Endurance and Fortitude - ‘Laura’s Theme’

Endurance and Fortitude

‘Laura’s Theme’

A deep line in the sand

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            There is something savagely becoming when a person realizes there is nobody between them and the jaws of hell, and … decides not to retreat a step further.

Certainly such selflessness takes place in war, but, in a modern sense, it must be rare. It was commonplace in our western history. Tough men and women fought odds and adversaries for their lives and their rights. Today, few of us can remember first hand those earliest generation pioneers who staked their claims with real threats to their lives. We know they existed. Many were our direct predecessors and relatives. There is enough verbal history to convince us they were either tough people by nature or they became that way through adversity and principle.

   Their stories created enough impact on us to make us believe we could identify those who might exist amongst us who would respond similarly if and when their lives and or their heritage were threatened. Today in the Black Range of the Gila, we can identify one living member of those … courageous pioneers.

First, to the witnesses

Nat Straw came to the Gila before the date of increasing civility, 1880.

He made his living hunting and trapping. Predators were the focus. Straw was best known for his lion and bear hunts, but he is associated with more wolf kills than anybody. Although, his name didn’t appear on official “Application for Bounty” requests, his name was associated with many such bounties paid to the ranchers for whom he hunted. There are at least 38 documented wolf kills by Straw but there were likely many more.

Perhaps the real reason Straw was associated with wolves was his observation and subsequent methods of attracting them. Arguably, by default, Nat became a kingpin of southwestern wolf trappers.

 Bill Rogers came up with a copy of original transcriptions of the J. Frank Dobie discussions with Ben Lilly on the matter of the big predators. Ben was born in 1845 in Mississippi and left home at 12 to begin a process that culminated in a hunting career that ended only two years before he died at the “poor farm” on Big Dry Creek near the Grant County line in 1936.

My great great grandfather, Peter Shelley, maintained a satellite commissary at his 916 headquarters on Mogollon Creek for pioneers who roamed the Gila like Lilly. Mr. Lilly was a frequent customer. He came through, his ‘sound’ dog tied with a rope around his waste, following his pack on his continuous hunts. He picked up supplies, signed his account record, and left.

My maternal grandfather told a story of an encounter with Ben. He heard him coming long before he saw him. Lilly was talking uninterrupted. He came by him without breaking stride and without acknowledging his presence.

That sort of characteristic became a prevailing mannerism as Mr. Lilly grew frail and couldn’t care for himself. Mumbling, he trailed himself around the indigent house following his own footprints.

That Lilly was a hunter of renown, though, is unquestioned.

The transcripts are fascinating. When read and reread, there emerges a growing perception that the presence of newly arriving ranchers and their cattle likely boosted the numbers of predators in that era (the exception being the grizzly). The government moratorium disallowing the fencing of allotment created huge problems for ranchers in dealing with feral cattle. Those feral cattle became a nuisance for many reasons not the least of which was the increased food source for predators. They supported increases in predators. That increase elevated the demand for hunters like Lilly and Straw.

By 1918, government hunters and ranchers themselves became impact players in the hunt for predators. Without exception, those fellows were tied inexorably to the lore and the love of the land and the hunt. A common thread was observed within their ranks. They respected and admired lions, they were fairly tolerant of bears, they endured coyotes, and they hated wolves.

More of that phenomenon can be discerned from other verbal and written history. There was a belief that, given the choice, wolves preferred cattle over deer because they were easier to kill. Arguably, Lilly’s observation of the elevated livestock kills suggests the increase in cattle altered the killing habits of all predators. In 1912-1913, Lilly was paid for 95 bear and lions killed between Alma, New Mexico and Alpine, Arizona.  He spoke repeatedly about the dominance of cattle kills he found.

 “The bears and lions were killing cattle every day on the different ranges. The lions were killing cows calves and colts horses and sheep,” the transcripts read.

He believed the majority of those kills were unknown to the ranchers on whose range he was hunting, or, in the case of feral cattle, unknown, period. He remarked about the magnitude of the revenue loss from those kills.

