An Arizona Sheep Crossing

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By Raymond Henrie

It's often possible to find good prices on parcels of land for which most people have no use: odd-shaped plots ... steep, wooded hillsides ... or, as in the case of my family's purchase, 30 acres on the wrong side of a creek.

Most of our new neighbors thought we were a bit daft when we began to build on a site that can be pretty clanged difficult to get into or out of anytime a hard rain turns the large stream into a raging torrent. (When that happens, the normally peaceful flow has been known to cover half the surrounding bottomland with water, uproot trees, and wash away established bridges.) But from the first time we looked at the property's streams, abundant timber, good pond site, fertile soil, and low price, we knew we'd found all the necessary ingredients for our dreamed-of homestead. Besides, I had a few notions as to how to come to terms with that untamed river.

IF AT FIRST YOU FAIL . . .

My first idea, however, met with disaster. The cable suspension footbridge took a week to construct, and one rainstorm swollen creek—aided by a floating tree—to undo. I soon decided that it would be useless to rebuild the twisted mess of boards and cables ... but the failure of that attempt caused a childhood memory to surface.

I decided to build an "Arizona sheep crossing" ... right here in Summertown, Tennessee! As a youngster in the Southwest, you see, I had often spent summer days swimming in a nearby river. While there, on Arizona Indian land, I'd seen an unusual contraption: a small "car" suspended on cables that were attached to steel towers on each side of the river. I later learned that the device was called a "sheep crossing" by the Indian shepherds who used it to traverse the river when it was swollen by seasonal downpours.

My crossing's construction was not complicated or particularly expensive. I first bought 3/8-inch galvanized cable (it was surplus, and thus low in price) from a Nashville supplier. (It's a stiff variety used to support powerlines, and was rated at five tons' breaking strength.) To secure it in place, we bored holes through the base of one fair-sized tree at each side of the stream.

After fastening one end to the anchor tree (using a 3" washer and five cable clamps) on "our side" of the stream, we raised the cable up and passed it through a hole drilled near the top of a treated, 14-foot power pole placed about 20 feet closer to the water than is the anchor tree. (We buried the base of the pole four feet deep, which still put the cable ten feet above normal creek flow.)

Next, we carried the line across the creek and ran it first over the crotch of one large tree and then through the hole drilled in the base of our second anchor tree, which stands about ten feet to the rear.

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