Rancher taking 4K sheep on 220-mile trek

There was a time when a spring sheep drive up into the cool mountains for breeding season wasn't such an uncommon sight in Arizona, but these days, only three or four ranches in the state continue the tradition.

One of them is the Sheep Springs Sheep Co. in Chandler, whose owner, Dwayne Dobson, is preparing for the 220-mile, 55-day trek northeast up to the north side of the White Mountains, about 40 miles from the New Mexico border.

Around 6:30 a.m. April 21 and 22, about 2,000 head of sheep each day will be fording a designated sheep crossing on the Salt River, at the Blue Point Bridge on the Old Bush Highway north of Apache Junction where sightseers are welcome.

Dobson used to begin the trek from his Chandler ranch, at Queen Creek and Alma School roads, but that's no longer possible. Although the ranch was remote in 1929, when Dobson's grandfather bought it, today it's surrounded on three sides by residential development and major roadways and by a shopping center to the east.

"Now we're landlocked by homes and commercial subdivisions," Dobson said.

On Tuesday, a few dozen recently purchased sheep milled around in one of the pens at the center of the property. The trek up to the mountains now starts at his other property in Queen Creek.

Dobson said he's worried that route will be closed before too long, as well, because of development in Apache Junction.

"Then we'll probably have to end up hauling them to the river," he said.

Transporting sheep by trailer is a choice more and more sheep ranchers have made over the years. While Dobson has some trailers, he said he doesn't have the capacity to haul 4,000 sheep at once. He would have to either buy new trucks or hire someone to haul them, he said.

After the sheep - driven by men with dogs and donkeys - cross the Salt River, the flock turns northeast and heads along a sheep corridor through the Tonto National Forest to Forest Lakes. Dobson said such corridors were created by a presidential executive order and pre-date Arizona statehood.

Mark Pedersen, Dobson's son-in-law, said the flock heads up to Heber to pastures in the Snowflake area for the mating season. Before the temperature in the Valley begins to heat up, the shepherds guide the flock gradually up the trail, taking advantage of the cooler temperatures that go with the increasing elevation, he said. The flock arrives at the pastures in early June.

"The sheep actually know the trail to the extent of where the water is," Pedersen said. "The older sheep have been up and down the trail. The replacements learn from the older sheep."

The trail tops out at 9,200 feet, and weather can be unpredictable. Last year, a May snowstorm killed 30 lambs and ewes, Pedersen said.

The trek home begins in mid-August and the sheep arrive back in the Valley in October, in time for the ewes to give birth, he said. The company raises sheep to sell to feedlots - ultimately for meat - and for wool.

Jean Reynolds, Chandler's public history coordinator, said city founder A.J. Chandler was the first to bring sheep to Chandler on a large scale in 1912. Sheep were one of the city's earliest industries, along with cotton and dairy, she said.

The 1940s through the 1970s marked the golden days of sheep in the city, with notable ranchers including Gunnar Thude, Charlie Willis and the Etchamendy family, Reynolds said. However, most of the prominent ranchers began to get out of the business or move elsewhere by the 1980s, coinciding with the beginning of the city's urban boom, she said.

"It really hasn't been that long since we've been primarily agricultural in Chandler," Reynolds said.

Dobson is the last sheep rancher in Chandler to make the spring trek. The encroaching development has put constraints on ranches within the city.

"You need a lot of land for livestock," Reynolds said.