eC 
1944 . 
in Dy 
¥ 
_ FEBRUARY, 
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‘ 



' ‘Upper left, a view 
_ his farm. 
Lower 
quail nests found in 
_ Miselbrook’s farm at 

\ 
The best quail country in the 
_ middle west, a forked stream alive 
_ with good-sized bass, squirrels so 
tame they have lost most of their 
fear of men, a haven for wild Ca- 
By E. M. JONES 
Salem, 4 Hilinois, Editor 

that’s underrating the Skillet Fork 
country in the “wilds” of Mea- 
cham township, northeast of Sa- 
item) Do hese td 
But very few hunters, fishermen 
or trappers invade this sports- 
man’s paradise of Marion county 
thanks to Roy Miselbrook, who 
_ was born there with more conser- 
vation in his veins than has been 
drilled into most game wardens. 
Although he owns only 140 acres 
_ of this wildlife sanctuary, his pro- 











and his vigilant patrol, keeps 
away all but a few friends. Even 
then, there is more shooting at— 
than killing. idles ' 
“Familiarly called the Bee Man 
{ 
~ Hunt Bass Hatchery In Ari 
Ore Ae PR oe 
he 
organic matter attracts. 

















m fo 
Jet’? of Skillet Fork creek area, 
seh showing the rich bottom land and 
forest in which wild game abound 
—but which few hunters penetrate. 
_. Upper right, A few of the Ca- 
‘nadian geese raised by Miselbrook. 
Lower left, Roy Miselbrook, un- 
official game warden of the Skil- 
let Fork wildlife paradise along 
vet the wagon trail which leads 
right, one of the many 
nadian geese and wild ducks—J| 
- miscuous ‘No Trespassing” signs 

THE FISH-CULTURIST NEWS 

erneunrmeche conan. eempmamineiees: 
‘ 
- 
Hunt Bass Hatchery, located nine miles east of Phoenix and composed of seven 
warm water fish are propagated. It is under direction of Her bert L. Reid of the 
- Evers. It has been in operation since 1931 when construction was first 
of fingerling bass for stocking the state’s lakes and streams have 
were emptied during the last summer and the fish taken from them 
_-1943 each lake bed was cleaned of an inch layer of debris, 
of dirt are taken from each lake bed. Early in February 
Valley Water Users’ ass iitati 
the 
on. After the lakes are filled the 


i¢ ) 
r Posterity 
Tee 
phic 
of the “skil- é: 
to 
season near 
Skillet Fork. 
Miselbrook, due to his intimate 
understanding, has become a sort 
of unofficial game warden for the 
Skillet Fork area. His farm, in- 
cluding his large apiary, is situat- 
ed smack dab in the middle of the 
“skillet” of Skillet Fork creek, 
which takes its name from two 
creeks circling from the east and 
west, then joining with a “handle” 
at the south, forming both a per- 
feet skillet and fork. With heights 
and valleys and thick woodlands, 
it’s as beautiful as it is rugged. 
Twenty-four years ago, when a 
wild Canadian goose landed there 
‘after being winged by. a hunter, 
Miselbrook started raising these 
colorful birds. He ‘has held a fed- 
eral permit for the past 11 years. 
At present, he has more than 30 
of them. Added to these, he has a 
number of wild ducks. Just below 
his kitchen window, on the steep 
slope which drops into one of the 
branches of Skillet Fort creek, he 
has constructed breakfast tables 
- -pecause of his 100 colonies of bees, for the squirrels—and it's a great 
seeeemmereen ere remanent Pee 
, moss, and leaves that 

zona 
a ee 
a ne 
| 
yj 
/ 
Neh Bee 
show to watch the friendly little 
animals eat. Miselbrook spends 
many patient hours studying the 
habits of the wildlife in his area, 
doctoring them when he finds, 
them injured, trying to coax them 
into being pets—which explains 
why he is one of Marion county’s 
most ardent conservationists, and 
certainly a foremost authority on 
wild game of the area. 
Standing .by an old-fashioned 
well in his back yard, he can see 
miles of the bottom land and vir- 
gin forest. Visitors who find their 
way to the Miselbrook farm, tak- 
ing the obscure, winding trail, in- 
variably gasp, ‘It’s the most beau- 
tiful sight I ever saw!” 
Sometimes they add, however: 
“T don’t see how you stand living 
way out here in this isolated spot, 
even though it is beautiful.” 
But Miselbrook has called Skillet 
Fork home since his birth, and he’s 
always too busy, there’s always 
something new and interesting to 
observe, to be concerned about the 
been completed at this/hatchery. 
to replenish warm water reservoirs, During the fall of 
collected there. As many as 45 truck loads 
lakes are filled with water purchased from’ the Salt River 
shallow waters around the ease are fertilized. This decaying 
creates small water life which is natural food for small fish. 
PAGE 3 


