John The Baptist Mountains
The range is named after John C. Butala, a hermit who lived for a number of years in a shack on the range's eastern side. Butala was born in 1880, and served in the Spanish–American War with the 15th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He chose to spend the last decades of his life as a hermit living in the desert. There was some belief locally that he had been shell shocked during his military service, but that is not confirmed. He was known as an eccentric with long matted hair, and most of the year he would wear only tennis shoes and a loincloth made from gunnysacks. He was also known for feeding and befriending a variety of desert wildlife around his camp, and some became so tame that they would eat out of his hand. It is likely that the nickname of "John the Baptist" derived from this behavior and his appearance as a wild-eyed desert prophet. Despite his eccentric ways, he was known for his mechanical and engineering abilities, and he would regularly be summoned into town to repair automobiles and heavy equipment at the New Cornelia Mine. Later in life he withdrew entirely from society, and died from malnutrition in 1961 at the age of 81. He is buried in Ajo.
References
- ^ Broyles, Bill., Luke Evans, Richard Stephen Felger, and Gary Nabhan. 2007. Our Grand Desert: A Gazetteer for Northwestern Sonora, Southwestern Arizona, and Northeastern Baja California. In Dry Borders: Great Natural Reserves of the Sonoran Desert, Broyles, B. and R. Felger, editors. University of Utah Press.
- ^ Peaden, Carroll H. 1978. John the Baptist: Early-day Longhair. Arizona Republic Magazine, November 26, pp. 20–25.
- ^ "PVT John C. Butala (1880-1961) - Find a Grave".