The Class of 2025 is just about to take their final bows and as difficult – even frightening -as it seems, another school year is coming to a close. Graduation has always been a pretty important part of life in Los Alamos though many of the early traditions associated with graduation have been a bit lost through the years and many of the “LAHS Senior” traditions which took place all year long no longer happen in the same way as some of us remember.
For example… Do any of you recall the old tradition of hiking up LA Mountain to paint the big “LA”? If you ask Hilltopper alumni, many of us can speculate about when this tradition began and when and why it stopped, but the details are always somewhat steeped in urban myth and local legend. One of the best parts of painting the LA was throwing paint on your friends and saving the clothes to wear during the final spirit week of Senior Year.
Senior Appreciation Night is always a huge deal. The event was created in 1984 through a community effort to decrease the wild partying which often ended in bad decision making and even worse accidents from underage drinking. Prior to SAN, high school seniors used to head up to Graduation Flats. The beautiful meadow is a popular picnic spot is on the Dome Road just south of the Santa Fe National Forest boundary. It also had the dubious benefit of being over the Sandoval County line (for students looking for opportunities to engage in underage drinking!) This meant kids were outside the jurisdiction of LAPD, a difficulty when trying to keep kids safe.
Senior Appreciation Night keeps kids within city limits and under the watchful eye of grownups without asking them not to have fun. Now the event is 100% community funded and has grown to include some incredible opportunities for all night fun, celebration, and making merry (safely) with your friends.
Graduation Canyon
Going further back, the Los Alamos Ranch School had several incredible traditions that made Senior Year at the Ranch School a very. Big. Deal! Graduation Canyon was an important location which was often called “Commencement Canyon” because the Ranch School held their graduation ceremonies on a flat bench at the mouth of the canyon.
Graduation Canyon is an otherwise small branch of Pueblo Canyon northwest of the Los Alamos Airport, just below Manhattan Loop. The scenery is beautiful, but the graduation ceremony itself was an incredible processional. The boys rode to the spot on horseback while singing Native war songs. Parents and visitors were seated on rocks draped in colorful wool blankets and the experience was something the boys looked forward to with pride.
So as the Class of 2025 struts across the stage on Saturday May 24, I hope they enjoy every single second of their experience from beginning to end! I’d like to wish our graduates success in their future endeavors. Also, GO HILLTOPPERS! And when you’re ready to join our community (and become a Hilltopper), give me a call! I’d love to talk life in Los Alamos with you. There are some beautiful homes on the market here in Los Alamos and I’d love to help you find your dream home on the Pajarito Plateau!
Here in Los Alamos County, Bandelier is soooo yesterday’s news that we rarely even think about it unless we have out of town friends and family coming for a visit. Our local population was aware of the recent road construction down at the bottom of the truck route and we were vaguely aware that by changing that intersection, it made visitor parking at the Tsankawi archaeological site much more accessible. But not everyone necessarily knows that Tsankawi is part of the Bandelier National Monument. In fact, it’s rather spotty trying to look at a map and figure out where the boundary lines between Bandelier and the Department of Energy land begin and end since there is so much overlap and the public can access plenty of these overlaps through the shiny pedestrian gates located at many trailheads around the region.
So why is there so much overlap between “LANL” and Bandelier? Where did the name come from anyway? It certainly doesn’t sound like a Pueblo or Spanish word. As I was cruising down State Road 4 toward Pajarito Acres the other day, I thought it might be worth a peek!
Turns out, Bandelier is the last name of an unhappy banker from Highland, Illinois. However, Adolph Bandelier wasn’t originally from Illinois. He was born in Bern, Switzerland on August 6, 1840. He came to Illinois with his family in 1848 and was pretty much expected to go into the family business, which he did. Then at 40 yrs old he decided to drop his successful banking career to pursue a longtime interest in archaeology and anthropology. According to the National Parks Service website, Bandelier’s niche interest was focused on tracing “the social organization, customs, and movements of southwestern and Mexican peoples”. I don’t know about you, but that seems an enormous task!
