 Camp Hamilton as it looked circa 1951. Courtesy/Paul Bombardt By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society Two weeks ago I wrote about Camp May, the getaway for senior boys at the Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS), but there was also another camp, one primarily used by the younger boys. Camp Hamilton has a longer, more detailed history. In 1918, the year after the Ranch School was founded, a man known only as F. Coomer leased a bit of land from the U.S. Forest Service to build a two-room log cabin in Pueblo Canyon east of the Otowi Pueblo site. Coomer was the general manager of the Rocky Mountain Camp Company, and he guided tours out of Santa Fe into Pueblo Canyon to an area he called Tent Cities of the Rockies. He showed his guests the rock-capped, cone-shaped mounds of tuff scattered through the area.
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By Sharon Sndyer Los Alamos Historical Society  Boys from the Los Alamos Ranch School’s Spruce Patrol at Camp May (date unknown). Courtesy/Los Alamos Historical Society Archive The Los Alamos County Park known as Camp May has long been enjoyed as a place for picnics, camping, hiking, birding, and many other outdoor pursuits, but a look into its history can make possible an even greater appreciation.
Camp May came into existence in the early years of the Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS) when a cabin was built in 1922-1923 on a site leased from the Forest Service. The large cabin with its stone fireplace became a popular base camp for weekend trips into the mountains and for skiing and hunting trips for the older LARS boys. The cabin was a gift of George and Edith May of Chicago. Their son, George T. May III, was one of four graduates of the Ranch School in 1923. The generosity of the May family and the advantage of special use permits from the Forest Service helped to enlarge the school’s campus without the need to purchase more land. The Ranch School would eventually own more than 750 acres including its main campus around Fuller Lodge, but the use of thousands of acres of national forests and park land greatly enhanced the possibilities.  This letter written in WWII and sent from France to a Women’s Army Corps (WAC) at Project Y in Los Alamos remained a mystery for 76 years. Courtesy/Los Alamos Historical Society By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society Sometimes the old saying “it’s a small world” is amazingly true! That statement definitely relates to the circumstances of a letter written in WWII and sent from France to a Women’s Army Corps (WAC) at Project Y. A native of Oxford, Miss., Katherine “Pat” Patterson joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps—soon to be changed officially to WAC—in autumn of 1942. She was called to active duty in December and was soon on a train headed to New Mexico along with several other WACs. They were to report to Lt. Col. Whitney Ashbridge on arrival at Project Y. Cpl. Patterson was 22 years old and was among the first 200 military personnel assigned to the Manhattan Project on the Hill. She began work as a clerk in the Army Service Forces. As with most families during World War II, Pat had other family members in the Armed Forces. Her brother, Jim Patterson, was serving in France. In the way of siblings, Jim decided to have a bit of fun with his sister and sent a letter that would send up red flags for the mail censors and get Pat into a precarious situation.  Katherine Stinson. Courtesy photoBy SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society In the early 1900s, a young Alabama woman named Katherine Stinson contacted famed aviator Max Lillie to ask if he would teach her to fly. His response: “Not a chance.” He was looking at a girl 5 feet tall and maybe a 100 pounds. She was small, but she was also persistent. Lillie eventually gave in and taught her to fly. And fly she did!  In this photo, María and Marcos Gomez are revisiting the site of their homestead on Two-Mile Mesa. Behind them is what was left of a corral. (Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.) By Aimee Slaughter
Los Alamos Historical Society How did people in the Pajarito Plateau’s past get their water? How did they live in a dry environment like ours? Ancestral Pueblo people who lived here hundreds of years ago used ingenious dryland farming techniques, and homesteading farmers at the turn of the twentieth century also conserved water for their farms and families. The Los Alamos Ranch School had to provide water for students, staff, and animals at the school. When the Manhattan Project took over the area, a rapidly growing population strained infrastructure, and providing enough water to homes was a constant concern. For hundreds of years, people have solved the challenges of finding water in a dry environment and have created diverse and vibrant communities here on the Pajarito Plateau.  A small visitor enjoys the Los Alamos Memorial Rose Garden. Photo by Sharon Snyder By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society For the first day of spring 2020, it seems appropriate to tell the story of a flower garden. Not just any flower garden, but one that has been special to Los Alamos for many years. Since the days of the Los Alamos Ranch School there have been gardens near Fuller Lodge, adding color to a scene that is special to all of us and enjoyed by visitors from around the world. As early as 1930, Helen Sulier, the Ranch School’s nurse, created a small flower garden near the Lodge and tended it for many years.  LASL Director Norris Bradbury and actress Linda Darnell, 1950. Courtesy/Los Alamos Historical Society Archives By Sharon Snyder Los Alamos Historical Society Along with the recent announcement of the closure of CB Fox, an old photograph of their location on Central Avenue surfaced. Dave Fox sent the picture of the old Hill Theatre to the Historical Society, and it created a curiosity about movie entertainment from the early days of Los Alamos to the present.  The Hill Theatre, c. 1952. Courtesy/Los Alamos Historical Society Archives
 P-Club Buildings. A guest cottage, the two-story Pond home, and Ashley Pond’s office are seen in this photograph of the Pajarito Club, c. 1915. (Courtesy of Los Alamos Historical Society Archives) By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Society When Ashley Pond Jr.’s attempt to start a ranch school near Watrous, NM, washed away in a flood in 1904, the disappointment was overwhelming. He returned home to Detroit and worked for a time in the fledgling automobile industry, but it wasn’t long before he was drawn back to New Mexico and tried a different venture.  Distribution of the major POW camps across the United States as of June 1944. Courtesy/U.S. Army By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Society After writing an article recently about a World War II prisoner of war (POW) camp in Kansas, I received several comments and questions that led me to do a sequel and bring the topic closer to home. Not long after the United States entered World War II, Britain requested American assistance with the housing prisoners of war. They were running out of resources. Their call for help eventually resulted in more than 425,000 POWs in approximately 400 camps in the United States. They were transported to the U.S. on troop transports emptied of American soldiers on the other side of the Atlantic. Other Allied nations—Australia, Canada, and France, as well as occupied Germany—were also building camps. England continued to operate 90 camps, and Canada created 40.  Scene from Camp Concordia Museum in Concordia, Kan. Courtesy/LAHS By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Society When Liz Martineau took over as executive director of the Historical Society last summer, I interviewed her for the Los Alamos Daily Post. In the course of that interview she mentioned that her father was a history buff and had written a book. “I’ll loan you a copy,” she said. The next day the book appeared on my desk—Camp Concordia: German POWs in the Midwest by Lowell A. May. This week’s history column will no doubt read like a book review because Lowell May reeled me in with his first few pages. The book features in-depth research, and it opened an entirely new area of history for me. With so many young men serving in the armed forces during World War II, there was a shortage of labor on farms. I had heard of a camp near Lordsburg, New Mexico, where German prisoners of war (POWs) worked on nearby farms, but after reading May’s book and doing further research online, it became clear that what I had learned to that point was only part of something much larger. The story of POW camps in the United States is sometimes referred to as one of the least studied aspects of the history of World War II. |
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