ARIZONA GRIZZLIES

Should you hope to find a grizzly bear-wild and self-fed, that is in Arizona today, your chances of doing it are about the same as meeting a four-armed bandit on the same range. There have been rumors of a few-but so far, they are only rumors. If you go hunting for grizzly bear stories in Arizona, you will have good hunting and fine results. There are many of those. Arizona had many grizzlies once upon a time. The best grizzly story I have heard-so far-was told to me by David Dickinson, Cottonwood, Sedona and Verde Valley's able and charming entrepreneur.

According to Dickinson, in the early days of Oak Creek Canyon, before there was an automobile road through that beautifully sculptured gorge, there lived in its upper reaches an old hunter named Kip Whaley. What money Kip needed for flour, sugar and coffee, he earned by hunting grizzly bears, and selling their hides in Flagstaff. Kip grew to be pretty good and built himself a reputation as a bear hunter. One summer, a couple of "schoolmarms" from "down east" came out to Flag, the better to get acquainted with the west. They hired a local cowboy, at the moment foot-loose, to guide them about the country. The cowboy thought of Oak Creek as a good place to show off his region to best advantage, so guided his two patrons into its beauties. He was pleased at their "Oh's and Ah's!"

Once on the canyon floor they soon came to Whaley's ranch. As sometimes luck will have it, Whaley was home. Kip made his appearance at the sound of the horses' hoofs -looking much like a grizzly bear himself. Said the cowboy, "Ladies, I'd be proud to have ya meet up with Kip Whaley, the best doggone grizzly bear hunter in these-here parts."

"Oh," exclaimed one of the schoolmarms, "how thrilling. A real grizzly bear hunter! Mr. Whaley, won't you tell us of some of your narrow escapes?"

Whaley shifted his tobacco cud to the other cheek, ran his red tongue around his lips, looked up at the teacher and replied, "Hell, lady, I ain't never had no narrow escapesbut some a them grizzlies hev!"

Arizona had two species of grizzlies-Ursus Horribilis Imperator, the more common, often known as "Silver-Tip," and Ursus Horribilis Horriaeus, or desert grizzly-some-times called the Sonoran grizzly. The desert grizzly was a little smaller, his skull a little higher at the eyes. He was often lighter in color and apt to be sunburned or bleached atop the back and head. Either Once was plenty of bear in a fight!

As his Latin name, Horribilis, indicates, the grizzly was a horrible bear. Especially when roused. Stewart Edward White says, "When roused, the grizzly is the most dangerous animal in all North America." Always sly and crafty, the grizzly was also extremely fast on his feet for so big an animal. So fast, in fact, a hunter had little chance to run away from him.

Unlike the American black bear, the grizzly was too heavy to climb trees very far-so, given enough time, a man could shinny up a tree and be safe.

The average male grizzly weighed about 600 pounds but the White Mountains occasionally grew some to 800 pounds and two in Arizona have been estimated at 1000 pounds-which is some bear in anybody's language, in anybody's country!

Hugh O. Cassidy, Forester for the Apache National Forest for nearly 40 years, wrote this remembered incident.

It was in the Autumn of 1920. He said he had ridden into a sheep camp over near Baldy Peak, where he found the Mexican herder in a state of extreme excitement. This old Latin told Cassidy he had a mare and her colt running loose in the cienega in front of his camp and upon returning there from the sheep herd found a big grizzly near by trying to catch the colt. The shepherd said he charged this big grizzly on horseback, but the bear just stood up on its hind legs, waved its arms and looked fierce. "Then," said the Mexican, "I left! The mare and colt left, and I guess the bear left too."

Some days later Cassidy was again passing this sheep camp. There was a huge grizzly hide nailed to dry on the wall of the old log cabin. The Mexican herder had obtained a rifle from somewhere and killed the bear.

What did the Arizona grizzly bear eat? Well, they ate almost everything. Their diet included grass, roots, grubs, berries, nuts, insects, snakes, fish, frogs, birds eggs, small and large animals, from mice to full-grown cattle-and, yes, carrion. Food the grizzly could not finish off immediately, he cached for three or four days by rooting up dirt and debris along its sides. Thus, he put his brand on it and woe unto anyone, or anything, caught molesting it. He'd best be most fleet of foot!

A grizzly would range from 20 to 25 miles looking for food. If it were hard to come by, some experts say he would go as far as 60 miles. This bear liked the high, rolling uplands interspersed with rocky ridges densely thicketed.