Saxton was born on September 4, 1875, at Fort Stockton, Texas. He was the third to be born in a family of six. His father, Benjamin Franklin Pope, was an army officer and surgeon. He spent most of his career stationed in isolated army garrisons throughout the west.
Saxton grew up with many of his childhood companions being Indian, Caucasians and half- breeds. They enjoyed camping, hunting, riding, and fishing. With his rugged childhood ways, natural talents and instincts, Saxton became exceptionally skilled in legerdemain, music, surgery and woodsmanship. According to Pope, he was intrigued and often experimented with bows and arrows.
Schooling opportunities were often limited in army camps and the frontier towns in which Pope grew up in, but he took full advantage of the schooling that was offered and he eventually found his way to the University of California. He graduated in 1899 with honors and a degree in medicine. Soon after his internship, he set up a practice in Monterey, a small town outside of San Francisco. He then married Dr. Emma Wightman, a college classmate, and had four children.
On August 29, 1911, Ishi, the last Yahi Indian, was captured in Oroville, California. After several days of confinement in the local jail, Ishi was brought to the University of California’s Museum of Anthropology as a ward. During 1912, Pope moved his family to San Francisco, where he was to be an instructor in surgery at the University Medical School. He soon came into contact with Ishi and was immediately intrigued by the Yahi ways. Ishi and Pope soon became wonderful friends and they took hunting excursions in the surrounding country. Pope soon became an expert in the ways of the Yahi. He was especially talented in the art of hunting with the bow and arrow.
Pope went on to write many books about archery and ways to make and hunt with the bow and arrow. Some of the titles include Yahi Archery (1918), The Medical History of Ishi (1920), and A study of Bows and Arrows (1923).
References
Saxton Temple Pope, www.cbhsaa.org/hallfame/bios/saxpope.htm ,(2006)
Saxton T. Pope www.stickbow.com/stickbow/history/DrPope.html,(2006)
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