There’s no doubt that Los Alamos residents have a long love affair with Camp May. I’ve heard some fairly interesting theories from friends and acquaintances over the years about why it’s called Camp May. One hypothesis was that it’s unusable until at least May. But while that might be true for some, Camp May’s proximity to the Pajarito Ski Area doesn’t suggest that’s the story behind the name.
Camp May is considered a Los Alamos Campground and is now managed by the county. Back when George and Edith May gifted a fine log cabin to the Los Alamos Ranch School, (which is how Camp MAY got its name!), the land where the cabin was placed belonged to the Forest Service. The Ranch School leased several parcels of Forest Service land for recreation areas. These recreation areas allowed the school to have and utilize base camps for outdoor activities like hunting, trapping, fishing, hiking, and weekend outfitting trips that would have otherwise been difficult to stage from the Big House at the main ranch.
Camp May was most popular with boys from the Spruce Patrol who were older and more experienced. Camp May’s location was higher in elevation than other ranch recreation areas. It saw more snow and more wildlife. You might say it was considered “rougher”. Which is why I find it so very interesting that Camp May was the location of Peggy Pond Church’s week long honeymoon with Los Alamos Ranch School Master, Fermor Church!
The sweet bride received a Colt six shooter and a holster as a betrothal gift and Fermor taught her to shoot on their honeymoon. Peggy’s writings include some thoughts about that experience. Not that she’d been angry or disappointed, but that she might’ve wanted something a bit “sweeter”. Evidently the loud hailstorm on the metal roof and the wood stove belching smoke into the cabin made for an unusual honeymoon. Imagine that! You can read more about Peggy and Fermor on the Los Alamos Historical Society’s blog HERE.
These days Camp May boasts 9 overnight camping sites, fairly modern restrooms, several large group gathering areas, and quick access to some of the best hiking and mountain biking in our area. The other thing Camp May is known for is fall leaves. It’s possible to get some gorgeous photos of colorful Aspen trees in the fall. And overnight camping is available April thru October. (See? You can visit Camp May before May!) If you’re looking for a fun family activity, try tent camping up at Camp May during the height of the changing leaves and get a beautiful holiday family photo to go with your fall break vacation! Camp May is a popular photo location for senior pictures and other major events too.
Something else you might not realize is that the location of Camp May played a big part in the placement of our local ski hills. In the late 1930s, Fermor Church’s nephew Herbert “Hup” Wallis used Camp May as a base to clear some land on Sawyer’s Hill and also on Pajarito Mountain for the boys to ski and sled. Eventually these clear cut areas were used by scientists on the Manhattan Project for winter sports. Of course, there’s no way Hup Wallis strapped explosives to the trees to blow up an area for a ski run. But I’m pretty sure Hup and his crew worked hard with their hands to clear those runs as the boys of the Los Alamos Ranch School did with everything else.
If you’d like more information about the history of skiing in Los Alamos, check out a previous post here. And when you’re ready to join our unique little community on the Pajarito Plateau, give me a call! I’m a hometown Los Alamos girl and I love to talk real estate in Los Alamos!
Check out this description from a Spring 1917 brochure for the Los Alamos Ranch School written by S. F. Bemis:
Los Alamos Ranch: An Outdoor School for Boys
The principle aim of the school is to take advantage of the unexampled natural features of the best part of the great Southwest in a way to build up the constitution of boys from eastern cities by an active but well-guided outdoor life. The climate of Los Alamos is particularly favorable to this; its altitude is especially conducive to strengthening the circulatory and respiratory organs; the clean pure ozone that drifts down from the peaks of the Rocky Mountains is the greatest natural revivifier to be found anywhere on the continent.
…It is hoped that the time spent at the Los Alamos Ranch: (1) in natural development of the body by such exercises as horseback riding, mountain climbing and other recreation in this truly wonderful country; (2) attracting the boys’ attention to the mind-quickening activities of outdoor life, such as marksmanship, exploration, map-making, the study of the habits of wild animals, the floral and mineralogical features of the land, will on the whole produce that perfect health that is the aim of the school, and that elevation of spirit which is essential to future success. A good digestion, a bounding pulse, and high spirits are true elements of happiness that no external advantages can out-balance.
This brochure excerpt can be found in the book, Los Alamos: The Ranch School Years by John D Wirth and Linda Harvey Aldrich. As I was reading this excerpt, I couldn’t help but think about a conversation I had the other day with a friend of mine who is a mental health provider. We’d spoken of this general sense of the “blahs” infecting almost everyone these days. Folks are depressed and anxious, but are finding it difficult to put their finger on exactly why they’re feeling this way or how to make it better.
Sure. The world is a pretty crazy place right now. But beginning with quarantine sometime in 2020, it strikes me that many of us have stopped being active. In the beginning we weren’t supposed to leave home. If you did, you were asked to wear a mask outdoors and indoors. The digital world is pretty darned enticing like that too. It’s possible to open an app on your phone and dive down a rabbit hole of videos, memes, and social media posts as well as news and entertainment information. Hours later you might suddenly look up and realize you’ve lost the entire day without moving off your couch!
