William Franklin Frakes

William Franklin Frakes (1858–1942) was an American rancher, naturalist, adventurer, and writer.^[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, 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).^[3] 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).^[4] 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.

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).^[5] 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.^[6] Also a writer of nature and adventure stories, Will Frakes had a surprisingly engaging style.^[7]

 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. Dan L. Trapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988), p. 515
4. Todd, Kim (2002). Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32324-5.
5. United States Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1910.
6. 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
7. 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.