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Oral History Interview with Doug Hoopes

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TITLE	Oral History Interview with Doug Hoopes
INTERVIEWEE	Hoopes, Doug
SUBJECT	US Wildlife Service; Mt. Graham; Arizona Game Protective Association
Browse Topic	Family and community Leisure and travel Land and resources
DESCRIPTION	Doug Hoopes talks about hunting and fishing in Alpine as a youngster, and his dad's dental practice there.
INTERVIEWER	Luger, Jay; and Jones, Lenore
TYPE	Sound Text
Material Collection	Oral Histories of Alpine, Arizona
RIGHTS MANAGEMENT	Property of Alpine Public Library. For reproduction permissions, contact us at 928-339-4925.
DATE ORIGINAL	2011-04-28
Time Period	1900s (1900-1909) 1920s (1920-1929) 1930s (1930-1939) 1940s (1940-1949) 1960s (1960-1969)
ORIGINAL FORMAT	Oral histories recorded on digital media with transcriptions.
DIGITAL IDENTIFIER	index.cpd
Date Digital	2010-2011
DIGITAL FORMAT	MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer 3) DOC (Microsoft Word)
File Size	405 Bytes
DIGITIZATION SPECIFICATIONS	Oral histories were recorded on an Olympus WS-6005 Digital Voice Recorder.
REPOSITORY	Alpine Public Library. PO Box 528, Alpine, AZ 85920. www.co.apache.AZ.us
Full Text	Doug Hoopes Alpine, AZ Interview: April 28, 2011 My name is Doug Hoopes. I have retired and am now living with my wife in Alpine. I was born in Safford, AZ. My father became familiar with the Alpine area in the ‘20s when he went to dental school, traveling from Safford to Denver, Colorado. Years later when he had a family he brought us up here every summer. My dad was a professional fly fisherman and natural preservationist and this story is about him, how he lived, what he did, and how we all interacted with Alpine. I was born February 25th, 1943 in Safford, Arizona. My father was Lavell S. Hoopes, DDS. He was born on March 28, 1906 in the little community across from Safford called Graham. My mother was Olive Henrietta Nash, she was born December 15, 1905 in the city of Thatcher. Discovering Alpine My dad, during his dental school years in Denver, in the ‘20s and early ‘30s, would come home from Denver through Alpine. There was only a cow trail through here. He would also go down every now and then to the Mule Creek area and on into Safford. He told how many a time he had to get out and fix a flat, then away he’d go and a mile down the road he’d get out and fix another. He was in this area and up and down the White Mountains a lot in the ‘30s. He and my mother were married in 1928. When he finished dental school he had to do some catch-up work at the University of Southern California Dental School. Then he got a job and opened up a little practice over in El Paso, Texas for a year or so. Then he came back to Arizona and passed his dental exam so he could practice here. From then on it’s always been Alpine, the White Mountains or Southern Arizona where he would hunt and fish, plus do a little dentistry on the side. I grew up in Thatcher. In the summers, when I was a small young man of six or seven, my dad started bringing my mother, brothers and me up here to Alpine, probably in the early ‘50s. Then in 1953 Dad bought a little piece of land down here behind Leslie Noble’s. He put a trailer on it, and later had it covered. It is still standing. So we have been up here a good sixty years off and on during the summer and hunting seasons and what not. Alpine when I was a boy You could look right out this window here (library) and there was nothing except lots of deer. There was no housing. There was a lumber mill across the meadow. But there wasn’t anything here except maybe the service station that was right next door. I can’t remember who owned it. There was a tackle shop over where the old fire department was. So Dad hooked up with the Tackle Shop owner. I can’t remember his name. He is the one that built Alpine Garage years and years ago. He sold the Tackle Shop to a a nephew of his, then his nephew came down really sick, and thought he was going to die. So he sold it to Herb Van Slyke. I watched all those Van Slyke kids grow up here. They were a neat little family. Herb was such a great guy and his wife and kids too. My dad and his fishing rod I’ll tell you the story of what happened down at the Tackle Shop. My dad was a fly fisherman personified. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t catch with a fly. So during those years he was fishing he would buy nothing but the best fly rod. He started in with a Browning fly rod and after two years he’d package that thing up and send it back to Browning because it was warranteed. After about three times of doing that, a salesman came through here one day and he stopped at the Tackle Shop and was talking to Herb. He said, “Do you know this fella, Dr. Lavell Hoopes?” and Herb said “I sure do, he is a good friend of mine.” “Where can I find him?” the salesman asked. Herb said, “Well if he’s not at his house he is on one of these lakes up here”. The salesman asked, “Is it true that he really fishes? Because he’s been wearing out these Browning fly rods and they are the best”. Herb says “Well he catches enough fish during the summer to last him all winter into the next summer, so he’d wear the best fly rod out”. He fished every day except Sunday. He didn’t fish on Sunday. That’s how my brothers and I learned to fly fish. The outdoorsman and the US Wildlife Service Dad was a great outdoorsman, and a great animal protection defender. He was a great protectionist. He believed in protecting the animals and fish and he would have a tag for those. Back in the ‘30s he and some other men in the State of Arizona formed the Arizona Game Protective Association. It spun off and became the U.S. Wildlife Service. So he and some of the other gentlemen in the State helped plant squirrels, turkey, and bear on Mt. Graham. He did a lot of work as far as animal replacing. He wasn’t a tree hugger or a squirrel kisser but he was a concerned citizen and a game preservationist. Wild life habitat was important. He and his friends in that group would build water catchments for big horn sheep around here or mule deer in the desert. Wherever they needed it he did it. He was a charter member, and served several terms as president of that organization. When he was serving on the Arizona Game Protective Association, they would always meet over at Big Lake. Cap Derm ran the boat dock over there. Dad had a friend that was a bush