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<br />last adult was caught in 1937 (in Salt River, above Roosevelt Dam),
<br />according to T. T. Frazier, informed local resident, who reported that the
<br />species had been fairly common there in 1906."
<br />Additional testimony from 12 other "old timers" in the Tempe and
<br />Phoenix areas attest similarly to the abundances of fishes in canals fed
<br />by the Salt, Verde, and Gila rivers in the years before 1915 or so. Wagon
<br />boxes were filled with bonytails, a species well known to at least four
<br />of the old fishermen, "Verde trout" (Colorado chubs), razorback (hump-
<br />back) suckers, and "white salmon;' "river salmon;' or "salmon" some of
<br />the last ranging to almost 20 kg in weight. The fishes were used as ferti-
<br />lizer, or as food for humans and for domestic hogs. It is notable that the
<br />name "salmon," in some context or alone, was used exclusively for
<br />Ptychocheilus, and that no other names for the species were known to the
<br />persons interviewed. All 12 had first-hand knowledge of the fish, and
<br />quickly identified -photographs that were provided for their examination.
<br />Commercial fishermen operated in the lower Salt River until about
<br />1910, catching "salmon" and "razorbacks" for sale in adjacent towns.lo
<br />and later to supplement supplies of surveying and construction crews that
<br />were building dams that now impound much of the lower river, and for
<br />highways (Demmann, in Minckley, 1965x). Miller's 1950 collection of young
<br />squawfish in the Salt River Canyon near U. S. Highway 60 (Miller, 1961 b),
<br />was preceded only briefly by Dammann's observation of "two specimens
<br />caught on pole and line ... in 1948 from the Salt River at the same high-
<br />way crossing." The fish were about 30 inches in total length and were
<br />being retained for use as food [in Minckley, 1965x]." As noted above, the
<br />last adult taken at Roosevelt was in 1937. The last known specimens from
<br />the Salt River, or for that matter from the entire Gila River system, were
<br />seined at the U. S. 60 bridge in Salt River Canyon. The seven individuals
<br />Lange from 34 to 145 mm long, and were caught in 1958 (Branson, et al.,
<br />1966). Determined efforts by myself and others in the mid-1960s, using
<br />refined collecting gear, and again in 1972, failed to obtain additional
<br />material (Minckley & Deacon, 1968):. As shown in Map 17, the species once
<br />occupied all the major rivers of the Gila basin, moving upstream in the
<br />Verde at least to Perkinsville (Minckley & Alger, 1968), through most of
<br />the Salt River as indicated by the numerous records in the Canyon, into the
<br />San Pedro as far as Fairbank, Cochise County (Miller, 1955), and at least to
<br />loUnpublished field notes of F. W. Chamberlain, taken in 1904, partially reported
<br />on by Miller (19616) and generously provided by him for my use, include the
<br />following statements: "Just below Roosevelt the Salt River enters a canon and there
<br />forms good-sized pools. In this region protected by its inaccessibility, it is said
<br />salmon of marketable size can still be taken .. .
<br />"8 seine hauls were made in the neighborhood of Roosevelt on Apr. 25.
<br />1 humpback sucker and 1 small salmon were obtained the first haul, Meda, Gila,
<br />and three or more species of sucker made up the catch. 1 carp was taken as well as
<br />a number of carp fry ..."
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