The guy visited 166 sites in New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico in the first 18 months of his career! But one of Bandelier’s most significant career highs was when he asked some of the men of the Cochiti Pueblo to guide him to their ancestral home in Frijoles Canyon on October 23, 1880. This discovery captured Adolph Bandelier’s imagination so strongly that he used the experience to imagine a fictional novel of life in a pueblo settlement in the pre-Spanish era. The book, titled The Delight Makers, was published in 1890 and is still available in print if you look for it used on Ebay or Amazon.
Adolph Bandelier left the US in 1892 to continue his studies in Bolivia and Peru before heading to Seville, Spain where he died on March 18, 1914. He was buried in Seville and Bandelier National Monument was established by President Woodrow Wilson two years later on February 11, 1916. Then in 1977, Adolph Bandelier’s remains were exhumed. His ashes were eventually spread within Bandelier National Monument in 1980.
The dates may seem off, but perhaps the massive amount of paperwork it took to exhume a body in one country, ship it, and then arrange for the spreading of the ashes took a significant amount of time. There is certainly no doubt that Adolph Bandelier considered our local “ruins” to be his life’s most worthwhile endeavor.
We’ve already discussed the general interest in historic, indigenous ruins and how it brought so many different people to the Pajarito Plateau over the years. You can read some more about the early Pajarito Club HERE. The students of the Los Alamos Ranch School were allowed to excavate wherever they found ruins, which is how the ruins currently situated along 19th Street were established as an ancestral site to begin with. But what about folks hanging about in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project? How did our technical areas get so tangled up with Bandelier when the National Monument status was granted in 1916?
I think we should probably remember that Adolph Bandelier visited 166 sites in Mexico and the American Southwest in 18 months! His guided trip from the Cochiti Pueblo to ancestral lands in Frijoles Canyon didn’t necessarily mean Bandelier excavated everything from Cochiti to the current entrance of the park on State Road 4. Most us of can also recall a time when – whether for better or worse – access and freedom to crawl all over rock formations and ancient ruins was much less restricted.
This relaxed attitude toward excavation, exploration, and general access to the ruins which a modern mind considers “Bandelier” was one of the favorite pastimes of the Los Alamos staff during the Manhattan Project. According to Jon Michnovicz’s book Los Alamos 1944-1947, Stanislaw Ulam and Enrico Fermi in particular had many important and lively discussions while traipsing around the ruins of “Tyuonyi”.
Also, while the National Monument was established in 1916, it was originally under the US Forest Service. Bandelier was not transferred to the National Park Service until 1932. Edgar Hewett, who excavated Tyuonyi, originally proposed that the whole area be set aside as the Pajarito National Park. This concept gained no support thanks to local ranchers, famers, homesteaders, and lumber companies. Then comes the very secretive Manhattan Project, which carved out sections of ancient indigenous lands for what had originally been a short term project.
If you consider the very slow shift of open territory to public and private and eventually returning in part to native owned lands, the current checkerboard quality of Bandelier and the incredible open space around Los Alamos begins to make a bit more sense. There has also been a great amount of effort geared toward preservation and respect of these cultural sites. Here in our region, we’ve seen many places which were historically considered “trailheads” or places to hike become officially mapped and some of them – like Tsankawi – are now part of Bandelier and require a park pass or an entrance fee which helps provide for preservation as well as necessary amenities like restrooms and visitor centers or information booths.
As we leave the school year for the summer and we think about things to do over the summer, it might be time to revisit the Bandelier National Park website HERE. You can plan a hike or take in a native cultural demonstration at the main park. Or, you could plan a hike to the Falls or to the Caldera and enjoy a peek at scenery which has fascinated visitors to Los Alamos ever since AJ Connell’s Summer Camps at the Los Alamos Ranch School!
And when you’re ready to join our community here in Los Alamos, give me a call! We have some amazing homes here in the Secret City and I’d love to help you discover your perfect home in Los Alamos. I’m a hometown girl and I love to chat real estate in Los Alamos!
