JULY 24, 2013 • RIM REVIEW | 5
RIM HISTORY RIM HISTORY BACK WHEN | STAN BROWN
RIM COUNTRY PLACES
CHAPTER 23: MILK RANCH POINT
When a person looks at the Mogollon Rim from most locations in Payson, Milk Ranch Point is easy to recognize, jutting like a crooked finger into the foothills east of Pine. This distinctive name was not bestowed on it when the cartographer with General Crook and his chief aide John Bourke made the earliest map in 1870. His name was Webber and he placed his name on the creek that had its headwaters on the east side of what he simply labeled “the promontory.” On the west side of the promontory he named the drainage “Krausses Creek” — later to be named Pine Creek. The 1880s were eventful years in the settlement of the Rim Country. Mormon families sent to establish a community founded Mazatzal City on the East Verde River and the town of Pine on the creek they named for the magnificent forest. A number of the families based their economic welfare on raising cattle. The herds could graze in the lovely meadows just west of the village as well as browse throughout the forest. During the warm summer months it was the custom to drive the cattle up onto the Rim where the grasses were fresh and lush. Mike Anderson in his history of Pine, refers to this cattle industry and says, “A number of families participated in this commercial activity, among them the Fullers, Randalls, Lazears, Hunts and Allens.” The families all had separate brands and ran their STAN BROWN cattle together, as was customary in the 1880s before fences were introduced. At roundup time they worked together, separating the cattle by brands. The country both below and on the Mogollon Rim was riddled with canyons making the roundups difficult. Oral histories indicate that the Rial Allen family was probably the first to take advantage of the Rim for grazing cattle and dairy cows. This was accommodated by a trail leading up from their home in Pine, and they soon were selling dairy products to the residents of Pine. Other potential customers included travelers and freighters along the nearby Crook Road. The Allens grazed cattle there from early spring to autumn and the establishment of a dairy farm on the promontory was a natural development. It wasn’t long before the easily identified point on the Rim was called Milk Ranch Point. Rial Allen was a bishop in the church at Pine and the Mormon custom of assistance to the needy found a response in his wife Susan. In 1881 she established the Ward’s relief society, and milk, butter and cheese were welcome gifts in the distri-
Stan Brown photos
The Mineral Belt Railroad brought supplies across the Rim to construct the rail line.
bution. Other Pine families also ran cattle on the Rim, and some of their descendants are fond of associating the origins of the name of the Point with their own ancestors. The grandson of John I. Hunt, Kenneth Miller, said there was a cabin up there on Courtesy photo the flat meadow where his fam- Looking east from Milk Ranch Point ily’s summer ranch was located. “It is possible this is the story of a deceased ranger met with a the way Milk Ranch Point got its name,” dead end. Another report indicates how far off he told me in a letter from his home in Krebs, Okla. “My mother Katie Chloe the mark some “traditions” can be. A forFuller Miller told me they used to take est ranger at Happy Jack told me the Milk their milk cows up on the Point from Pine. Ranch Point was named after a goat They had a cabin up there where they ranch owned by James Baker (a cattlespent the summer, making cheese and man from Prescott) and that he furnished butter for the winter. My grandmother’s goat milk to the Army working on the name was Ellen Celeste Woodward Crook Road. Of course the Crook Road Fuller.” She was the wife of Pine patri- was built from 1872 to 1875, before Baker was in Arizona, and at a time herding any arch Elijah Knapp Fuller. The close-knit Mormon settlers in Pine animals in the region would be sure to inintermarried and so the origin of place vite Indian attacks. Other reports about Milk Ranch Point names claimed by one family may apply include Andrew Pyeatt grazing goats to several families. The Miller family, ancestors of Ken- around Baker Butte in 1882. Lufkin Hunt neth Miller, was headed by Pryor Miller told me he never heard of any goats on who came to Strawberry around 1885, the Rim. “The grass was not right for married in 1888 and moved to Pine. There them.” Peggy Randall (Mrs. Wendell) said a he built a two-story house with stones from Pine Creek. In addition to being a Mr. Dickerson ran cattle up there in sumteacher, Miller was a cattle rancher and mer, and made cheese, which he sold in participated in the grazing rights on the Camp Verde. She also told me there were Rim. His activity up there gave rise to a couple of buildings on the Milk Ranch naming one of the canyons Miller’s Point that were destroyed by logging opCanyon. Much later in time, the forest erations in the 1980s. The purpose of dairy farms on Milk rangers called it McCarty’s Canyon for the state game warden by that name Ranch Point was given an even larger found there dead. All attempts to unveil purpose in 1883. A group of investors in
The grave of Ellen Fuller in Pine. She and her family were among those who ran cattle on the Rim.
New York were responding to the dream of a man named Colonel James W. Eddy. He imagined a railroad line running from the Atlantic and Pacific transcontinental railroad going through Flagstaff, down over the Mogollon Rim, through Payson, over to the mines at Globe, and thence on to the Gulf of Mexico. It would connect the lumber, cattle and copper resources of Arizona to a worldwide seaport. It was a big enough picture to set everyone’s heart racing and minds spinning. As for Pine and the Milk Ranch Point, it meant a market for daily products among the railroad workers. In May 1883, a survey was completed from Flagstaff to the edge of the Rim, and in December of that year the order CONTINUED ON PAGE 7