YOUNG (PLEASANT VALLEY) ARIZONA
April 17, 1920 was an extremely cold and windy day. It was also the day on which the Waldrip Family and Dalton Davis entered Pleasant Valley or, Young as the U. S. Post Office called it. They were driving one wagon. They had seven head of horses, one hundred head of white face cattle plus the calves born on the trip and four children including a two month old baby.
What kind of a place had they come to? To tell the truth, it was not very imposing. We had entered the valley through a rocky steep canyon that cuts into the north slope of the Sierra Ancha Mountains. The whole surrounding area was wrapped in drab winter colors and seemed dark and lifeless. We could see a few houses scattered about where smoke was coming from the chimney. There were a few horses and cattle in pastures but no people were in sight,. It was rather a lonely feeling to think "this is to be our home."
Pleasant Valley is shaped like a large "L." One leg is formed by M O Creek running from west to east while the other leg is formed by Cherry Creek running from north to south. There are mountains on every side with the Sierra Ancha on the south, Crouch Mesa on the east, Naeglin Rim on the north and a whole series of buttes on the west. In the "lap" of the L are the "mesas", now called Waldrip Mesa, where Dad had selected a homestead. The place was one hundred sixty acres in size and was located four or five miles from the store and post office.
We had an immediate reminder of the Pleasant Valley War because there was a grave only a few hundred yards from the site of our future house. It was the grave of a Navajo sheep herder killed by cattlemen in that war. A few years later Floyd and I attempted to dig the body up because we just knew the man was buried with his gun. We worked hard for awhile but stopped when we uncovered some shirt buttons. The grave marker has since been moved for the convenience of Gila County road builders.
Our first order of business on arriving at the "ranch" was that of providing a house. Dad went to work for Bob Bostrom who had a small sawmill on Cherry Creek about three miles from our place. They cut the trees, hauled them to the mill and sawed them into lumber for our house. Meanwhile, we lived in a one room log cabin on the Greer place near our homestead. The dirt floor in the cabin was no problem for the short time we stayed there. Dad and Dalton built a three room house and we moved in to it before winter came in 1920. Grand Dad Bostrom, an elderly gentleman, built a fire place in the new house and we were able to keep reasonably warm even though the fireplace smoked when the wind blew from the west.
We did have neighbors. Buck Joy and family lived a half mile to the southwest. Rufe Russell and family lived on Pine Creek some two miles north and Sonley Clark lived two miles west of us. All of us were home steaders but the Waldrips were the only ones with a permit to run cattle. Just after we finished moving into the house, Dave and Cora Sparks paid us a visit. They drove up in a surrey with a fringe on top pulled by a span of matched bay horses and
