Henry Clay Hooker: The Turkey Drover Who Became Arizona's Cattle King

Who Was Henry Clay Hooker?

Henry Clay Hooker was born on January 10, 1828, on a family farm in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and died in Los Angeles on December 5, 1907. By then he was described as the wealthiest rancher in Arizona, and his Sierra Bonita Ranch was the center of cattle country in the Sulphur Springs Valley. Details of his life are collected in the Wikipedia biography of Hooker.

His path to the range was not direct. He worked in New York and Kansas City as a young man, spent time with the Indian Department until 1852, and then followed the Gold Rush to El Dorado County, California. Cattle came late in his story, and that is part of what makes it worth reading.

From Gold Rush Merchant to Turkey Drover

By the 1860s Hooker was running a store in Hangtown, later Placerville. A fire destroyed his business and home. Sources differ on the year, 1865 in one account and 1866 in another, and on the profit that followed, reported as roughly $1,500 to $1,750. What they agree on is the recovery plan: he bought about 500 turkeys, drove them over the Sierra toward the Nevada mining towns, and sold them for far more than he paid. An Arizona Highways account of the turkey drive treats it as a lesson in buying low and moving goods to a better market.

He did not rebuild in California. He moved his family to Arizona Territory in 1867 and began supplying beef to military posts and Indian agencies, working under a contract tied to Hugh Hinds.

Building the Sierra Bonita Ranch in the Sulphur Springs Valley

In 1872 Hooker brought a large herd of Texas Longhorns, reported as about 10,000 head, into southeastern Arizona. He settled them on the site of a former Spanish hacienda in the Sulphur Springs Valley, about 27 miles north of Willcox, and called the place the Sierra Bonita. The setting was dangerous. Hooker built a small adobe fort for defense against Apache raids, according to the Sierra Bonita Ranch article.

The ranch could pasture up to 15,500 head year-round. Over the following years he bought neighboring ranches and enlarged the holding. Sources give two measures of the result: 800 square miles in one telling, and 250,000 acres carrying about 20,000 head after the 1891 drought in another.

Longhorns, Durhams and Herefords: How He Upgraded the Herd

Hooker started with Texas Longhorns and Mexican corrientes, the hardy range cattle of the era. He then switched to Durham cattle and, in the 1880s, brought in Hereford-graded stock, which was the direction much of the western range industry was moving. He also raised alfalfa, timothy, hogs and purebred horses, so the ranch was more than a grazing operation.

The Sierra Bonita also became a stopover for travelers of every kind. Hooker reportedly hired a young Billy the Kid before the Lincoln County War, and in March 1882 he hosted Virgil and Wyatt Earp and their companions after the Earp Vendetta Ride.

The 1891 Drought and What It Cost

The 1891 drought was the great test of Arizona's cattle boom. It killed over half the territory's cattle, and Hooker was one of the few ranchers to come through it. Afterward he formed the Sierra Bonita Land and Stock Company. The adobe fort he built is a reminder that early ranching in the valley meant living with the threat of Apache raids, and that growth came with real risk as well as reward.

Legacy and Honors

The Sierra Bonita was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 19, 1964, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. As of 2012 it was owned by Hooker's great-great-great-grandson and covered about 45,000 acres, roughly a fifth of its original size, after land passed to homesteaders or was divided among family members. The ranch is not open to the public.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum lists Hooker among its Great Westerners with an induction year of 1960, though another source gives 1959. Charlton Heston played him in the 1993 film Tombstone.

Learn More About Arizona Ranching

If Hooker's story interests you, farm.FM carries more on the ranching life of the West, including a farm.FM story about an Arizona cattle ranch.