Back in the nineteen hundreds, folks in large cities often stayed indoors doing little to nothing in the way of outdoor activities or physical pursuits if they could. This became a habit because of the poor air quality. Young people often had lung problems or were chronically ill or seemed “sickly” because of the lack of physical movement, sunlight, and outdoor activities. You couldn’t even see the sun on most days due to the fog of pollution hanging over cities!
Imagine what it must’ve been like for those boys to come to Los Alamos. Our sky is brilliant blue. Our air is clearer here than in many other places. Even after several forest fires the scenery is stunning and there are so many places to hike, bike, walk, run, and enjoy the outdoors.
After a very wild winter full of big temperature swings, a good amount of needed precipitation, and way too many cloudy days, we ALL need some sun, fresh air, and activity! If you’re feeling sluggish or having a lot of “blah” days, get out and enjoy our lovely community! Take a hike. Check out the county’s trail maps or find a nature walk to enjoy. Hit the Mainstreet Los Alamos page and look for new activities coming up outdoors. Start training for a 5K run or walk. Get outside and ENJOY Los Alamos!
And if you’re ready to join our community or you’re looking to buy or sell your home here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’m a hometown Los Alamos girl and I’d love to chat real estate in Los Alamos with you!
It’s impossible to really get a sense of what it meant to be a student at the Los Alamos Ranch School without talking about Boy Scouts and scouting in general. I think most of us over the years have seen photos of the ranch school boys in their uniforms and we just associate those uniforms with Ashley Pond, AJ Connell, and their rigorous curriculum focused on healthy outdoor living as a major part of educating young men.
Take a look at this photo:
There is no doubt that this particular graduate is dressed in his scouting uniform. According to Boy Scouts of America, scouting became “a thing” on February 8, 1910. Remember that this was way before media. Advertising was print and took awhile to get from one area to another. And when scouting began, it was generally for boys 15 and younger. “Senior Scouting” wasn’t officially added until 1935.
There’s no doubt that Ashley Pond and AJ Connell were in sync with scouting principals. The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is “to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law“.
For those of us who might never have been a scout, the Scout Oath is as follows: On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
Scout Law has 12 points:
TRUSTWORTHY. Tell the truth and keep promises. People can depend on you.
LOYAL. Show that you care about your family, friends, Scout leaders, school, and country.
HELPFUL. Volunteer to help others without expecting a reward.
FRIENDLY. Be a friend to everyone, even people who are very different from you.
COURTEOUS. Be polite to everyone and always use good manners.
KIND. Treat others as you want to be treated. Never harm or kill any living thing without good reason.
OBEDIENT. Follow the rules of your family, school, and pack. Obey the laws of your community and country.
CHEERFUL. Look for the bright side of life. Cheerfully do tasks that come your way. Try to help others be happy.
THRIFTY. Work to pay your own way. Try not to be wasteful. Use time, food, supplies, and natural resources wisely.
BRAVE. Face difficult situations even when you feel afraid. Do what you think is right despite what others might be doing or saying.
CLEAN. Keep your body and mind fit. Help keep your home and community clean.
REVERENT. Be reverent toward God. Be faithful in your religious duties. Respect the beliefs of others.
Every part of the oath and the laws are the very backbone of Ashley Pond’s way of doing life. It’s almost as though he was born a Boy Scout. Often he was criticized by his very legal minded father for being “too soft” or “a dreamer”. He was often taken advantage of because he treated everyone with the respect he expected to receive and not all were authentic with him in return.
As with many ideas and concepts, such as the Parker School Methods, Pond and Connell often took bits and pieces of other programs they thought would make an excellent addition to their ranch school curriculum. I suppose another way of looking at it is that if your students are doing all of the work anyway, why not join an organization that has a wonderful structure for earning badges and awards? It’s not unlike modern universities being affiliated with organizations like the NCEA and NCAA.
Ahem. There would BE no college basketball without this sort of thing!
What does this mean for our modern community?
It means that Los Alamos’s Boy Scout Troop 22 was founded in 1918, only eight years after the very first Boy Scout Troop (Troop 1) was formed in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Our scout troop has been around for over 100 years!
Scouting was very much a part of life at the Los Alamos Ranch School, but when scouting first came about in 1910, horses really weren’t a part of the equation. Of course, that wasn’t going to work for LARS. So Troop 22 became the very first mounted scout patrol ever. It’s something you’ll often see celebrated here locally on National Scouting Day. In 2022, the scouts even hauled their horses out to Fuller Lodge to remind the community where it all began.
In fact, I have to admit that I’ve always sort of imagined the Los Alamos Ranch School’s Troop 22 to be a bit like the scout troop in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which was filmed on location in Arches, Utah. I’m not sure how many lost artifacts Troop 22 found in and around the Pajarito Plateau, but I know we’ve certainly discovered some cool things while hiking in the region!
Although this comparison might be due to the absolutely gorgeous photo (below) I keep slipping into my blog posts. This image of Bill Carson sitting on a rock atop the Dome looking out to the northeast is a striking image. Perhaps Bill Carson of Los Alamos and Herman Mueller of Utah would’ve been camp pals if they’d had the chance.