As LAHS students enjoy a “Night in Greece” at Prom 2025, it’s only natural for the rest of us to reminisce about our own high school prom experiences. It’s a pretty universal reaction to reminisce about your high school prom. I certainly don’t mean to suggest that all of those memories are “the best” of your high school experience. Isn’t that why we often suggest to our offspring that they go to prom so that they can “have that experience to think back on in adulthood”?
Why Prom?
I think most of us at least know, on some level, that the shortened word “prom” comes from the word “promenade”, which definitely isn’t something most of us go around saying these days. According to that lovely device called AI: The word “prom” is a shortened version of “promenade,” a French word meaning “a leisurely walk, a walk for pleasure or display”. In the 19th century, “promenade” also referred to a formal march or parade, often used in elite social gatherings. The term evolved to describe formal dances, particularly those held by high school and college classes, and became shortened to “prom”.
The key concept in the AI provided description is probably “a walk for pleasure or display”. In years gone by, a young woman would “promenade” in order to get the attention of a future husband. Thank goodness that’s not the focus of prom these days… Except, it sort of gets that way, doesn’t it? Nowadays though, we talk about school dances as a way to socialize. Any sort of social event is meant to provide a means of entertainment, but it’s also a way to get social experience. Better to make those big time social faux pas in high school and learn from them, right?
Okay, hopefully your prom experience in high school wasn’t that bad! But I do think the idea of school dances or “promenades” being an opportunity to meet new people and make memories has always been a thing. Certainly it brings to mind some of the first “school dances” here in Los Alamos.
In an earlier post, which you can find HERE, I talked about the girls of the Brownmoor School for Girls. This wonderful school was run out of the Bishop’s Lodge in the Santa Fe area. I can’t even begin to imagine the logistical nightmare of getting 30-40 teen girls from Santa Fe to the Los Alamos Ranch School before the age of modern roads and vehicles. Much less to get them here with all of their pretty prom dresses, their beauty kits, and who knows what else they needed to get ready!
And if any of you are wondering, NO! I’m not going to include one of my prom photos in this post! However, if you’d like to share one of yours, that would certainly be welcome. Feel free to drop one in the comments or in the comments of my Facebook post!
That’s probably the last piece of the AI wisdom I found really interesting: Over time, the meaning of “prom” expanded to encompass the entire event, including the formal dance, dress code, and often a significant celebration of a milestone like graduation.
I don’t think this was intended to suggest that there should be yet another “Graduation Prom”. Although Graduation is certainly a formal parade and includes a “promenade”. I think this is referring to the way we used to call it Jr/Sr Prom and typically students must be a Junior or a Senior to attend. These days, Los Alamos High School is holding Prom at Buffalo Thunder. The big venue is right in line with everything else about the modern “prom night” expectations!
Makeup, hair, custom dresses, and even “promposals” which can be far more elaborate than most traditional wedding proposals. Whew! Prom can really be a big event these days! By the way, if you’re like me and a bit nostalgic for prom in the 90s, check out this wonderful post from “Grown & Flown”. There’s nothing like thinking you got the perfect dress only to realize that your friend thought it was perfect too!
Once upon a time, the LAHS prom used to be held in Griffith Gymnasium each year and the Junior class was responsible for using their class money to plan and purchase decorations to “put on” the prom for the Senior class. I’m sure a significant portion of each Junior class would’ve much rather done something else with the money, but it was meant to be a “gift” of sorts and an early way to “pay it forward” as well. Although “Under the Sea” isn’t really all that far from “A Night In Greece” is it? What was YOUR favorite prom theme?
Regardless of whether or not you went to your high school prom, let’s all be happy for the Hilltopper Class of 2025 and hope the kids have a great night and stay safe! And when you’re ready to join our community on the hill, give me a call! There are some amazing homes here in Los Alamos for sale and this could be the perfect time to find your dream house!
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