Cinch Rings and Running Irons

Early in spring we round up the dogies; We mark and we brand and we bob off their tails.... “Git Along Little Dogies” (Folk song) The hot air in the corral is ripe with dust and the smell of seared hair and hide. The squall of frightened calves creates a counterpoint to the feverish activities of the ketch hands, flankers, cutters, and medicine men. They are the traditional branding crew sweating cowboys, dressed in big hats, leather chaps, and jingling spurs. And in the center of the action, working with the cool efficiency of long practice, the ironman plies his trade.

“Calf on the ground,” yells the flanker, and the ironman calls for the branding iron. The slap of the brand on the calf's flank takes less than a few seconds. Smoke boils up from singed hide, a squall, and it's done. And then the flanker's cry “calf on the string,” starts the process all over again. . . .

Branding during spring roundup, which cowboy historian Ramon Adams calls “ironin’ the calf crop” has its roots deep in Southwest history, traceable back to the first introduction of cattle here in the 16th century.

By that time brands and branding already were hoary with age. The Egyptians, 2000 and more years before Christ, were branding their cattle, as were the Mesopotamians.

In 1519, Cortez brought his Three Latin Crosses brand to North America, and in 1540, Coronado and his contingent, in search of Cibola, brought with them into Arizona a thousand horses, rams, and ewes, all of which wore brands.

Branding continued throughout the Mission Period in the West, down to the creation of the great cattle empires, and right up to today, growing, over the years, into a heraldry of the range, rivaling some of the coats of arms of the Middle Ages.

Cattlemen in Arizona's early days had a particularly crucial need for brands. Cattle belonging to a variety of owners simply roamed the vast public domain in those days. The brand mark was then, as today, the only means of identification during roundups in the spring and the fall. Another reason (just as important today) was rustling.

In those early years in Arizona, many different kinds of brands were used, but most cowmen preferred something simple and large, so it could be recognized at a distance. Brands using owners' initials were probably the most common. The JV brand from the Flagstaff area stood for James A. Vail, whose range once was eight miles east of Flagstaff. Another old-time initial brand was the RC, which meant cattle so marked belong to R. B. Clark of Tombstone. E. L. Tidwell of Graham County went one better and used the first three letters of his last name to create his TID brand.

On Harshaw Creek, near the present-day town of Patagonia, in southern Arizona, Ahira Butler Sorrells homesteaded a ranch in the 1880s. Clear streams and an abundance of grass made it an ideal place for cattle raising. In 1885, Sorrels registered his S brand with the Pima County Recorder's Office. David Muench The Arizona cattle industry didn't really get off to a good start until the 1870s, when large herds began to appear on the public domain, driven in from Texas, California, and several northern states, by such men as William S. Oury. Before this time, livestock raising was in the hands of Spanish and Mexican families. One of those old brands still registered today in the original family name is the Diamond Bell. It was issued by the King of Spain to Ygnacio Antonio Pacheco of Tubac and registered in Arizona Territory in 1818.

One of the first of the big Anglo ranches to develop in the 1870s was on the east side of Sulphur Springs Valley. The Chiricahua Cattle Company controlled a range 75-miles long and 35miles wide. Their beeves bore the CCC brand.

nardino Ranch near Douglas. In 1887, his Z brand was said to have first made its appearance on the range. In the 1900s Collin Cameron built the San Rafael Ranch in the San Rafael Valley, and stamped his cattle with a 6T brand. Other early Arizona brands and their owners were the JLB brand registered in Pima County in 1879 by J.L. Beckrup. In that same year Tully and Ochoa, Tucson merchants, registered their TO brand. The Diamond-and-a-Half brand was once owned by Coles Bashford, a member of the First Territorial Legislature in Prescott. Another old-timer was the F brand, used by William Flake, co-founder of the town of Snowflake, in the White Mountains of northeastern Arizona. The Yolo brand was first owned by Lon Harmon, who came to Arizona in 1884 and bought the Yolo Ranch near Prescott in 1904.