Arizona School Yearbooks by County
During the 1930s' Great Depression, a drought was taking over America's Great Plains. In 1934, a drought was also in full force in Arizona. During that year, the amount of precipitation that fell on the Holbrook area totaled 5.55 inches, down 1.82 inches from the average 7.37 inches. Navajo, Apache and Coconino counties, the last in Arizona to be declared drought disaster areas, received this status in October.
Navajo County Farm Agent C.R. Fillerup was named county drought director. A drought service committee composed of John Jones of Holbrook, W.J. Wyrick of Winslow and George Woodford of Show Low was appointed on Oct. 10 to gather information on the condition of the cattle in the county, and determine how many cattle each rancher would be allowed to sell and/or kill. This was important, because the surplus cattle would not survive the coming winter. A drought office was opened in Snowflake for cattle purchasing.
The four-year-old Northern Arizona Cattlemens' Association made an application for $250,000 to the Federal Drought Relief Program to purchase cattle. Association President William R. Bourdon said, "There is not enough feed to take care of all the cattle during the winter and the ranges have been classified so that if the program goes through, the drought-stricken cattle will be taken off the ranges to preserve them for better cattle." The application was approved.
Holbrook, for example, was involved in a cow menace. An Oct. 5, 1934, editorial tells of drought cattle roaming into town to forage on residents' flowers and shrubs. City officials reported that the shortage of water during the summer had driven the livestock into town. A suggestion was made to the city council that the town be "fenced." This was deemed unfeasible (although Warren, Arizona, was fenced). The Holbrook Tribune-News read, "Holbrook is barren enough, more citizens should demand that something be done and should attend the next (council meeting) and see (that) some action is taken." No remedy was mentioned in the following weeks and months.
On Dec. 10, Federal Relief Agent C. Lowell Richards reported that between 2,500 and 3,000 cattle would be purchased at a per head low price of $12 and a high price of $20. The cattle were to be graded to determine which could survive shipping. Those cattle were sent to Phoenix by railroad to be slaughtered and the meat was given to the Emergency Relief Assistance program for distribution to the poor and needy. The weaker cattle and/or calves were purchased by an ERA agent and then shot on their respective ranches.
An interesting part of a Dec. 7 article was when Mr. Richards made his report in Phoenix on drought conditions in Navajo, Apache and Coconino counties, which said, "there was a need for cattle buying in these counties as the ranges could not carry the cattle through the winter." However, a report (second opinion) from an unnamed agent from San Francisco, Calif., was to the effect that "conditions were good here." An article written for the Jan. 11, 1935, edition of the Holbrook Tribune-News said Manuel Candelaria reported the snow and rain (1.41 inches during November and December) had made the ranges "good."
The cattle buying ended on Jan. 15, 1935, when it was reported that 2,769 cattle had been shipped since early December from Holbrook and Winslow on the Santa Fe, and from Snowflake and Silver Lake on the Apache and (through Holbrook) the Santa Fe railroads. About 300 cattle which were too poor or too young to ship were killed on the ranches. In Navajo County, about $40,000 (an average of $14.13 per head) was spent to buy cattle. These 2,769 cattle represented about six percent of the total number of state cattle bought.
Navajo County cattlemen went into the mid-1930s and the rest of the Great Depression better assured that their ranches' rangelands and their livestock would survive.
