William Franklin Frakes

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William Franklin Frakes (1858-1942) was an American rancher, naturalist, adventurer, and author.[1] The son of pioneers Samuel H. T. Frakes and Almeda Mudgett Frakes, William Frakes grew up on their ranch at Elizabeth Lake, next to that of his cousin Frank Frakes.[2] He studied in San Jose, probably at the forerunner of the University of the Pacific,[3] but then left to pursue a life focused on the outdoors. He traveled to Argentina in the 1890s, where he explored the country, collected animals, and also fought off a bandit ambush (killing two of his attackers).[4] He introduced the nutria (a large rodent species) to North America from Argentina and set up a nutria farm at his ranch in Elizabeth Lake in 1899 (with the encouragement of David Starr Jordan of Stanford University).[5] Later some nutria escaped and went feral, with negative ecological impacts. In 1904, he also introduced quail to Santa Catalina Island, founding the quail covey there.[6] He tried to domesticate bighorn sheep with mixed results (and corresponded with leading naturalists about the topic and contributed some specimens to the Smithsonian Institution).[7] He enjoyed hunting in the Antelope Valley and at his hunting cabin near Camp Cady, CA (the Mojave Desert) with his cousin William Mudgett (1877-1946) of Neenach, CA.[8] Also a writer of nature and adventure stories, Will Frakes had a surprisingly engaging style.[9]  He moved to Phoenix in 1920 and died there in 1942.

References[]

  1. ^ Dan L. Trapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988), p. 515)
  2. ^ Norma Gurba, Legendary Locals of the Antelope Valley (2013), p. 11
  3. ^ "William Franklin Frakes (1858-1942) - Find A..." www.findagrave.com.
  4. ^ Dan L. Trapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988), p. 515
  5. ^ Theodore G. Manno, Swamp Rat: The Story of Dixie’s Nutria Invasion (Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2017), pp. 81-82 and Kim Todd, Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America (NY: Norton, 2001), p. 206 and online at: https://books.google.com/books?id=PUCh6ftchdAC&pg=PA206&lpg=PA206&dq=frakes+nutria&source=bl&ots=_SE5tfEXhP&sig=XlnXFQRCXSCTeIJvyDYUTGa6KWY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxs8SNm-vRAhWK7SYKHSXICvsQ6AEIJzAD#v=onepage&q=frakes%20nutria&f=false
  6. ^ Theodore G. Manno, Swamp Rat: The Story of Dixie’s Nutria Invasion (Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2017), pp. 81-82; see also https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42192577
  7. ^ Daniel Vandersommers, “Narrating Animal History from the Crags: A Turn-of-the-Century Tale about Mountain Sheep,” Journal of American Studies 51 (2017): pp. 751-777; Lupi Saldana, “Bighorns Transplanted: Pioneer Helped Wild Sheep,” Los Angeles Times (January 3, 1975); see earlier William T. Hornaday, Camp-Fires On Desert and Lava (NY: Scribners, 1908), pp. 339-340; and on sending bighorn sheep to the Smithsonian Institution: https://books.google.com/books?id=NlpDvH-bo0EC&pg=PA123&dq=%22will+frakes%22+western&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwifmIjTxJ7aAhUqwFQKHVsBAUsQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=%22will%20frakes%22%20western&f=false
  8. ^ Mudgett Family Photographs. CP SPC 128. Arizona State University Library: Arizona Collection or azarchivesonline.org, which shows Will Frakes playing the violin in their cabin
  9. ^ Will Frakes, “Capturing Big Horns, Part I,” Western Field 10 (March 1907), pp. 88-91; Will Frakes, “Capturing Big Horns, Part II,” Western Field 10 (April 1907); Will Frakes, “Capturing Big Horns, Part III,” Western Field 10 (May 1907), pp. 250-255; Will Frakes, “A Slander on the Lives of Animals,” Western Field 10 (1907), pp. 413-417; Will Frakes, “The Mountain Sheep in Captivity,” Western Field 12 (1908), pp. 229-234; Will Frakes, “My First Mountain Sheep Hunt,” Western Field 12 (1908), pp. 41-44; Will Frakes, “My First Tiger Hunt,” Western Field 11 (1908), pp. 425-427; Will Frakes, “Animal Life on the Mojave Desert,” Western Field: The Sportsman’s Magazine of the West 14.6 (April, 1910), pp. 437-444.
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