Regardless of how you feel about Indiana Jones or Scouting, it’s safe to say that the outdoor activities in and around our community are perfect for Boy Scouting and pretty much anything else you’d like to do. So be like the ranch students! Hike, fish, swim, camp, ski, ice skate, and learn everything you can! And when you’re ready to buy or sell a home here in this unique mountain community, give me a call! I’d love to talk Los Alamos living with you!
There are so many images that pop into the mind when you think about Los Alamos in the Ranch School days. I’m always reminded of the popular photo of the boys skating and playing hockey on Ashley Pond in their shorts. Then there are photos of boys gathered around the fire. Photos of classes with the school masters. And, of course, in our last blog we talked about the Pond and Connell method of advertising the ranch school using beautiful photos of the boys set against the dramatic backdrop of the Jemez Mountains.
I think when we’re looking at these photos its really important to consider one thing. How difficult is it to learn to navigate a pack train like the one in the photo? The answer is: pretty darned difficult!
Horses were a huge part of ranch school life. I sometimes chuckle to myself that I know a lot of young ladies here in town who would have loved ranch school life just because of the horses. Yet they would’ve been down at the Brownmoor School in Santa Fe because the Los Alamos Ranch School didn’t take girls.
We’ve talked a lot about the healthy promises made by the Ranch School to the families of their students. Promises about the clear mountain air, clean living, activities, and outdoor pursuits guaranteed to make men out of any boy. But even if potential students enjoyed good health, many of their parents sent them here to Los Alamos to be toughened up. And the horse centric school curriculum was a big part of that toughening up!
Every boy was assigned a horse when they got to school. Once they’d hit the trading post for the school supplies and gear, they were taken to the barn. Mack Wallace, a student at the Ranch School in the 1930s shared his memory of that event with John D Wirth and Linda Harvey Aldrich in their book about the Ranch School years.
[There were about thirty horses] “gathered in the corral when we approached it. We were first ushered into the tack room within the big white barn, and our saddles and brides were pointed out. Back in the corral, on the first day, a young man haltered a horse and watched while I painstakingly put on the bridle, then placed the saddle blanket and saddle on his back and fastened the girth. I was wise enough to note that my mount had ballooned his belly and with a great heave on the girth I countered the measure. As we rode back to the “Big House” horse and rider became acquainted. His name was Nogales, and he was magnificent. This was an animal that I came to love and trust, and I think maybe he reciprocated in his way.”
It might seem almost shocking to hear that it was estimated every boy who attended the ranch school had at least ridden a horse once or twice before. Some had been frequent riders. But at this time, horses were still a large part of life, even in the city. Not that many of the students had ever learned to balance a load on a pack horse, tie a Los Alamos Diamond Hitch Knot, and figure out how to avoid saddle sores for the rider and the horse while spending days camping on the trail.
Horse shows and horse racing were considered an important part of the social season. In fact, the National Horse Show began in 1883 in New York City at Madison Square Gardens before moving to the Horse Park in Lexington KY in 2011. Other huge horse shows such as the Pennsylvania National Horse Show and the Washington National Horse Show soon became popular. The enormous amount of publicity eventually became part of a Disney movie plot in 1968 when “The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit” gave little girls everywhere stars in their eyes for the big gray gelding Aspercel jumping in the Washington International Horse Show.
Elizabeth Taylor was a well known and frequent attendee of the big horse shows and was often photographed on the opening night. In 2006 there was a popular Animal Planet show called, Horse Power: Road to the Maclay. But many people don’t realize that the ASPCA Maclay is an equitation class started in 1933 at the National Horse Show by Alfred Maclay. The purpose was to award the top performing young riders in America. The Maclay is still going strong today and is a big deal if you’re an equestrian in the hunter jumper world.
Horse racing carried a similar high society stamp of approval, hence the still current trend of ladies in enormous and elaborate hats at the Kentucky Derby! Believe it or not, but the entire country used to follow horse racing. The racing exploits of horses like Man-o-War, Secretariat, Ruffian, and Seabiscuit were a big deal for everyone back then.
But you’re not going to herd cattle or put a pack string together for an overnight camping trip with a show hunter. You need a great all around working horse for that! And those working horses in Los Alamos had to do a little bit of everything. Boys were taught to ranch ride, but they were also encouraged to ride well in any kind of saddle, or “the eastern style” as it was called back then. Opportunities abounded for students to play polo, jump, learn to drive the wagon team, and hunt from horseback.
In the remaining lists of Los Alamos Ranch School Horses in 1942, you can find the horse Mack Wallace was talking about, Nogales, or “Nogal” as he was officially listed. In 1942 he was 14. Which probably means he came to the ranch as a 6 or 7 year old and likely spent quite a lot of time with Mack in the later part of the 1930s. The oldest horse on the list from 1942 was 23 years old. Most were saddle horses, but there were several work horses for the wagons and other ranch activities as well.
The average age of a ranch horse was in the mid to late teens. Truthfully, back in those days, having working horses at 20-23 years old meant they were taking great care of these critters. What I know from my own daughter’s interest in riding is that a teenaged or even twenty something horse is a wonderful teacher. It seems likely that’s exactly what these horses were doing for the boys!
