I spent all summer looking through Arizona Wildlife Sportsman down at the AZ historical society library trying to learn as much as possible about Curtis Jackson Prock as a jaguar hunting guide. Big ten was of interest because most of the first 20 guys that finished their Big 10 got their lion or bear on Prock-guided hunts up around the Young-Heber area. Included in that 20 was one woman but she did not hire Prock. Prock killed over 100 lions himself for the bounties, starting in 1949, and was responsible for more than 200 lion kills by 1958.
I can tell you more when I'm not physically separated from my notes by 40 miles, some time next week perhaps. For now, here is what I have in my computer--
October 1957 On a Prock-guided hunt, John Nutt, a major Eloy cotton farmer, kills a mountain lion and becomes the first licensed sportsman to have taken each of “Arizona’s Big Ten” big game animals. I believe John Nutt's wife later also achieved the Big 10.
Unknown date prior to January 1959-
“…Curtis Prock ‘guided John Nutt to the Arizona black bear record for dressed weight, 350 lbs.’ By summer of 1960, Nutt will kill 104 big game animals including three jaguars and each of the four species of North American bears.
January 1958 On a Prock-guided hunt near Young, AZ, Ed Scarla kills a tom cougar with a score of 15 6/16 and 154 lb. dressed weight. As of June 1963, the animal is tied at 4th place in the all time North American records and ranks as the largest cougar taken in Arizona. Scarla later (probably 1963) becomes the 18th hunter to complete Arizona’s Big Ten and the second person to complete a Grand Slam of North American mountain sheep. Scarla was the Vice President of Salad Bowl Farms, Vice President of A.J. Bayless Markets and President of Scarla and Son Produce Company. Together the three firms employed 2,750 persons.
February 1958 Prock guides Duane Holloway of Tichnor, AR, Ben Pearson (of the Pearson Archery Company) of Pine Bluff, AR and Dr. James L. Smith, of Little Rock, Arkansas, on a bow-hunt where three mountain lions are killed in one day. Smith’s lion ranks in the top 15 in the new world record book.
Summer 1958 Prock hunts mountain lions with Jeff Seivers in Chevelon Canyon, north 20-30 miles cross-country from Young, AZ. Seivers is a leading Phoenix taxidermist and sometimes hunting guide who advertises his taxidermy services regularly in Arizona Wildlife-Sportsman. Seivers later became the 13th hunter to claim the Big Ten.
October 24, 1959 On a Prock-guided hunt, Bob Housholder finally kills his tenth Big Ten trophy–a 300-lb black bear with a skin measuring 7.5 feet, considered to be “about as big as they come” in Arizona. This was Housholder’s ninth attempt and 27th day of bear hunting.
May 1962 On a Prock-guided hunt George Shaar kills a cougar and achieves the Big 10 award.
Spring 1962 On a Prock-guided hunt, Lyle Underdown kills a cougar (his 9th kill of the Big Ten) with bow and arrow “in the Four Peaks area.” On a Prock-guided hunt, Fred Kelly kills a mountain lion near Sunflower .
August 21, 1962 On a Prock-guided hunt, Tony Stromei kills a cougar “around the headwaters of Canyon Creek” northeast of Young, and becomes the 10th person to claim the Big Ten.
September 1962 On a Prock-guided hunt, Fred Kelly kills his 39th big game kill, a black bear on the San Carlos Indian Reservation, becomes 11th hunter to complete the Arizona Big Ten and holds the record for the shortest time to complete it, 15 years.
November 1962 On a Prock-guided hunt, Perry Chisum of Phoenix kills a mountain lion, making him the 17th hunter to complete the Arizona Big Ten.
I know Terry Penrod also completed the Big 10, although I am not sure when, and also killed a female jaguar in September 1963 when out varmint calling. He has some other big hunting achievements to his name but I don't recall what they are. I question the origin of the jaguar but not the legitimacy of the hunt. I have strong evidence to suggest it probably had been originally foreign born but captured and turned loose into the White Mtns. several months earlier.
Like I said, more names and dates next week.
