Remnants of old trees still dot Zunis
A raging river replete with waterfalls runs through Milk Ranch Canyon on Thursday afternoon. The above average snowfall this season means that lower elevations should see plenty of spring runoff this year. Copyright © 2010 Gallup Independent

By Vida Volkert
Staff writer

McGAFFEY — There was a time when the Zuni Mountain ridge was covered by Ponderosa Pine trees nearly 600-years old and so massive that the area became a haven for entrepreneurs who at the turn of the 20th Century set up various complex lumber operations in McKinley County and devoured the mountain.

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