Saramarge ‘Wink’ Crigler

Inducted in 2010

Mar 1

Springerville - Apache County

Inducted in 2010

Originally homesteaded in 1879, X Diamond Ranch has been in Saramarge “Wink” Crigler's family since 1893. The first person to lay claim to the property in South Fork Canyon was a man by the name of James Hale. As a homesteader, Hale went to Springerville to celebrate the Christmas holiday in 1885. A report in the local paper reveals that on Christmas Day, he was shot and killed in a gunfight due to "holiday jollification." According to Wink, her great-grandfather Jacob Noah Butler took over the homestead and the neighboring one in 1893, marking the beginning of her family's significant role in shaping the ranch's history.

Jacob's son, John, married Molly Wilbank Crosby in 1908. The couple combined their land, cattle, and properties, creating the MLY Cattle Ranch in South Fork, named after Molly's MLY brand.

In addition to running the ranch, the Butlers opened Butler's Lodge in Greer in 1910. "They just had a way of attracting people to this country and welcoming them to the pristine beauty of the area," Wink said. "Of course, my granddad, being a mountain man and knowing all the streams and the mountains, and a fisherman, and a cowboy and everything else, he then combined those skills with my grandmother's generosity and home cooking and kind of entrepreneurial skills of the time and attracted people like Zane Gray, and James Willard Shultz (to the lodge)."

Shultz penned over 40 books on Native American Lore, including The Great Apache Forest, in which he discussed Mount Baldy and the Native American lore associated with it. He also discussed the building of the first lookout tower. "The tower was built in response to a group called the IWWs (Industrial Workers of the World) that came into this country in the very early 1900s looking at burning the forests to call attention to their Socialist agenda," Wink said. "If you study any of Arizona's history, you'll recall that they were more commonly called Wobblies. They loaded them up in Clifton in cattle cars and just hauled them away because of their kind of terrorist activities of that period." The tower was operated by Molly's two sons by her first marriage.

Their love of the land and desire to protect it was evidenced in the building of the tower and their involvement in a group that founded the Arizona Game Protective Association. The organization evolved into today's Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Molly and John had two sons, Vinson, Wink's father, and Willis, who became the sheriff of Yavapai County. They bought each boy a brand: Vince's was Cross L and Willis's the X-Diamond, which would later symbolize Wink's dedication to the ranch and its conservation. Willis died young, and Vince brought out his share of the family holdings and his X-Diamond brand, which he passed on to Wink. At about that time, Vince's father also passed away, and he and his wife, Helen, began buying Molly's interest in the MLY. They renamed the ranch the Cross L. Molly retained the lodge.

Wink was born in Prescott, but the little family returned to the ranch as soon as they could travel. She has only been away long enough to go to college. "I've been here on the ranch all the rest of my life except just to go off to college. At that time, I said I lived here but was staying elsewhere to go to college. I was back and forth to the ranch almost every weekend."

Wink graduated from ASU with a Master's degree and went to Flagstaff to study for her PhD at Northern Arizona University. Because of her heavy schedule, teaching at the time, and getting more involved with the operation of the ranch, she didn't complete her doctorate program. Her husband was training and showing horses, and the couple spent a lot of time traveling along with their other obligations.

When Wink's father's health began to decline, and he could no longer keep up with the work, Wink took over the management of the Cross L. He passed away in 1991, and she accepted the responsibility of holding the property together under her X Diamond brand.

When Wink took over its management, Cross L struggled with fluctuating beef prices and radical environmentalism, often anti-ranching. "Early on, I realized that to keep the ranch going with all of the challenges out there in terms of government mandates, environmental requirements, beef prices, etc., I had to figure out a way to maintain the ranch's integrity and expand the opportunities here on the farm-to keep all the wheels turning if you would. The first project was a riparian river project that resulted from a “big flood." The flood was classified as a hundred-year flood because of its magnitude. "It did a lot of damage to the fields and the river channel. This area had always been known as an excellent fishery with a long history of people coming in and fishing their way up the canyon. Our first idea was to try to restore that fishery. To do that, we contacted the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service), which had some fish biologists on board, to find out how one would appropriately do that. I never believed in single-species management. I don't believe that God made the land for one single species. My contention all along was that as we restored the fishery, the restoration of the fishery would also contribute to the riparian bottomland's stability and livestock grazing capacity. I always said they could be compatible, have a good fishery, and have a well-managed grazing program here."

Under her management, the ranch is surviving as a cattle operation and much more. Working with state and federal agencies and the U of A, she has helped develop and promote modern ranching practices. To educate children and adults about the critical role of ranching, she created The Little House Museum on the property with artifacts, documents, and photos depicting Arizona's ranching history. Although still a working cattle ranch, Wink has built cabins where fishermen and others can enjoy the beauty of the White Mountains and take advantage of horseback riding, tours, or just taking in the area's serenity. A meeting center provides a place for ranchers, regulators, and scholars to discuss range management and other essential topics. In the spring of 2011, the Wallow Wildfire threatened the ranch, but because of Wink's tree thinning program and other conservation measures, the ranch was spared the worst of the fire and only lost some grass and meadows.