Something from the past....

Years ago as one traveled down Baseline in the Mesa/Gilbert/Chandler area one would sometimes be stopped by sheep going down the road. This was a very rural area 50 years ago. You would see fields full of sheep...in the summer it was too hot in the Valley of the Sun, so the sheep would be moved from the valley areas, some as far away as Buckeye, up to higher elevations, not by trucks but by traveling on foot and herding, Some would travel up along the desert trails, across the Verde River at Sheep's Crossing then journey to the Mogollon Rim....there they would either head over to the Heber area or they might go up to Flagstaff and graze in the the broad meadows of the San Francisco Peaks. Later I went to college at Northern Arizona University and in the early days of September we would often go exploring and come across the sheep in those same meadows. Even after the sheep had moved back to lower elevations you could picnic at their summer corals. The men who herded the sheep had little gypsy type wagons that would be pulled along by donkeys, mules or horses. The little caravan wagons were brightly painted....On my way back from Flagstaff a couple of days ago along 89A, I was admiring the way the forests had been thinned to protect the area from massive forest fires....I looked and thought, "I don't remember white boulders being in this area"....and then I realized that I wasn't seeing white boulders. I was seeing sheep walking slowly and grazing as they journeyed through the forest........I loved it....I had to pull over and watch them for a while.....it was a real treat for me.....all I had was my cell phone to take the picture, but I was glad I at least had that.