Tag: Los Alamos County (Page 4 of 18)

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!

There’s really no doubt that Los Alamos has definitive “eras” that apply to the concept of “Life in Los Alamos”. This isn’t unusual. Any town or city across the globe could say the same. But there are a few things about our “eras” that are quite unique! As I dig a little more into the ranch school, I become more and more fascinated by the amazing learning opportunities those boys had at their Ranch Boarding School.

Everyone Got the Same Start

We travel a lot these days, perhaps less since Covid, but still a lot compared to different periods in history. You might take your kid to catch a plane in Santa Fe or Albuquerque so they can go off to school. Maybe you travel with them. Even traveling by road to drop your college kid at NMSU is a day’s travel, but still not bad.

Can you imagine the trek up the mountain to the Los Alamos Ranch School? Train to Santa Fe, followed by a wagon ride in the early years, or perhaps a truck in later times. The road wasn’t paved. Those boys probably felt as though their teeth had been knocked loose from that journey.

When they first arrived at the school they were immediately met by Bences Gonzales, (you can read more about Bences HERE). The friendly, almost uncle like Bences would take the new students to the Trading Post where they were fitted with a uniform and issued their school gear, which was fairly extensive. New student were assigned a Scout Patrol, given a room at the Big House, and introduced to their roommate.

The next critical step was the naming. Yes. The naming. According to John D. Wirth and Linda Harvey Aldrich’s history of our Ranch School, AJ Connell felt strongly that every young man was an individual. As such, no two boys had the same name. If you were John or Daniel or Robert and there were other Johns, Daniels, and Roberts, you were going to become “Jack” or “Juan” or maybe something completely different such as “Red” (should your hair be red) or “Lefty” (maybe you were left handed?).

This isn’t an unusual concept. In fact, you find this culture still going strong in military units, Scout camps, and other clubs. Sororities and fraternities do similar things as well. This even reminds me of the current trend of our kiddos in choosing new names and trying them on for a period of time. It’s a normal part of developing identity and AJ Connell seemed to understand this necessary piece of growing up. He also knew that if kids were given names reflecting their individuality and strengths, they were much less likely to be assigned a hurtful or negative nickname.

The Daily Schedule

Days at the Ranch School began at 6:30AM. Students rolled out of bed, drank a glass of water, dressed in their uniforms, and headed out the door to PT. This morning physical training was done in all weather. In keeping up with the most “modern” of healthful routines, Connell required the boys to be shirtless in all but the coldest and snowiest weather. In warmer weather they were expected to exercise “in the buff”. Can you imagine? When I head out for a run in the mornings I generally wear layers even in summer! It can be downright chilly up here all year round and this was over a hundred years ago when the region had far larger snowfalls and cooler temperatures in general.

Breakfast and room inspection happened between PT and the start of class at precisely 7:45AM. Class went until 12:55PM with a single break for milk and cookies. At 1:00PM the largest meal of the day was served, not an uncommon thing in ranching and farming cultures since you needed the calorie intake in order to have enough energy to get the manual labor done. This big meal was followed by a short “rest period” and the afternoons were filled with “recreation”, which was really just more education disguised by fun.

Ashley Pond’s vision for the school suggested, “it is our aim to fill every minute of the boys’ time with some profitable work made as interesting as play.” That is most certainly what ranch school life provided. Supper was served at 6:00PM and younger boys were in bed by 8:15PM and the oldest boys by 9:00PM. I think I would’ve been begging to go to bed by 8:00 after a day like that!

Classwork

Classes like mathematics, grammar, and reading were important at the Los Alamos Ranch School, but that wasn’t the only thing Ashley Pond’s progressive educational plan included. Once afternoon rest was over, the boys helped out on the ranch. Twice a week they rode out on horseback with their Scout Patrols. Other afternoons they worked in the barn, hiked in the mountains and were instructed by the staff in botany, geology, forestry, mineralogy, orthnology, wood crafts, topographical mapping, and surveying.

Ranch activities were called Industrial Training in the first two or three years of the school. After that it was referred to as “Community Work” and boys got school credit for these tasks. They often built and maintained trails, were responsible for the upkeep of the garden and grounds, and sometimes worked with the horses as much as they helped with office work.

The goal was to provide hands on training in real life skills. I can’t help but think about how many activities we have in town that mirror this philosophy. We have outdoor oriented pre-schools and programs for all ages at PEEC focused on nature. Our YMCA promotes camps for older students that focus on trail maintenance and forestry, and our Sportsman’s Club offers hunter safety, skeet shooting, and archery for youth and adults alike.

Student Health

Boys were weighed and measured when they first arrived at school. They were also weighed and measured weekly by the nurse. Connell was always present at these appointments. The idea was to send a weekly report to the parents of each student. The school’s big promise was to increase the health of the boys. Considering the rigorous and outdoor focused schedule, sending health reports home on a weekly basis would be a great way to brag to parents about how robust their sons were growing to be.