Some of the boys referred to the horses as “ego-wounders”, but all agreed that these horses gave the students an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of themselves, to learn patience and self-control and respect for living things who have thoughts, feelings, and personalities all their own.
Several of the young men were quite good in the saddle, an English saddle that is. Several of them had come from ranching families and knew their way around a western saddle and even cattle. But one thing most of those boys agreed upon was that they’d never had to care for and manage their own horses the way they did those at the ranch. Pampered scions of well to do families rarely did barn chores in those days. They would have had several grooms or ranch hands for that sort of thing. At school, the boys were the grooms and ranch hands.
A saddle maker in Silver City created the distinctive high cantle saddles the boys used at the Ranch School. Each boy was responsible for keeping their equipment in top condition and repair. They groomed their horses, oversaw their general care, and were responsible for keeping them healthy on the trail. It was a daily list of tasks that each boy grew to enjoy. Considering the love that each master and the headmasters had for horses, ranching, and western culture, it’s no wonder the boys enjoyed this new life at the Ranch School on the Pajarito Plateau.
Horses are still a big part of life in Los Alamos. We love to hit the Posse Shack for a Cowboy Breakfast the first Sunday of each month and head out to walk the stables for a visit. The Fair and Rodeo Parade and events take place in August with several days of rodeo fun and there are plenty of County sponsored horse exhibitions and fun days. We have a thriving Pony Club for those who’d like to join a club for kids who want to learn about horse care and management. Or you can take a few lessons and learn exactly how the boys were taught patience, tenacity, and self-awareness by a four legged master.
Ranching and outdoor pursuits are still important on the Pajarito Plateau today. We might not be riding our horses to work, (which would increase commute times but seriously decrease driving and traffic issues!), but we can still enjoy the amazing beauty of this small town on a big plateau. And if you’ve got a house in Los Alamos you’d like to discuss, give me a call. I’m your hometown real estate broker! I’d love to chat Los Alamos real estate with you!
Advertising is both simple and complicated these days. Sure. Almost anyone can do some basic graphic design and slap an ad on social media. Making a 3 minute video is easily accomplished on your phone. But trying to actually get the word out to a specific market when folks are being flooded with so much information every second of the day takes thought.
How much more thought would it have taken to advertise an exclusive boarding school for boys? Then add in the fact that the Los Alamos Ranch School was in the middle of nowhere. We are still in the middle of nowhere. But life before Google Maps, satellite imagery, and in an age when newsprint ads had to be physically sent to a printing office would have made things even more difficult!
So how did the Los Alamos Ranch School get the word out? Brochures. Lots and lots of brochures. While some of these have survived time and are preserved deep inside the Los Alamos History Museum Archives, Ashley Pond Junior’s first brochure in 1917 carried the title, “An Outdoor School for Boys”. And that is how they sold the school.
There was no doubt that attendance was a major concern of the ranch school. The program was certainly worth the pricey tuition. In 1935, Los Alamos was the first western boarding school to have an examiner on the College Board. Art Chase was the first to serve on the English Board, followed by Harry Walen. In 1926 and again in 1936, a graduate of the Los Alamos Ranch School was ranked #1 in the freshman class at Princeton.
Anecdotal tales from graduates of the ranch school recall the individualized educational opportunities. “Virgil in the Wilderness” when students trekked into the mountains to learn Latin or read poetry. When they were encouraged to expand their minds while using their hands. Laboratory equipment was in short supply, but the Los Alamos Ranch School Masters were young, intelligent, and always finding ways to demonstrate concepts in the real world with equipment handy around the ranch.
School Masters were recruited from the best graduating college classes around the country. Men like Lawrence Hitchcock and Art Chase set a precedent for Masters to continue studies in their field. They would leave the ranch school for a semester or two, or perhaps a shorter time, and do advanced work in their field. Then they would return and share what they’d learned with the students. It was a varied curriculum, and yet the very way this was set up advertised the Los Alamos Ranch School from coast to coast. Our graduates were showing up in college lecture halls with robust health, great minds, and a desire to learn and put that education into practice. It made for the best kind of advertising!
And the rest of the advertising was done via photographs. Photos in magazines Large photo spreads in newspapers and brochures. Photos of the ranch students were sold and used as postcards and holiday greeting cards. And why not? This is still happening today! How many times do you travel up or down our Main Hill Road and see folks in the pullouts taking pictures with whatever device they can lay hands on?
Most of the photos used to advertise the school featured the boys outdoors in dramatic scenery. Most were student photos or those taken by the Masters while out on patrols or camping. All are absolutely stunning.
So next time somebody wants to know what’s so great about Los Alamos, just whip out your phone and take a picture for them. Our dramatic scenery, amazing history, and long standing tradition of outdoor pursuits makes this a special place to live. I feel lucky to be a part of this community and when you’re ready to join me, give me a call. I’m your hometown real estate broker and I’d love to talk Los Alamos real estate with you!
Ashley Pond is something most of us take for granted. It’s a place we gather. It’s a huge part of our community and it’s the central focus of quite a lot of life in Los Alamos. Sometimes we just call it “the Pond”. Truthfully, were it not for Ashley Pond the person, (Ashley Pond Junior of course!) we wouldn’t be living here on the Pajarito Plateau enjoying a not necessarily unusual snow day in March.
