A Pilgrimage to Hart Prairie

With his twinkling blue eyes, gray beard, and wiry frame, Bobby Jensen looks for all the world like a grizzled mountain man. He knows every inch of the land he lives on, every nuance that comes with the change of seasons. I, along with many other people, envy Bobby because he lives in what is surely one of the most beautiful places in Arizona: Hart Prairie, north of Flagstaff.

HART PRAIRIE BEAUTY SPOT OF THE HIGH COUNTRY

Before we become too envious of Bobby, though, we should keep in mind what winters are like at 8,500 feet in northern Arizona. In a single season, Bobby burns four cords of wood in his stoves, and he sometimes shovels eight feet of snow off his roof.

Then there's the task of getting his daughter to school. By 5 A.M., long before sunrise, Bobby has gotten up and taken her on cross-country skis and snowmobile to the bus stop so she can go the other 15 miles into town to school. And he has to meet her again in the afternoon to take her home.

But the inconveniences are worth it in Bobby's eyes. The view of the San Francisco Peaks from the front porch of the Mariposa Lodge at Fern Mountain Ranch, he declares with conviction, is "overpowering." Bobby has had 20 years to come to that conclusion. He is the operations manager of the old Fern Mountain Ranch, a homestead named for the nearby volcanic hill covered with bracken fern. In June 1994, the ranch and surrounding land were given to The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit, private conservation organization, as its second preserve in northern Arizona.

Hart Prairie is a big bowl of grassland spilling down out of the dark evergreen forests on the westside of the San Francisco Peaks, the highest mountains in Arizona. Often more than a hundred elk come down to graze in the meadow at dawn and dusk, and hawks rise on thermals over Fern Mountain at midday.

Hart Prairie is different in every season: in summer irises, penstemons, gentians, lupines, larkspurs, and sneezeweed dance through the green meadow. In autumn aspens turn golden, and hordes of sight-seers drive Forest Service Road 151 to ogle the brilliant display. In winter Hart Prairie rests under a deep blanket of snow. The arrival of spring is heralded by melting snow and flowing water.

Homesteaders found Hart Prairie in the late 1800s. Sheepman Frank Hart, for whom it is named, was one of the first to be drawn to the area. Like many other sheep raisers, he favored the prairie because it provided good summer range close to lower-elevation winter range. (Into the 1970s, Basque shepherds tended sheep there, carving their initials and sayings into the white bark of aspen trees.) Hart started to build a one-room log cabin in 1877, but never got a roof on it. He left the area soon thereafter, and the cabin stood empty until 1882, when a German immigrant family moved in to prove up the homestead.

Augustus Dillman Freudenberger, a blacksmith and brewer, lived with his wife, Lena, in Hart's cabin until they finished a four-room log house nearby. Gus and Lena had five children; two died as infants and are buried in the nearby aspen grove.

The Dillman ranch (Freudenberger was dropped from their name during World War I) was the first stop for the Grand Canyon stagecoach, which ran three times a week from Flagstaff between 1892 and

1901. At the Bank Hotel downtown, passengers boarded the stage for the 65-mile, 12-hour trip.

The stage rolled out through Fort Valley and up to Fern Mountain Ranch, first stop for a fresh relay of horses. Lena served sandwiches, cold buttermilk, and home-made root beer to the passengers. One of the most famous was Theodore Roosevelt, who, according to Albert Dillman, gave his mother a silver dollar. The homestead's original house, dining room, barn and stables, and outbuildings still stand.

The Hochderffers and Michelbachs also were among the first homesteaders who grazed livestock and grew barley, potatoes, wheat, and hay. The Hochderffers helped start the Summit School in Hart Prairie so their children wouldn't have to go all the way into Flagstaff to learn their three R's. An optimistic prospector named Charles H. Spencer came to Hart Prairie in 1915. Spencer's prospectus to Chicago investors trumpeted a "Bird's Eye View of the Most Remarkable Domestic Water and Power Project in the United States."

Fresh from a boondoggle gold-mining venture on the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, Spencer planned to build a series

WHEN YOU GO

Individuals can register for "Weekends in the Aspens," August 9-11 and September 6-8, which include tours of the historic homestead and hikes to the rare willow community and surrounding pine-aspen forest. A "Research Adventure Tour" will be held August 22-25 for those interested in a hands-on opportunity to join ecologists at work in this beautiful high-country setting. In addition, The Nature Conservancy holds guided hikes Wednesday at 10 A.M. and Sunday at 2 P.M. through October 12. These are free and open to the public. Groups of up to 20 people can reserve Hart Prairie Preserve for overnight lodging, retreats, or meetings. For information on any of these events, or upcoming summer and winter trips, contact The Nature Conservancy, Northern Arizona Office, 114 N. San Francisco St., Suite 100, Flagstaff, AZ 86001; (520) 774-8892.

of reservoirs to capture water born in the San Francisco Peaks. "The Prospector" (aka Charlie Spencer) assured potential backers that in only 48 short hours from Chicago, they could be rowing a boat on one of the reservoirs. He believed he could collect, store, and transfer 4 billion gallons of water and then sell it to thirsty Grand Canyon tourists, to towns such as Williams, or to anyone else willing to buy.

Charlie and his crews proceeded to dig trenches and ditches along the edges of Hart Prairie (they can still be seen). Water would be channeled down the ditches to a tunnel and then into a volcanic crater about two miles away. A tent city was erected near the crater, and work continued smoothly into 1917-except for one summer thunderstorm that breached a dike and sent so much water down that the fittings on the clay pipe blew. The men had to run for shelter in the trees to escape injury from the flying shrapnel.