One Big Family

Another big draw of Ranch School life was the family atmosphere. All meals were served family style with either a school master or staff member at the head of each table in the dining hall. Good manners were emphasized and conversation was focused on topics related to what the boys were learning or doing around the ranch.

Evenings between supper and bedtime involved a gathering of boys around the Big House fireplace as a master read aloud. The boys enjoyed stories like Tarzan, or perhaps a book by Jack London. The atmosphere was intended to feel like a family gathering.

In the twenties, academic study time was instituted for boys struggling with their regular classes. They would gather together under the watchful eye of a master or an older boy and help each other as they completed or corrected assignments much in the same way modern students ask parents or older siblings and friends for help with their homework.

The Ranch School may be gone, but the spirit of Ashley Pond’s desire to educate kids in an outdoor environment with an emphasis on hands on learning is still alive and well here in Los Alamos! As always, I’d like to give credit where it’s due. Most of my information and photos for this post came from John D. Wirth and Linda Harvey Aldrich’s book, Los Alamos: The Ranch School Years. Please check it out for yourself! And when you’re ready to be part of our amazing community, give me a call! I’d love to chat Los Alamos real estate with you!

If I told you that the “motto” of Los Alamos was “At Los Alamos, everything is done for a reason.”, you probably wouldn’t be surprised. It might surprise you however, to learn that it was AJ Connell, director or “boss” of the Los Alamos Ranch School from it’s inception in 1917 until the Manhattan Project took over in 1943.

As the focus in our community seems entirely centered on the Manhattan Project and Oppenheimer, I’ve begun to get more and more curious about the Los Alamos Ranch School. Folks tell me so frequently that they’re in Los Alamos “for the schools”, or perhaps “for the amazing outdoor life”. Turns out, these two things in particular have always gone hand in hand here in Los Alamos.

Why a Ranch School?

Today we don’t think much about traveling from one coast to the other beyond groaning about a 3-4 hour plane ride and waiting around in airports. Children often travel for educational purposes. Some of those opportunities even involve heading off to a foreign country for an exchange program.

Would it surprise you know that it was quite the thing for families on the East Coast to send their sons to “Ranch Schools” in the West? One of the most famous Ranch Schools is The Evans School on the outskirts of Mesa, Arizona. The Evans School boasted names like Roosevelt, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, and DuPont. You might imagine how other families would be itching to send their sons to the American West to be educated like these scions of American industry.

When Ashley Pond purchased the Brook’s ranch in 1917, his initial vision for the school was a place where boys could be accepted year round and stay at the school only long enough to achieve an increased level of good health before heading back home to their families. With that goal in mind, families paid $150 per month for their sons to come to the Los Alamos Ranch School.

That number is probably a bit misleading these days, don’t you think? I know I didn’t bat an eye when I first read it in John D Wirth and Linda Harvey Aldrich’s book about the Los Alamos Ranch School Years. $150 a month sounds like a bargain these days. You can’t even hire someone to watch your toddler for that sort of money.

Here’s a reality check. According to amoritization.org, $150.00 in 1917 is the equivalent of $3837.89 in 2023. While it sounds astronomical, it’s really not that far off what a lot of preparatory schools charge for monthly tuition these days.

A brochure for the Los Alamos Ranch School dated in the 1920s states, “Our school is necessarily limited to boys whose parents are able and willing to pay for the best.”

Why did the Los Alamos Ranch School have to be so expensive? It might be better to dig a bit more into what tuition included. For their tuition cost, students would receive lodging, food, “medical attendance”, and use of a horse and necessary tack. It was a popular saying that tuition covered “everything but your personal laundry”.

A boy would arrive at school and be immediately taken in by a friendly face who would match him up with a sort of big brother or mentor from the older boys. He’d be taken to the Trading Post where he would purchase his gear (leather jacket, shorts, boots, hat, knife, matches, and other survival items). This gear was expected to last him the duration of his stay at the school whether it be months or years. I found it so very similar to sending my kiddo off to college only to realize she’d created a big balance at the school book store buying school supplies, books, and spirit wear.

In Wirth and Aldrich’s book, they tell the story of one young man who caused quite an issue with his folks back home by running up a $600 bill at the Trading Post. While that would be a shocker considering that’s about $15K in modern currency, it was pointed out to the disgruntled parent that their son made the decision to purchase English riding boots, his own .22 caliber rifle, and had also managed to regularly lose or misplace his survival gear, requiring him to replace knives, matches and other necessities before being allowed out on patrol.

From the beginning, the boys were being taught responsibility. How they took those lessons to heart is as unique as any modern student you might know today! After all, at Los Alamos everything is done for a reason.

In the next few posts, we’ll be exploring some of these rather amazing reasons why Los Alamos is the way that it is. And when you’re ready to be a part of this fantastic community, give me a call! I’d love to chat real estate in Los Alamos with you!