I’ve been digging into Los Alamos history a lot lately because we all seem fascinated with it and I find myself intrigued about exactly how our wonderful town seems to exist when it would be almost impossible to simply stumble upon this area on accident. This has led me to some rather interesting parallels between Ashley Pond and Los Alamos and the Pajarito Plateau as a whole.
Ashley Pond Junior was the only surviving son of Ashley and Harriet Pond. That’s not all that unusual for the time period. Children’s health was a national and global concern at that time. Ashley Junior had health issues from the beginning, but his parents were determined to throw their considerable resources at his health issues to give him the best chance to be their surviving child.
Ashley Senior was a lawyer. When Ashley Junior was born in 1872, his father was a director of the Michigan Central Railroad. He was also the chief midwestern counsel (lawyer) for Cornelius Vanderbilt. Ashley Senior was said to be stoic, businesslike, and totally lawyer like in personality. His surviving child was the polar opposite. He was honest, eager, gregarious, and often became the target of unscrupulous business schemes because he had a core belief in the inherent honor and fair play of others. His personal philosophy was that everything in life could be boiled down to two things. Right or wrong. This was a philosophy he brought with him to New Mexico and the Los Alamos Ranch School.
The fact that Ashley Pond Junior was the polar opposite of his stoic, lawyer like father is only one reason why the journey he made through his life is so very parallel to the one that Los Alamos itself has made.
Ashley Junior’s first experience in New Mexico happened around 1899 or 1900. In 1898 he joined up with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and had hopes of going to Cuba to see action. Instead he wound up taking care of the horses in Tampa, FL because he became deathly ill with typhoid fever and was considered too sickly for active duty. His father sent him to a ranch near Catskill, NM. Catskill is now on the register of historic places in NM.
The only thing remaining of the original town in Colfax County are 25 brick structures shaped like beehives. These charcoal ovens are the only remainder of an enormous charcoal manufacturing operation. Charcoal had to manufactured in large quantities for metal smelting operations going on across the nation. There were 9 lumber camps in and around the Catskill area and the pine was cut down to fit inside the ovens as part of the charcoal manufacturing process. I can only imagine how the wild terrain, enormous lumber operation, ranching, and the connection to steel mills back east affected Ashley Pond Junior.
It didn’t take Pond very long to embrace life in New Mexico to the fullest. 30 year old Ashley Pond Junior fell in love with the 17 year old daughter of a Watrous rancher named Hazel Hallett. The couple married in 1903 and Peggy Pond was born right away. She was the eldest of three Pond children and the most well known here in Los Alamos because of her enormous contribution of photographs, books, information, and other history of our area.
The Pond family didn’t last long in Watrous. Ashley Junior was all set to start a school on ranch land he’d purchased in the area, but a flood on the Mora River wiped him out. This brief setback caused him to return to Detroit where he accepted a position as a vice president for Pontiac.
It’s hard to reconcile the idea of our Ashley Pond running a company like Pontiac. Marriage to Ashley Junior was difficult. Hazel often took the kids and went to live with her family as Ashley tried one venture or another. Most of his dreams collapsed and almost all of them involved New Mexico.
He ran a farm in Roswell, NM, which sounds a bit ambitious if you’ve spent much time down there in the wind, sun and sand. The family lived in a metal building which Hazel tried to spruce up with family antiques and imported rugs.
Meanwhile, Los Alamos wasn’t in much better shape. The Ramon Vigil Land Grant encompassed 32 thousand acres of grass and wooded land on the Pajarito Plateau. This land grant itself has come under scrutiny multiple times, (this eventually affected the building of Pajarito Acres too!) the grant had been purchased by midwestern based investors in the 1880s who essentially stripped the land of its resources through lumbering and overgrazing cattle. In 1900 Harry Buckman logged the same land for his lumber company, establishing the town of Buckman in White Rock Canyon as a shipping point. By 1903 the landscape was mostly tree stumps. Homesteaders had been on the Pajarito Plateau for decades by then but Harold H Brook and several investors purchased the land grant but never got around to doing much with it before going broke and dumping the land on a Santa Fe bank.
This is when Ashley Pond Junior and the Pajarito Club came on scene. (more about that HERE) Ashley Junior was determined to make the Pajarito Plateau his haven in New Mexico and he did everything possible to make that happen. It’s so incredible how similar the journeys of the land and the man seem to be. Ashley Junior’s Los Alamos Ranch School grew and thrived for twenty-five years. Compared to the others who owned or worked the land before he came on scene, that was an enormous amount of time.
Ashley Junior’s determination, passion, and dreams were the thing that caused Los Alamos to bloom. Historians have credited his willingness to think outside the box, his ability to charm those around him with his genuine enthusiasm and honor code, and his networking capabilities as the reason behind the school’s success. He integrated himself and the Los Alamos Ranch School in the community of the Pajarito Plateau. Homestead families were a huge part of the ranch school’s day to day running. The families in the Espanola Valley were part of that community as well and in return they became invested in the future of Los Alamos as well. As they still are today.
