Joseph City resident Clem Rogers has helped with the Rock Art Ranch since it was organized for visitors more than 15 years ago and still comes to the ranch to visit with his close friend Brantley Baird on a weekly basis.
At the ranch museum there is an old Navajo rug on display that holds a special meaning for Rogers. He recalled that he obtained that blanket in the 1930s while working as a cowhand on a ranch near the Navajo Reservation.
As a young cowboy, Rogers earned $1 a day and managed to save enough money to buy a brand new N. Porter saddle made in Phoenix for $197. While riding on his new saddle, a Navajo approached him and asked if he would like to trade for Rogers’ spurs. “I told him I would trade them for his saddle blanket to go with my saddle, so he took it off right then and we traded,” Rogers recalled.
The blanket shows the wear of the trail, with horsehair still embedded in the underside fibers. Rogers said that he had tried to remove the hairs and wished he hadn’t worn it out using it as a saddle blanket, but the wear is what makes it a unique example of life in the Old West.
