Ed Dodd / Jack Elrod - Mark Trail strip - 10.2.1972 - First in the Arc!, "Wild Horses"

Love this early‑1970s daily from the Wild Horses storyline, where Mark works with the Fleet Oil Company to protect the Valley of Sparkling Water and secure a permanent refuge for the region’s wild horse herds.

This is the First strip in the sequence/Arc setting the stakes clearly (Last is 28 Oct 72): while Mark, Betsy, and the conservation team plan a humane relocation of the ponies, a pair of rustlers (the Bentley Boys) plot to divert the herd into an old trap for their own gain.

Classic Ed Dodd themes are all here — sweeping landscapes, wildlife stewardship, and the ever‑present tension between preservation and exploitation.

Thoughts? Likes? Thanks!