History
In 1936, the Arizona boy scouts mounted a state-wide campaign to save the Bighorn sheep, leading to the creation of the Cabeza Prieta wildlife refuge. The Scouts first became interested in the sheep through the efforts of Major Frederick Russell Burnham, the noted conservationist who has been called the Father of Scouting. Burnham observed that fewer than 150 of these sheep still lived in the Arizona mountains. He called George F. Miller, then scout executive of the boy scout council headquartered in Phoenix, with a plan to save the sheep.
Several other prominent Arizonans joined the movement and a Save the Bighorns poster contest was started in schools throughout the state. The contest-winning bighorn emblem was made up into neckerchief slides for the 10,000 Boy Scouts, and talks and dramatizations were given at school assemblies and on radio. The National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League, and the Audubon Society also joined the effort.
On January 18, 1939, over 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) of Arizona were set aside at Cabeza Prieta and at Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was set up to develop high mountain waterholes for the sheep. In 1941, Major Burnham delivered the dedication speech opening Cabeza Prieta. The Desert Bighorn Sheep is now the official mascot for the Arizona Boy Scouts and the number of sheep in these parks have increased substantially.
Read more about this topic: Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
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