's happening to take you to Nova Scotia, Lark? The closest I got to there was the Bay of Fundy, where I stood on the beach in New Brunswick and could see Nova Scotia on a clear day. It was in October, when the maple leaves were a gorgeous red and the weather was pleasant. I can't imagine going there now. My New Brunswick friends have lived in Havelock all their lives, but they escape to Florida, Africa or South America this time of year. Don't know about the winter, but we had the best lobster i've ever tasted anywhere up there. Three of us bought nine big live lobsters fresh off a boat and took them home, tossed them in seasoned boiling water, and ate them all at one sitting! Bill Quimby

I've looked out of airplane windows across six of the seven continents, and my opinion (for what it is worth) is there will need to be a lot more people on this planet before what we humans do will have an impact -- good or bad -- on climate. This planet is vast, and only a tiny portion of it is occupied by humans. Even in places with large populations such as China and Europe, the untouched-by-man places vastly outnumber the polluted areas. We cannot dispute that the world's climate is changing, though. I have friends in Alaska, Canada, Argentina and New Zealand who will tell you that their glaciers definitely are shrinking rapidly. But are humans to blame or is the change simply part of the natural cycles of warm, cold, warm, cold that have gone on for as long as this earth has existed? I vote for the second option. Here's the question we should be asking: if California really is going to be covered by rising seas when the polar caps melt, why would Al Gore build his latest mansion on the beach? Bill Quimby

And I thought I was the only person who called them Eagarville and Springerdale. ... I suppose Greer got socked, too. Glad we're off the mountain. Bill Quimby

189 2/8 Bill Quimby