I think it’s really important to remember that Ashley Pond and his right hand man AJ Connell didn’t close the Los Alamos Ranch School because it failed or because it had run its course. The Parker Schools, Ashley Junior’s inspiration for the Los Alamos Ranch School, are still in operation today. It’s entirely reasonable to think that had Robert J Oppenheimer not been just as obsessed with New Mexico as Ashley Pond Junior, he never would’ve picked the ranch school as his Manhattan Project site. Had Oppenheimer not picked Los Alamos, the ranch school might very well still be in operation. How is THAT for an alternate timeline plot?
In short, what this means is that the longest standing traditions and purpose in Los Alamos are health andlearning! No wonder we’re a top contender for the healthiest place to live in America. It’s just who we are! And when you’re ready to join our community, give me a call! I’m a hometown Los Alamos girl and I’d love to talk Los Alamos housing with you.
There’s no doubt that the name “Los Alamos” conjures up visions of mushroom clouds, atomic bombs, and science (always science!). But if that’s where you start, you’re missing so much!
Before the labs, before the ranch school, there was the Pajarito Club. The club got it’s somewhat official start in 1914 when Ashley Pond and his business partners took an option to purchase the 32,000 acre Ramon Vigil Land Grant from a Santa Fe Bank.
The bank had acquired the land after several previous owners had more or less lost interest in it. “Lost interest” is a simple way of saying that the plateau land had been purchased by midwestern investors in the 1880s and had since hosted cattle and timber operations (including the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad) until it the final business, the Ramon Land and Lumber Company failed and left the land in the possession of the bank.
Ashley Pond approached his lifelong friends, Henry Joy and Roy Chapin about purchasing the land. Joy and Chapin brought in Paul and David Gray and created the Pajarito Land Corporation. The business then purchased the Ramon Vigil Land grant for $80,000. In the initial purchase, Pond was only able to chip in $8000. This lack of capital on his part would give his vote less value with his partners and later played a big role in the short lifespan of the Pajarito Club.
During their respective childhoods, the young men involved in this venture had spent a good amount of time the Huron Mountain Club in Michigan (the club still exists today). The club had provided outdoor activities like hunting and fishing as well as land for its members to have a cabin with all of the modern amenities. These were wealthy families enjoying a refreshing weekend in the country. You might imagine that life on the Pajarito Plateau was not what these folks expected.
Pond was the on site manager of the Pajarito Club. He settled his camp in some buildings leftover from the lumber company days. The idea was to have a clubhouse and a few cabins for guests to enjoy. Architect IH Rapp was hired to design the structures. He was well known for his work on the territorial mansion and the New Mexico Military Institute. The clubhouse Rapp created for the Pajarito Club had much in common with the work he did for the St Vincent’s Sanatorium in Santa Fe.
Things were difficult from nearly the beginning. Chapin and Joy were only able to come to the club two or three times during its existence and the Grays didn’t visit at all. This meant they had very little understanding of the difficulties Pond was experiencing in maintaining a hobby ranch in the middle of nowhere. In the beginning they were hauling water by hand from a nearby creek!
The only improvements the partners were willing to agree to without argument addressed the water accessibility issues. When Pond wanted to purchase 200 head of cattle, build barns to store grain, and plant crops, the partners felt he was being extravagant. They didn’t seem to understand that without cultivating these resources on Club land, there would be no food to eat!
In the end, the threat of war caused Ashley Pond’s partners back east to lose interest in the Pajarito Club venture. The club was only active for a period of two years. But the result was critical to the development of the hometown we know and love today. If Ashley Pond had not been the managing partner of the Pajarito Club, he wouldn’t have met Clara and Templeton Johnson, nor would he have met H H Brook of the Los Alamos Ranch. Both Brook and the Johnsons became instrumental in the realization of Pond’s dream of a ranch school. Had things not happened in the way that they did, it’s likely that the Manhattan Project would not have landed here on the Pajarito Plateau.
So next time you’re cruising past Ashley Pond, remember that the man who inspired the name is also the man who’s intense love for this region and his dogged determination made our lives here possible! As always, thanks to the Los Alamos Historical Museum Archives and the Peggy Pond Church Collection for photos and information, as well as John D Wirth and Linda Harvey Aldrich for their book about the Los Alamos Ranch School, available for purchase through the Historical Society. And when you’re ready to purchase your own piece of the Pajarito Plateau, give me a call! I’d love to chat Los Alamos real estate with you!
The title of this post, “A School with Nature as a Textbook” sounds like a fairly modern notion, doesn’t it? Outdoor schools, Montessori Educational principals, Nature Preschools, and outdoor classrooms are things we tend to consider as new and innovative changes to “traditional” educational models involving cavernous halls filled with students listening to a lecture given by a professor, a teaching assistant, or even a recorded lecture or seminar.
What if I told you that the phrase “a school with Nature as a Textbook” was a phrase used by a Boston based newspaper to describe the Los Alamos Ranch School in the early 1900’s? Many of us know that the Montessori method has been around for “awhile”, but did you know that Maria Montessori opened the first Montessori School “Casa de Bambini” in Rome on January 6, 1907?