lakes. It is the only place in Arizona where 
division of fisheries. The foreman is G. L. 
begun. Preparations for producing this year’s crop 
Six of the seven lakes 


isolation. After 63 years of it, he 
prefers it to any other location in 
jMarion county. If he ever moves it 
would have to be where wildlife 
abounds—and where he can take 
a hand in the conservation and de- 
velopment of wildlife. 
Through the cooperation of the 
Salem Sportsman club and the 
state game farm at Mt. Vernon,_ 
young quail and coon are- added 
each year to Skillet Fork. It is a 
common thing for Miselbrook, or 
his son, Fred, who has developed 
as great an interest as his father, 
to spot a luxurious quail nest filled 
with eggs, or other evidences of 
the rapidly increasing wildlife. 
Added to his self-initiated work 
of protecting wildlife, Miselbrook 
experiments considerably with 
plants, flowers and trees, trying to 
see if he can improve any of them 
—-and with great care he has been 
able to preserve several chestnut 
trees, almost a rarity now in Ma- 
rion county due to the spread of 
disease. From his yard on through 
the area may be seen evidences of 
Pond Data Given 
By Oklahoman 
A letter from Glenn Mitchell, 
Oklahoma state biologist, con- 
cerning an experiment which has 
been in process at the Durant 
hatchery for some time reveals a 
few interesting points. 
During the spring last year, four 
ponds were stocked with the same 
number and specie of fish. Fishing 
was permitted in two of the ponds 
and the other two were left un- 
molested during the spawning 
season. Purpose of the experiment 
was an effort to learn whether or 
not fishing deterred or bothered — 
spawning fish in any way. : 
Mr. Mitchell writes: ... “You 
will be interested to know that 
these ponds which were fished so 
heavily during the spawning sea- 
son had excellent hatches of young. - 
fish. They also had a great num- 
ber of adults left in them. Four- 
fifths of the population of adults 
were gotten from one of the. fish- 
ing. ponds’ and only three-fifths 
were taken from the other. We 
drained the pond from which four- 
fifths of the adults were removed 
and found a total of almost 13,000 
young fish of this year’s spawning. 
(1943). It is physically impossible 
to grow 13,000 young fish to adult 
size in this small pond with their 
low growing capacity. We can very 
definitely say that the removal of 
a great number of adults should 
not cause a lack of young fish to 
be spawned in these lakes. I will 
haye more data on the experiment 
later.” 
At the time this information 
was received, only two of the four | 
ponds had been drained. However, 
Mr. John Murphree, superintend- 
ent of the hatchery, informs us 
that since then, another of the 
ponds has been drained, and that 
more information will be available © 
later on this experiment. 
This is the kind of work it takes 
to learn what should be done. _ 
‘More power to Mr. Mitchell and 
Mr. Murphree, and all the rest.of => 
you fellows carrying out experi- ee: 3 
ments. + , Meee A 
Send in your data. 
Ca CISLS te tel 
Arizona Boosts 
Employes Pay 
Evidently commission members 
of the Arizona state fish and game 
commission are real strategists. 
Why else would they give such 
timing to salary raises to em- 
ployes of the commission as right 
at the first of the year? 
Watch the commission get real 
cooperation and conscientious ef- 
fort this year. ts 
It seems to us if our conserva- 
tion departments are to entice 
young Americans to take up the . / 
work, and if experienced employes 
are to remain on the job in these 
inflationary times, salaries in gen- 
eral will have to be raised, in order 
for the employes to meet the con- 
tinued rising cost of living. * 
After all, even outdoorsmen and 
nature-lovérs have to eat. A dollar 
is worth about 45 cents, so it’s 
not hard to figure out how a work- 
ing man spends his money. 
Hallulajah and glory be to the 
Arizona state fish and game com- 
mission for showing its employes 
this fine spirit of consideration. 
Maybe the rest of the state com- 
ites oe will take notice. 
tree grafting and other tree sur- 
gery. 
Ever since he was big enough to 
“puff a smoker,” the old-fashioned 
peace-pipe of smoldering wood 
chips used to quiet bees and spare 
them the necessity of using their 
stingers, he’s maintained an apiary 
of his own, which now is a 100- 
colony proposition. But that is an- 
other story. 
So—if you want to fish along 
the handle of Skillet Fork creek, 
or go coon hunting or quail shoot- 
ing in the dense meadows or vir- 
gin forests of the area, just find 
your way far off the main high- 
way, along the winding wagon 
trail, to Miselbrook’s farm. 
You'll discover the view is 
breathtaking, anyway, in this na- 
ture’s paradise off Marion county. 


