Monkey in a Tree

The ranchers who lived on the Arizona Strip depended entirely on grass for live- stock feed. Water was not sufficient to grow any kind of irrigated crops. Some years Uncle Martin had planted and harvested good dry land corn, but as the seasons became more droughty most people did not try to farm even a few acres. We let our milk cows graze in the day time with the calves locked up in the calf pen. At eventide the cows came into the corral to suckle the calves, then the calves were turned out to graze. We held the cows in the corral till morning when they were milked and turned out to graze again. This method provided sufficient milk for the family and the calves got along all right too. We usually had 2 or 3 head because they were beef stock and didn't give very much milk. One day Dad went someplace and when it got chore time in the evening the cows hadn't showed up yet so Mom told me and Grant to go look for them. Our place consisted of 640 acres of grazing land which equals 1 square mile. From our house to the west fence was about 3/4 of a mile with cedar trees scattered thinly across a country of grassland flats.

We headed west from the corral till we came to an open flat area sloping gently to the south. On the far side, toward the west end we could see a reddish brown object up in the skeleton of an old dead cedar tree. Our sister Marie had a coat about that color, but why she would be wearing it on a warm summer evening didn't occur to us. Our thought was that she had it on and had climbed that tree so she could see farther to locate us. So, we let out a holler and went running across that grassy patch, not stopping long enough to take a second look. About 20 feet on our side of the tree a big wash cut across our line of travel. A cow trail crossed the wash and came out near the foot of the tree.

I was in front running along like a 6 or 7 year old kid will do, not having to stop to rest. Down across the wash I went and up on the other side where I stopped and looked up, expecting to see Marie. But what did I see? There, upright, stood a big animal with its left hind foot standing on a limb about 4 feet above the ground. The body was partially concealed by the vertical trunk. Higher up a round head peered over the top of a large horizontal limb on which rested his right paw, the left paw held to a limb on the opposite side. Big yellow eyes looked down at me. Below the body hung a long tail that twitched at the end. All this was conveyed to my mind within a fraction of the time it takes to tell about it and my instinct told me this was not a kid-loving creature, so back down that wash bank I went! Grant was just coming up the bank and I passed him like the devil was after me and I didn't have time to stop and explain to him, I don't know if he eyeballed that critter or not. I sailed back across that grassy flat like I had eagle wings on my feet and never slacked off till I came to where we had first spied the critter. Then I decided to take a quick look-see. When I stopped Grant was right on my heels so he hadn't wasted much time looking. Over on the far side of the flat that reddish brown object was still in the tree just like when we first saw it.

The sun was going down now so we headed home on a trot, trying to figure out what kind of animal it could be. At the house we had a picture book that showed circus monkeys with ugly round heads and long tails so we came to the conclusion it was a stray monkey. The cows had come home by the time we got there. We told Mom about the monkey but she figured it was a big story we had concocted. Nobody believed us for years and maybe don't now, but I still have the negative of that critter filed away in my brain and can still describe him in detail.