Gunnar Thude and Elma Thude Sanudo
Elma (Thude) and Carlos Sanudo
Chandler - Maricopa County
Inducted in 2021
Gunnar Thude was a humble man instilling in his family the traits of hard work, honesty and lending a helping hand to other ranchers. The story of the Thude family begins when Niels Pedersen (Petersen), a naturalized Arizonan, in 1887, went back to Vilslev, Ribe County, Denmark, his home village, and recruited his cousin Hans Peder Thude with two other men. Pedersen, being well established in the Arizona farming community by this time, had two reasons for bringing men from his home village: workers for his farm and ultimately for them to acquire their own farmland. Pedersen paid the passage of the three men and the men paid off their debt by working on his farm.
In 1892, using the Homestead Act Hans Peder acquired 160 acres. In 1901/2 Hans Peder visited Vilslev, Denmark. His plans to return to the United States were thwarted when he met Kirstine Frandsen and they married. They had seven children from which three of his sons migrated to Arizona.
Gunnar, the eldest son, migrated in 1921, age 17. Working in New York he then moved to Nevada before coming to Arizona and working for Pedersen. It was during this time, Gunnar met his future wife, Anna Norby, Pedersen’s maid. The couple married in 1924 and they had three children: Eldon (1924), Elma (1926), and Mary (1928).
Gunnar and Anna bought land near Price and Ray Roads and began their own farm. The years 1923 to 1927 were good to Thude. He was able to buy more land and he made good money. But the depression came and he lost everything, but his land. Hay was cut using horses as no one had money for fuel to use gasoline powered equipment. Hay that was sold helped pay the expenses during the lean years. He also did custom hay cutting for other farmers in the area. Unsold hay was stacked. Jose Valencia, his foreman, told Gunnar to buy cattle or they would be eating the hay themselves. Thus, began his livestock business! In the 1930s he started to keep sheep. He bought a bigger farm in 1937 and expanded his sheep flock.
By the mid-1940s, the Paradise Sheep Company was formed. Gunnar, his daughter, Elma, partnered with Kemper Marley and Don Brown. Marley had land in Scottsdale that could be used to winter some of the sheep.
Thude trailed his sheep into the White Mountains along the Heber-Reno Driveway. Land acquisitions were made on ranches in many different parts of northern Arizona: Williams, Heber, Holbrook, and Springerville. Both sheep and cattle were raised on all his ranches; winter grazing of the sheep was on his land in Chandler. He also farmed the land in Chandler making it necessary for him to make a circuit of his ranches weekly to check on the herders, cowboys and the crops.
Gunnar married Patty Pearce in 1948. They had three children: Betty (1950), Gunnar Mikel (1953), and Frances (1955). Pat had two children from a previous marriage, Charlene (1944) and Bill (1945). She would ride horseback with him to the sheep camp in the White Mountains. She told her children that the sorest she ever was happened when she rode a horse with Gunnar.
In the late 1940s, Francis Line, a film maker, traveled with a flock of Gunnar’s sheep as the herder took them into the White Mountains. The story has been documented in the National Geographic Magazine, April 1950 issue, a book written by Francis Line, Sheep, Stars, and Solitude: Adventure Saga of a Wilderness Trail, (1986), and a documentary film.
Gunnar sold part of his sheep outfit to his eldest daughter, Elma, in 1968 and she named it the Long Tom Sheep Co. as their sheep ran in Long Tom Canyon. She had married her father’s herder, Carlos Sanudo in 1962. Elma was already well acquainted with sheep as she had followed her father’s sheep into the mountains starting in 1946 as a young 20-year-old woman. In the summer, the sheep were trailed to greener pastures in the Heber area of the White Mountains. The trailing of the sheep took 30 long days, but she was always at the tail end of the flocks as the sheep would be moved on city roads in Chandler and Mesa to begin the Heber-Reno trail northward. She would get the herders supplies and keep the books while living in a cabin with no telephone and only kerosene lighting. Her father believed that every child should learn to work and indeed, she worked. Since she did not like riding a horse for hours on end which was required for taking care of cattle, she was willing to care for the sheep. At times, it was necessary for her to bottle feed the lambs, but she learned early on that even if she grew attached to the lamb, it was to be sold or eaten!
As the sheep were moved from the farm in Chandler, through the town to get to the Heber-Reno trail, she delighted in telling complaining motorist and Department of Public Safety officers that livestock and that included sheep, had the right-of-way in Arizona. However many obstacles got in her way, from DPS officers or motorist complaints, or angry people in subdivisions, nothing would keep her from her beloved sheep. Trucking of the sheep was not an option as it was too expensive. Her desire to remain as a shepherdess was dependent upon the hazards of trailing and being able to find winter feed, alfalfa, for the sheep.
The Thude family have been a part of the Arizona farming and livestock industry for almost 80 years. Gunnar sold the Holbrook ranch to his nephew, John Frandsen Thude, in 1977 along with the Paradise Sheep Company and his livestock making it easier for him to visit his home in Denmark during the hot Arizona summer. He was proud of his accomplishments of raising a family, being a steward of the land and taking care of his livestock, farm and workers. He lent money to those who needed a helping hand during rough times, just like he received when he first arrived in the United States. He would help fellow sheep ranchers when they needed extra help. Gunnar Thude believed that Arizona had many opportunities for the legal immigrant and he was proof of that as he became a United States citizen in 1928. Gunnar died in 1980. Elma continued to work the sheep until she sold out in 1999 to the Auza Sheep Company, Casa Grande, Arizona. Elma raised her five sons, Gerald (1947), Mike (1949), James (1950), John Gunnar (1953), and Dennis (1955), while tending her sheep. Raising sheep was a full-time job and she was saddened that none of her children continued in the business she loved. Elma passed away in 2002 and Carlos in 2006.
Affiliations
Gunnar Thude
Elks—Flagstaff, Arizona
Coconino County Sheriff’s Posse – the men were responsible to run the July 4th horse races.
Kyrene 4H Club
Arizona Wool Growers Association Board Member, July 1954 to July 1956
Arizona Cattleman Association
