After growing up on the east coast, he married and traveled to California, where he established a hardware store in Hangtown.

Once in a while Henry would buy and drive cattle east, over the Sierra, to sell to the Comstock Lode miners in the region around Carson City and Genoa, Nevada.

[3] Searching for a way to rebuild his capital, Hooker came up with the idea of delivering live turkeys to the miners of the Comstock Lode who were willing to pay top dollar for meat.

He almost lost the entire flock near his destination when they took flight at the top of a cliff, but was able to recapture the birds when they landed in the valley below.

[1] But the constant threat of Apache raids prevented permanent settlement until after the Civil War ended, when a U.S. Army post was built at Ft. Grant about 10 miles (16 km) to the east, and in the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Valleys, which helped to reduce the Indian raids.

It was located on the site of a former Spanish hacienda in Sulphur Spring Valley that had been destroyed by the Apache Indians in the early 19th century.

Soon after establishing the ranch, Hooker erected a small adobe fort to fend off raids by the local Apache.

[6] Hooker was one of the few Arizona ranchers to survive a disastrous drought in 1891, which killed over half the cattle due in part to severe overgrazing.

[7] After the 1891 drought, he formed the Sierra Bonita Land and Stock Company, which extended ranching operations to 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) supporting 20,000 head of cattle.

[14] Lynn R. Bailey wrote a book about him and the ranch titled Henry Clay Hooker and the Sierra Bonita.