Pioneer son Junior Haught is dead at 86

Photo by Gail Hearne
Junior by Tonto Creek in Bear Flat which was part of the range of the Little Green Valley ranch that Junior worked alongside his father, Columbus "Boy" Haught, and his Uncle, Green Valley Sam Haught.

Memorial service April 17 at Tonto Apache gym

(Editor's note: Junior Haught died Saturday, April 3 at the age of 86. The following is an article that appeared last year in the Rim Country Gazette on the occasion of Junior's 85th birthday.)

By Gail Hearne
Gazette Contributor

Upon turning 85 on March 18, Columbus B. "Junior” Haught proclaimed: "From now on, I'm going to have birthdays once every five years."

In 1924, Haught was born at the Green Valley Ranch located about 17 miles east of Payson near Kohl’s Ranch. His parents were Columbus "Boy" Haught and Flora (Hunt) Haught. Boy, the son of Henry “Pappy” Haught and Sarah Bell “Mammy” Haught, was just two years old when his family traveled to this area from Rush Springs, Oklahoma by wagon.

Dr. Christian Risser III, Rim Country’s first resident physician, rode horseback to the Boy Haught homestead when Junior was born. Junior says the date on his birth certificate is wrong. Because of a mighty heavy snowstorm, “old Doc Risser“ couldn't ride back into town to file the birth certificate until the next day, March 19. By the time Junior’s sisters Johnnie Louise Haught Cline (deceased), Margaret June Haught Weigand, and Norma Jean Haught Peace were born, the family had moved to a larger cabin located in Thompson Draw.

Being a member of Rim Country’s pioneer Haught family, Junior is further distinguished by the fact that he happens to be the oldest one living in Rim Country. Oh, the tales he can tell about the early days!

Fascination set in the first time I met Junior and he shared his early memory of a caged African lion paying a visit to the Boy Haught ranch before returning to Hollywood. The lion was none other than MGM’s recently acquired movie mascot, Leo. In September 1927, MGM Studios staged a nonstop publicity flight for Leo--a nonstop trip from California to New York.

The aircraft was similar to the B-1 Ryan that Charles Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris earlier that year. The passenger seat was replaced with an iron cage surrounded by plate glass and mechanisms to feed Leo food and water en route. The extra weight from the cage, a 350-pound Leo and extra fuel tanks caused a problem. The plane could not climb high enough to clear the Mogollon Rim. Leo’s pilot, Martin Jensen, opted to crash-land the plane in a thicket of scrub oaks.

Both man and beast survived the crash in the Hellsgate Wilderness area in the vicinity of the Haught ranches. Jensen followed a treacherous route along Tonto Creek towards Gisela to find help not knowing he’d find civilization sooner in the other direction. Leo spent five days roaring in solitude before Lou Kohl, Boy Haught, his brother Sam, and other Haught relations rescued him. Junior recalled how Leo could gobble down a chicken to two gulps. Junior said: “My mom was awful mad when she found out what happened to her chickens.”

Beginning in the 1920s, Boy Haught and his brother, Sam Haught, had back-to-back ranches. The two were combined for the Forest Service grazing permit for Green Valley Ranch. There were three brands: the H Handle, the Dollar Sign, and the L Seven. The land was sold in the 1940s. Junior was 5 years old when rode his own horse for his first cattle drive to the railroad in Winslow railroad back in 1929. The cattle buyers came to the Haught ranch to make a deal on the purchase price before the drive. Junior took part in these annual cattle drives for 8 or 9 years during the 1930s. He said the drive was steep and narrow where they crossed the Tonto and headed up to the top of the Rim. The cattle were trucked to market beginning in the late 1930s. The Haughts sold their ranch land in the 1940s.

During a 2005 interview, Junior said they lived off the land when he was a youngster. About 80 acres were cleared of Ponderosa Pine in the Thompson Draw area. Deer and elk came around and they took them for meat rather than let them eat up their garden and crops. Flora Haught would can most everything from the garden. They had crops planted 100 yards from either side of the creek. They grew pinto beans on one side and corn on the other. There were apple trees, too. Homemade apple pie has been Junior’s lifetime favorite. Every six months or so, they would take a wagon to town to get flour and sugar and other provisions not readily available on the ranch. According to Junior, “It was a great time to live.”

Junior recalled Zane Grey staying at their ranch and “hauling me around on his horse behind him.” He added, “I would go with them when they went mountain lion hunting once in a while. My dad took me nearly every place he went.”

Memories of the cowboy dances at Gordon Canyon, Young, Kohl’s Ranch, and all around still bring smiles. Junior recalls hearing his father call out the words for “Put Your Little Foot” and the fiddle and voice of his grandfather Pappy Haught. Smiling at his recollection, Junior mentioned Pappy’s song “Rabbit, Where’s Your Mammy?”

The trips to Young a horseback took quite a bit of time and maneuvering as the path went through Hell’s Gate Crossing in the Hellsgate Wilderness area. Junior recalls falling asleep in the saddle on the way back home from the dance. No matter—the horse knew the way.

Junior took part in the rodeo in his younger days—calf roping and bronco riding. “It didn’t take me long to figure out bronco ridin’ was not for me. I didn’t like endin’ up on the ground.”

Junior remembers carrying his books and supplies from the old wooden school to the brand new school made of red rocks that Boy Haught and other local men built with WPA funds. It was February 1939 and he was in his freshman year. He graduated on May 6, 1942. Junior loved to play basketball and was captain of Payson’s regional championship team during his senior year.

Serving in the Navy Air Corps during World War II, Junior became an Electrician’s Mate, Second Class. He was assigned to write out flight instructions in longhand because he had excellent penmanship. The Japanese could not read English longhand writing.

Junior related a harrowing wartime experience beginning with these words: “I got a ship shot out from under me.” His crew was taking supplies to some of the islands around when a one-man Japanese submarine ran into the side of the ship. Junior said he and one of his buddies named Ed climbed unto a big timber from the sunken ship. Junior related: “We were settin’ there waitin’ for them to come pick us up. We knew they were coming after us. I was setting there and Ed says: ‘Don’t say nothin’ and pointed down in the water. I looked down and there was a shark there I’ll bet you was 14-, 15-foot long looking up . . . with an evil eye on us. Ed just kept talking to me and said ‘Don’t move, don’t say a word, don’t do nothing.’ I thought: ‘Well, this is the end of us. They are not gonna get us off of here.’ Pretty soon he swam off.”

After the Navy, Junior worked for the Arizona Game and Fish Department at the Tonto Fish Hatchery for seven years. Junior labored at other occupations through the years, including putting in the first nine holes of the Payson Golf Course, constructing local roads, and serving as Deputy Sheriff in town. Those were the days when the rodeo was held at the West end of Main Street and gambling was allowed in the saloons. He also cut timber for Owens Bros. Lumber and Kaibab Industries, owners of the sawmill located at Main Street and the Beeline Highway until 1992.

Junior fathered two daughters, Jerri Lynn Haught Chilson and Tammi Kay Haught Ames, and a son, Ronald. At last count, he now has 8 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.