Los Alamos Historical Society Online Teacher's Guide

A business man from Detroit, Ashley Pond, bought Harold H. Brook’s homestead and started the Los Alamos Ranch School in 1917. His appointed director, A.J. Connell molded the school into his image, one that eliminated the influence of coddling mothers and emphasized the outdoors, discipline, and solid academic preparation. Connell recruited a faculty made up of mostly Ivy League and other elite Eastern college graduates who brought with them youth and enthusiasm. High academic standards helped recruit boys from moderately wealthy families.

Upon arrival at the school, each boy, ages 12 to 18, was assigned a horse. Every Monday, the boys spent afternoons working on community service projects such as trail building or improving the athletic facilities like the rifle range or tennis courts. Other afternoons were spent in sporting activities, swimming, fishing, hunting, hiking, basketball, tennis, horseback riding, and, in the winter, skating on Ashley Pond or skiing on Sawyer's Hill. Students also had access to a woodworking shop and darkroom as well as music lessons.

Camping trips into the surrounding mountains were frequent and well-remembered. The ins and outs of camping were as much a part of the ranch school curriculum as Latin and geometry.

On Dec. 7, 1942, a year to the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, A.J. Connell shared a letter from Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson with the students and faculty. The U.S. Army was taking over the school’s property in “the interests of the United States in the prosecution of the War…” Christmas holidays were canceled and a special schedule set up so the boys could complete the school year by February.

Activities:

• Visit the Los Alamos Historical Museum and read about the ranch school. Look at the daily schedule for the boys and record the differences between that schedule and YOUR school schedule.
• Use the Los Alamos Historical Society website to garner information about the ranch school.
• With classmates, create a brochure advertising the Los Alamos Ranch School and enticing parents to send their sons there.
• What would be the equivalent for an elite girls’ school? Create the curriculum for an elite girls’ school remembering that women’s roles in the 1930s was vastly different than it is today.
• Read about the Ranch School on the Children of the Manhattan Project website at http://www.mphpa.org/.
• If you created an elite boys’ ranch school today, what topics would you include? Create a boys' ranch school of the new millennium.