pilot in Alaska in the ‘40s. During the winter that pilot would come down to Thatcher and crop dust. We had a big cotton farm down there and he would dust for insects. His name was Pete Pour. He would fly my dad up to Big Lake and drop him off on the road. The rest of the gentlemen that were on that board would meet there for four or five days. They would fly fish and they’d make big decisions on things to do. He always took his fly rod. That was like taking his suitcase, he wouldn’t go anywhere without that fly rod. That’s the gospel truth. He used to land on that dirt road in a Piper Cub tail dragger. They made arrangements with Pete for him to come and pick them up. By the time I grew up Dad had passed it on down to others. It had gotten too political for him. He didn’t like that. So he backed out, but they always invited him in for discussions of what to do and where to do it. Dad used to talk to my brothers and me while we’d be sitting at a campsite somewhere in southeast Arizona, quail hunting. And he’d be sitting there and he’d look off into the distance and he’d say, “Son, by the time you have grandchildren you’ll probably have a very hard time getting permission to take them hunting or fishing.” This was back in the ‘50s. Now if that isn’t a prophecy come true. He didn’t like the way it was going. It was political. But that was one of the main things that stuck with me for so long. And it’s true, it’s very true right now. You can’t draw for an elk tag even though you’re in the run- off. Lion hunting He loved to lion hunt with old Ted Ferguson from Gila Valley. I’d sit there and watch those boys load up their horses and dogs. It was the Thatchers, and Dad and Ted and Bob Paul, and a bunch of those guys would take out. I’d stand there with tears rolling down my cheeks, and say “Why can’t I go Dad?” And Dad would rub my head and he’d say, “When you grow whiskers I’ll take you.” And I grew whiskers and just about that time he had given up hunting. So I never got to go lion hunting with him. Practicing dentistry in Alpine Dad did practice dentistry in Alpine, yes he did. He had a health problem with arthritis in his neck until that fused together, and he was in a lot of pain during the ‘30s and ‘40s. Then he sold his practice, but he kept the farm that he had bought from his parents. Two years later his neck fused, so he farmed, but didn’t go back into dentistry. Then an old friend of his by the name of Dave Rogers, who was one of the instructors over here at the Alpine Job Corp., made him a proposition. So Dave said, “Doc, I got a job for you. Are you interested?” “What is it?” “Well it’s working your dental practice on this Job Corp bunch. Why don’t you come up here and let’s talk it over”. So Dad said, “Sure I’ll do it.” So dad built a little room on our house over here. All his sons, except me, were dentists. So they pitched in and gave him all the old equipment they had. He practiced there on those young boys for about five years from 1967 through 1972. Then the Job Corps operation was shut down. Dad continued his private practice. I can go just about anywhere in this north-eastern part of Arizona and introduce myself and someone would say, “Hmm, I had a guy work on my mouth, his name was Doc Hoopes. I’d say, “That’s my dad.” My dad built his place over here on what we call “Sneak Street”. It’s County Road 2051. He bought about an acre of land and built the house in ’59. And then in ‘67 is when he built the little dental office on to the back of the house. He practiced there until he died. He died in the spring, on his birthday, 1986. So he was 80 years old. He worked on a lot of people. He and Bob Fite, Sr across the street were best of buddies. They would get together and swap stories. They fished together and hunted. Dad usually didn’t stay up here in the winter but since 1967 he started staying up here because he had business year around. It was pretty cold in that house, it wasn’t a winter house. It was a nice brick home but it wasn’t a winter house. Milt Thompson came over and put Styrofoam in there and re-textured the whole place and we had some insulation blown in. So that made it a little more comfortable. My hunting experience The first deer I ever harvested was up here in Williams Valley when I was 12 years old. We had been out hunting and were coming home and he said, “Keep your eyes peeled son, there’ll be something along the edge of this meadow here”. I kept looking and I said, “I think there is something over there”. So he pulled over and said, “Now get over there and kneel at that stump and get him”. And I was able to get him. He took me hunting everywhere. I have one sister and three brothers. I was the baby of the family so all of my family is way ahead of me. One brother lives in Utah, one in Mesa, Arizona, and one lives in northern California. Their kids all live near them. My sister lives in Utah. She married a fellow from up there. Things happened and they split up and she came to Arizona to help take care of Mother. That is after Dad had died. She stayed in that house with Mother. She and I both own the home in Mesa. Later she moved back to Utah where all her kids were. She’s happy. I live in Alpine full time now. I’ve been here three years exactly. After I retired from Phelps Dodge-Freeport, we came up here. I didn’t want to because I knew what the winters were like. My wife was dead set on coming up here, and I dug in my feet. You know that first winter wasn’t all that bad. But that second one was a dozy! We had an accumulation of about ten feet of snow. It wasn’t a fun time. You live here, you know how it was. I still fly fish, but I haven’t for some time due to problems with health. I can still remember how Dad taught me, and how frustrated he would get with me.
Sort Order	01040

TITLE	Transcript of oral history interview with Doug Hoopes
INTERVIEWEE	Hoopes, Doug
TYPE	Text
Material Collection	Oral Histories of Alpine, Arizona
RIGHTS MANAGEMENT	Property of Alpine Public Library. For reproduction permissions, contact us at 928-339-4925.
ORIGINAL FORMAT	Oral histories recorded on digital media with transcriptions.
DIGITAL IDENTIFIER	Doug Hoopes.doc
Date Digital	2010-2011
DIGITAL FORMAT	DOC (Microsoft Word)
File Size	2548736 Bytes
DIGITIZATION SPECIFICATIONS	Oral histories were recorded on an Olympus WS-6005 Digital Voice Recorder.
REPOSITORY	Alpine Public Library. PO Box 528, Alpine, AZ 85920. www.co.apache.AZ.us

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