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!