What he didn’t predict and Straw didn’t discuss was the benefit to the predator population those cattle became. The year Straw killed 32 wolves on the V†T, cattle had become a highly vulnerable prey.

That highlights a growing realization. The presence of numbers of cattle was the guiding factor that likely pushed predator numbers to supposed historic peaks. If the reason high predator numbers did not stem from natural population dynamics with suggested hints of wilderness contributions, but, rather, the presence of ranchers and their cattle, the blame cast on cattle has been historically … exaggerated and unjustified.

‘Laura’s Theme’

Laura Schneberger is, in every measure, the epitome of a true rancher’s wife. She now fights the wolf similarly to Straw and Lilly, but her battle is more vicious.

She grew up in cow camps of the greater Bootheel where her father worked. The harshness of her surroundings was accepted as normal to her family and others like them. They never had much in material possessions living in remote camps, making due with cowboy wages, riding for the brand, and devoting immeasurable time to the stewardship of the land. They displayed endurance and fortitude. They were thrifty beyond the pale, and they were self sufficient beyond any measure of urban comparison. They were displaced historically. They have become rare and precious people.

Laura was younger than I expected the first time I met her.

That meeting took place in Beaverhead at the Diamond family headquarters. It had snowed, and, as we came by the intersection where the paved road intersected the road to the Schneberger Ranch headquarters, there was only one set of fresh tire tracks.

The meeting subject was wolves. The outcome of the meeting appeared in Range Magazine, but the full measure of what I saw wasn’t part of that article. What wasn’t described was the measure of the impact of the wolf reintroduction debate … the magnitude of the social disruption of the people impaled in the contrived fight that threatens their existence.

Laura is the president of the Gila Livestock Growers Association, the body of citizens in the bulls-eye of the wolf fight. They are the modern survivors of the Gila pioneers. They live with wolves. Their livelihoods and their families are constantly at risk to the travails and the corruption of the bureaucratic thuggery that rules the program.

In her capacity, Laura is the chief spokesperson, the lightning rod, and the executive administrator of the fight for what is left of the customs and culture of the Gila ranching industry. It is a thankless job, a job of huge emotional strains, but a job that cannot go away or the full measure of the cleansing of the Gila will surely take place. Her responsibility is immense and even greater than she realizes.

Many of us have found ourselves in forums with Laura … gatherings that none of us wanted to face.

What we have seen in her is a maturing and evolution of effective leadership. By natural inclination very reserved, she has become not just an astute observer of political drama, but one of the West’s foremost authorities of the nuances of the fight she faces. She is a force and her actions are no longer based only on passion or emotion. She is the true science based spokesperson in the debate.

One of the great characters of the Gila was Henry Woodrow, the famous early forester. He, like Laura, came from pioneering ranching stock that faced life on the basis of fair dealing and self determination. He was once cornered by a pair of wolves on the West Fork and they took turns holding him hostage in a tree. His comment is reflective of the foes, human and canine, that Laura faces. She will understand the implication.

“Sugarfoot,” he began. “That was the only time I was killed by wild animals.”

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “We are proud of Laura Schneberger. She is, in every sense, a noble native daughter of the American West, a lady, and … our friend.”
 

Wilmeth's "Laura's Theme" is a reference to "Lara's Theme", a beautiful tune from the soundtrack of the 1965 movie Dr. Zhivago.   Too bad the Ruskies didn't know how to spell Laura.  Out here Lara is a last name.

I thought it appropriate to take that tune and make a video as a tribute and thank you to Laura Schneberger for her many hours of work on behalf of the livestock industry and rural residents throughout The West.

Lara's Theme, more popularly known as Somewhere My Love, has been recorded many times in many different genres of music.  Given my proclivities for country and western, I found this acoustic version by Doug Bartlett to be my favorite.

Thank you Laura, and hope you enjoy my humble effort. 


http://youtu.be/V_1xjy6wqoI