Here in the United States, our Los Alamos Ranch School and so many other similar schools came about because of a man named Colonel Francis Wayland Parker. He founded a school in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois in 1901. The Parker School (formally called the Francis W Parker School) is still in operation today as one of the premier educational facilities in the US.
According to Parker, “A school should be a model home, a complete community, an embryonic democracy.” The Francis W Parker School’s website states:
Since its founding, Francis W. Parker School has educated students based on a philosophy that aims to support their growth and development by making them aware of and responsive to the fundamental needs of society.
The school’s philosophy became known in the 1900’s as “the Parker Method”. Schools advertising this educational philosophy began to pop up all over, but the one that impacted Los Alamos was the San Diego Parker School. 100 year later, the school is still operating today and includes two more campuses, one a “lower” school for younger students and another that offers bilingual education.
When the Los Alamos Ranch School was no more than a spark of an idea in Ashley Pond’s mind, he was a guide and camp host at the then Pajarito Club, (more about that in a future post). During the summer of 1915, Pond hosted the Johnson Family at the Pajarito Club. Templeton and Clara Johnson lived in San Diego with their two sons Winthop and Alan. The boys had just begun attending the San Diego Parker School, which Clara Templeton had founded after being less than pleased with the educational opportunities then available to her sons. Pond was fascinated by Clara Templeton’s “progressive” educational program. He’d been longing to implement a similar program in New Mexico for years. Pond had grown up a “sickly” child and the turning point for him had been his parents’ decision to send him to a Western Ranch for the “healthful air”.
Winthrop Johnson would go on to graduate from the Los Alamos Ranch School eleven years after that conversation between his parents and Ashley Pond. Winthop’s father, Templeton Johnson, was an architect educated in Paris. He’d designed campus buildings for the San Diego Parker School with an open design where open sided classrooms were clustered around a central courtyard. That design is quite similar to much of the architecture we’re familiar with here in the Southwest. Designs that capitalize on the climate in order to create spaces that encourage collaboration.
The Parker School Method or the “Progressive” educational model emphasized health and outdoor education. Physical activity was seen as key to a child’s proper development. Working with the hands, limited book learning, group collaboration and small group instruction with an emphasis on individual learning needs and styles was key.
To our modern minds this sounds almost like a “duh” moment. A good number of great schools, (including our own district), from all grade levels and regions utilize “Socratic” learning methods that encourage students to learn from each other and from questioning not only the teachers, but everything, as a method of discovery.
In the fall of 1915, all of Ashley Pond’s children went to San Diego to attend the San Diego Parker School. This left Pond with a lot of time on his hands and a passion for his Ranch School ideals. The rest is history.
The black and white photos above are from the Francis W Parker School’s history and were obtained from their website here. I love these photos because they are so reminiscent of what we now think of as “Montessori”. However, they also very much represent the Parker philosophy of “making them (children) aware of and responsive to the fundamental needs of society”. These photos show students “playing” at running a store or shopping. It also appears that they are “playing” at doing laundry. But that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. The Francis W Parker school acquired old dolls. In the photo, the students are laundering doll clothing so that it can be reused on refurbished dolls created from the pieces of old dolls and then resold to support the school!
This philosophy became critical to our Los Alamos Ranch School, but in a unique way. Instead of rehabbing dolls, the boys of the Ranch School were running a ranch. They grew what they ate and learned important lessons in architecture, animal husbandry, engineering, building, and surveying.
This closeness to nature and the ability to utilize “nature as a textbook” is still one of the things I love best about Los Alamos. As before, I give credit for photographs of the Ranch School to John D Wirth and Linda Harvey Aldrich as well as the Los Alamos Historical Society archives. Information about the San Diego Parker School and the Francis W Parker School can be obtained through their website links. And when you’re ready to join our community here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I love life in Los Alamos and I’d love to share that with you and your family!
As I was considering topics for this week’s post, I came across the following photograph.
I’m sure most of you will recognize the building. It’s probably safe to imagine that most of us have sat or stood or even danced around the rooms of Fuller Lodge. You really can’t mistake the rich wood tones, the distinctive French doors, or that fireplace.
What’s a bit fascinating is that at first glance it might seem as if this is a photo from the Manhattan Project era. Maybe a dance for the GIs and scientific staff. Except that the girls are dressed in the sort of “formal wear” we often associate with school dances. And… the boys look awfully young with their slicked back hair, neckerchiefs, and shorts!
This photo is of a Valentines Day Dance in 1941, which was oddly appropriate given we just said goodbye to Valentines Day this week. Honestly, my first thought centered on the girls. Who were they? Where on earth did they come from? Were they daughters of local families on the plateau? The answer might surprise you.
In the 1930s and early 1940s, the Brownmoor School for Girls operated out of four leased buildings at the Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe. We tend to think of the Bishop’s Lodge as a fairly high end hotel offering spa services, trail rides, and other amenities to entertain tourists.
Back then the literature suggested it was a boarding school that “appeals to those parents who desire for their girls a development of their abilities under sympathetic guidance, and the maintenance of high standards of work conduct.” In actuality, the Brownmoor School operated quite a lot like the Los Alamos Ranch School did.