Charlie's grandiose scheme was plagued with insurmountable problems, though, and in 1920 he finally gave up and moved on. Ever the prospector, he headed back to Lees Ferry with plans to strike oil.

Over the years, 10 or so families lived at one time at Hart Prairie. They weathered the winters, the dry years, and the isolation. But the one event that finally spelled the end for nearly all of them was the Great Depression. The sole survivor of those severe economic times was rancher Pete Michelbach, who still runs cattle on Hart Prairie in summer. Pete's recollections are of a long life of hard work milking cows, breaking broncs and mules, and building and rebuilding cabins. But he had some fun too, hunting deer and turkeys and hosting parties in summer for families from miles around. Hart Prairie caught the eye of Summit Properties in the 1970s, and stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy. The company saw the prairie, within one air mile of the Arizona Snowbowl downhill ski area, as an

HART PRAIRIE

Ideal place for a condominium and golf resort. Local citizens who have great affection for Hart Prairie and Hopis and Navajos who consider the San Francisco Peaks sacred banded together and defeated the plan. The land in question was purchased by the Forest Service and remains under its management.

One opponent was Dick Wilson, whose parents bought the Fern Mountain homestead around 1930. Dick's uncle was Dr. Harold Colton, founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona. Colton located the land and told his sister Suzanne, Dick's mother, about it. She and her husband, Robert, raised Arabian horses there until World War II.

Since he was two years old, Dick Wilson has spent summers at the homestead. He and his wife, Jean, childhood neighbors, eventually came to live in Flagstaff, and Dick inherited the ranch from his parents. Through the years, it has been their summer home, an ecology camp for the Museum of Northern Arizona, and a guest facility available for rental.

Dick and Jean ultimately decided to donate 245 acres, including the Fern Mountain homestead, to the Arizona chapter of The Nature Conservancy. "It is a relief," they said, "to know that the land will be protected." The Wilsons' children have use of part of the property in perpetuity, while The Nature Conservancy has opened the homestead and the preserve for educational workshops, guided hikes, and overnight stays for individuals and small groups of up to 20 people. Shelley Silbert, northern Arizona program manager for the conservancy, notes that the preserve is a spectacular place to learn about alpine ecosystems, and "it gives us a platform to work closely with agencies and private landowners to protect other ecological treasures of the region."

The Nature Conservancy especially wanted the land because of the presence of a rare plant community: the Bebb willow and associated grassland. Bebb willows are more common in the northern latitudes from Alaska to Labrador. The Bebb willow stand in Hart Prairie is among the most southerly populations known, a holdout from Ice Age days. With more than 1,300 trees, the stand at Hart Prairie is the largest known in the West.

The tree's common name was given for Michael Shuck Bebb, a 19th-century botanist who was an expert on willows. His father was William Bebb, a former governor of Ohio who made a big impression when he took exception to late-night merrymaking at his son's wedding. When the revelers ignored William's orders to break up the party, he shot and killed one of the young men. He was tried and acquitted of the crime.

I asked Forest Service botanist Dr. Barbara Phillips to go to Fern Mountain with me one chilly, bright October morning specifically to look at the Bebb willows. After putting on hats and gloves, Barb and I walked out to the stand of leafless gray trees. A big concern is that the willows at Hart Prairie aren't reproducing well. There are a few young recruits among the nearly all-adult population, though. Near a seep, Barb pointed out a couple of seedlings, but she was dismayed to see that something had been nibbling on them. The likely culprits were elk, which have multiplied quite successfully in habitat bordering Hart Prairie.

HART PRAIRIE

Said conservancy ecologist Dave Gori, "Elk have been hammering the seedlings." Changes in soil moisture, possibly due to water diversions through the years, also may be depriving willow seeds of the moist ground they need for germination. The conservancy together with Northern Arizona University has launched an ambitious research program to determine how best to restore the habitat and protect the preserve's rare willow community.

A certain wildflower on Fern Mountain also has attracted botanists' attention. One July day, I happened upon Ken Paige and his students up on the hillside, carefully tying threads around the tubular flowers of the scarlet gilia, or skyrocket, as part of a pollination experiment.

Ken noticed that the gilia on Fern Mountain appear in a variety of colors, not only traditional bright scarlet but also pale pink and white. During the past dozen summers, he has come out from Illinois to study them. From these studies, Ken has come to think that the gilia's ability to change colors is the plant's way of luring more pollinators for a longer time each season.

Both broad-tailed and rufous hummingbirds visit the gilia in summer, sipping nectar from the flowers and helping distribute the plant's pollen. Both prefer the red flowers of gilia. But as the hummingbirds migrate south in late summer, the gilia shifts to lighter colors to take advantage of another pollinator that is still around: a hawkmoth called the whitelined sphinx. Some moths are out and about in the daytime but also are nighttime pollinators, and as such they do not require color to attract them.

After I left Ken and his coworkers, I wandered among the lovely old log buildings at the homestead, watched hummingbirds dart among the gilia on Fern Mountain, and gazed at the San Francisco Peaks from the porch of Mariposa Lodge. I had to agree with Bobby Jensen. The view from Hart Prairie is indeed overpowering.

Travel Guide: To learn more about the attractions of the mountain country around Hart Prairie, we recommend The Peaks: Flagstaff, Williams, and Northern Arizona's High Country ($10.95 plus shipping and handling). The Arizona Highways guidebook is jam-packed with 80 full-color photographs and maps and explores the highlights of the San Francisco Peaks area. To inquire or place an order, telephone Arizona Highways toll-free at (800) 5435432. In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., call (602) 258-1000.