Arizona history: The Hashknife outfit, from rogues to riders

The Hashknife cowboys actually worked for the Aztec Land and Cattle Co., a New York investment firm. They rode the high desert of northern Arizona when most of the region was untamed, and they became a wellspring of tall tales. Peel back the veneer of violence, cattle rustling and range disputes, and in many cases the real villains were drought, falling cattle prices and a convoluted public-lands policy. The initial Aztec shareholders didn't know a lot about the cattle business. But livestock was considered a good investment in 1884, the year the company formed, Robert Carlock writes in his 1994 book, "The Hashknife." One board member, Edward Kinsley, had seen Arizona from the window of a train, state historian Marshall Trimble said. "As he looked out, there was virgin grass out there," Trimble said. "The grass was stirrup high, and he thought you could feed half the nation on the grass that was growing here." Aztec bought 1 million acres at 50 cents an acre from the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, which had acquired the land as a gift from Congress. To promote investment, the government gave railroads 40 sections of public land for every mile of track they laid. A section is 640 acres. "On paper, the Atlantic and Pacific became the largest private landowner in Arizona history," Thomas Sheridan writes in "Arizona, a History." Once Aztec had its land, it bought about 32,000 head from Continental Land & Cattle Co., a Texas outfit that marked its cattle with a brand that resembled the type of knife cowboy cooks used to cut vegetables -- the hash knife...more