The Brownmoor School was founded in 1931 by Justine Ames Browne and Mary Atwell Moore who went on to be directors of the school. Girls came from all over, but many of them were from ranching families throughout the South and Midwest. The usual academic classes like mathematics, history, science and language were offered. Each girl had a horse to ride and spent much of their time outdoors doing archery, badminton, tennis, skiing, and skating. Dancing, singing, drama, and something called “social training” were also included. Which is where the Los Alamos Ranch School came in.
As part of their social training, girls would have the opportunity to attend away parties, gatherings, and events as a way to gain social graces that were a big part of why they’d been sent to boarding school in the first place. Of course, the Los Alamos Ranch School had morphed into the Manhattan Project site prior to the Brownmoor School’s move to Scottsdale, Arizona. The girls also attended events at the La Fonda hotel. Former students of the school recall Santa Fe as a wonderful place to be at that time. Artists from all over the US were plentiful. The food was amazing and unique experiences happened every day. Such as being awakened each morning at 7 AM by a matron with a “tom-tom” in the hallway, a name also given to the school yearbook.
It’s amazing to think that even though we consider Los Alamos to have been “remote” or “in the middle of nowhere” back in the Ranch School days, there was still a connectedness in the region. If you’d like to read more about the Brownmoor School for Girls, check out this article in the New Mexican here. When you’re ready to join our community here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat Los Alamos Real Estate with you!
In 2022, for the 3rd year in a row, Los Alamos was ranked as the #1 healthiest community in America by US News & World Report. Honestly, considering the crazy number of colds, flu like viruses, Covid mutations, and just bugs going around our town, I’m keeping my fingers crossed we can pull of a fourth win. Can you imagine what it’s like in communities not on the list of healthiest places to live? Of course, Los Alamos has always been of the healthiest places to exist. It’s why the Ranch School started in the first place.
In 1917, the Selective Service Act was created to draft men for WWI. Suddenly men around the country were being examined by doctors in a manner that allowed for the collection of a lot of data. What they discovered was that the United States had a bit of a health issue. We were a sickly nation of malnourished and under-conditioned people. One of the first responses was to create a public physical education program. Oh boy! PE class!
In 1916, over ten thousand cases of Polio (Infantile Paralysis) were reported. Young men had rheumatic fever, mononucleosis, lead poisoning, poor nutrition, and physical deterioration from lack of sunlight and poor air quality in smoggy, overcrowded cities. Some people never saw sunlight thanks to the smog! They rarely did physical activity indoors or outside.
In Linda Harvey Aldrich & John D Wirth’s book they give another important reminder, “Above all, however, it is important to remember that the Los Alamos Ranch School existed before the age of antibiotics, before modern pharmaceuticals and diagnostic tools, and before widespread public health measures governing waste disposal, pollution of air and land, and the safety of food and water.”
Both Ashley Pond and AJ Connell had grown up as “sickly” children. Connell openly told people that he felt a desire to help these boys physically because nobody had known how to do that for him. The Los Alamos Ranch School brochures specifically assured parents that they accepted “sickly boys” who were “below par”. The program sent weekly progress reports home to assure parents their sons were increasing in health. For the first few years, boys would come for a month or two and go home. Then they started only remaining at home for the three months of summer. They were healthier in Los Alamos and it isn’t difficult to imagine why.
The criterion that US News & World Report uses to determine their ranking of healthiest communities focuses on things like equity of opportunities, infrastructure, education, housing, and environment. Since the time of our healthy Ranch School, other cities and regions have benefitted from environmental guidelines and laws as well as widespread advancements in hygiene. And yet, even after all of those modern improvements, we’re still a healthier place to live. How cool is that?
Now, Los Alamos Ranch School did have a firm policy of not taking any students with active cases of Tuberculosis. Several of the boys had previous experience with TB, but were certified as “cured” prior to being accepted as students. At that time, it was possible to use a chest X-ray to determine if a case of primary tuberculosis was healed. At that time, the patient was considered not contagious and many people did not ever reach the point of secondary tuberculosis.
Most of the boys at the Ranch School were there because of asthma. It almost seems strange to think that an asthmatic would come from near sea level to this altitude with our average pollen and dust count, add a dollop of horse dander and hair, tons of other random animal and environmental allergens, and somehow this helps their condition?
Just when I think this must be wrong, I recall AJ Connell’s almost rigidly structured schedule. The students came from lazy, inactive, overfed, indulged lifestyles. They were introduced to a healthy, active lifestyle full of good nutrition, emotional and psychological and peer support. Then they spent four years making this a daily habit. Of course they’re likely to never have issues with asthma again. At this same time, they’re at the perfect age for building an immune system and toughening their bodies. Plus, AJ. Connell just didn’t believe in sickness. He believed in mind over matter!
It seems that in the end, as with most things in Los Alamos, it was education that won out. AJ Connell kept up with the latest medical advances in health, fitness, nutrition, and treatments. He always wanted more information and then used that to improve his program. Just as this town has been doing ever since.
When you’re ready to reach out and become a part of this community, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl who loves to talk about Los Alamos history, housing, and the wonderful things planned for our future. I’d love to chat real estate in Los Alamos with you!
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