Sheep's Crossing: Annual drive hits valley this weekend

If you happen to have seen an inordinate amount of sheep passing through the valley this week, don't be too concerned -- it is a tradition that has gone on for more than 100 years. Every May since 1884, sheepherders from the desert valleys have driven their herds north for the summer to pastures atop the Mogollon Rim, along a corridor that has become known simply as the sheep driveway. In the 1960s as many as 60,000 sheep passed down Grief Hill and on across the Verde River at a place known as sheep crossing, just downstream of the river's confluence with Oak Creek. Today, though, only two sheep ranchers, Joe Monterola and Joe Auza, both from Casa Grande, still make the trek. Like so many things it has become cheaper to ship them north by truck. According to Kelli Spleiss, rangeland management specialist for the Prescott National Forest, 2,020 sheep will be in the valley this weekend. "I know how many are coming. I just got back from counting them," Spleiss said on Thursday. The count, which is done at a large holding pen on Ahs Creek, is necessary because the Forest Service charges the sheep companies a grazing fee for each sheep on the trail. On Sunday, Spleiss said, valley residents will have an opportunity to see a spectacle that hasn't changed in more than a century. "If you haven't seen the sheep swim the river, you should consider doing so. It is a piece of living history," Spleiss said...more