There is a legend of a white wolf with red eyes. It is said that it lives within the desert. The pioneers would pass the tale to each other from wagon train to wagon train in the 1860s.

This is how the legend goes:

   A couple and their son were traveling through the desert. The son was ill for 10 days, with no improvement. The son made a request to his parents that they reluctantly agreed to. He wanted to sleep under the stars. Little did they know that would be his last night. He fell asleep and woke a few hours later and saw red eyes staring at him. He thought it was the fever playing tricks on him, so he fell back asleep. The boy woke again, the moon was higher, and the being with red eyes was sitting closer. Now he was nervous. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, and the figure was still there. He then drifted asleep once more.

   When he woke for the third time, the form was sitting right beside him. It was looking down at him with the red eyes. He realized it was a dog; a white dog. He reached out to pet it.

The boy then said "you're just a big white dog, aren't you."

The animal then leaned down and licked his face. The boy, who's name was jack, laughed and fell asleep.

But he never woke up again. Jack died in his sleep. The fever took his life.

On a nearby Mesa top, a lone white wolf howled long and low.

The next day, jack's parents buried him under a mound of sand with a cactus growing on top. Red eyes watched the couple leave.

Wagon trains that stopped in the same area, often reported seeing a ghostly white figure with red eyes walking near their camp.

A family camped near jacks grave. They spotted white bones stick out of the sand. They saw a huge white wolf bound over the mound of sand. It snarled at them. They packed up and quickly left.

People came to believe the white wolf protected the grave. Others say the wolf killed the boy in the grave. Years passed and the story changed. The legend passed from wagon to wagon was the white wolf was actually the ghost of the boy.