LOS ALAMOS HISTORY
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Learn / Research >
      • Information For Teachers
      • Teachers and Caregivers
      • Adult Resources >
        • National History Day
        • Homestead Driving Tour
        • History at Home
        • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
        • Development of the Atomic Bomb
        • Links and Resources
      • Archive >
        • About the Archive
        • Research Appointments
        • Inside the Archives
        • Share Your Stories
        • COVID-19 Collecting
    • Careers/Jobs
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Museum Campus
    • Museum >
      • Exhibits >
        • Online and Temporary Exhibits
      • Victory Garden
      • Explore Los Alamos
    • Tours
    • Oppenheimer House
  • Programs
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • Autumn 2023 Tour to Trinity
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
    • Volunteer Training
  • Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • History Blog
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts

​History Blog

Snyder: The Manhattan Project And The Los Alamos School In Taos

11/14/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Students and a master enjoy leisure time in the main room of the Sagebrush Inn c. 1945, a room that doesn’t look so very different today. Courtesy photo
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society


​The history of the Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS) is well documented. Two books have been written about the school, and the centennial of its founding was celebrated in 2017.
People in our community are reminded of the LARS years when they see the log and stone buildings along Bathtub Row or attend an event in beautiful Fuller Lodge, structures that were created for the ranch school that are now part of our historic district.

​Because the school closed at the height of its success, taken over by the Manhattan Project, LARS is still remembered and revered. Despite all of this recognition, few people are aware that the school tried to resurrect itself in Taos.


Read More
0 Comments

Historical Society: Evolution of Bathtub Row Press

8/26/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
By SHARON SNYDER and MAXINE JOPPA
Los Alamos Historical Society


In 1973, the alumni of the Los Alamos Ranch School arranged a huge reunion in Santa Fe. Many of the former students flew to Chicago just to take a special train to Lamy, a route many of them had taken as young boys.

John Shedd Reed, CEO of the Santa Fe Railroad and a member of the LARS Class of 1933,
made the cars on that special train available. Once in Santa Fe, the alumni stayed at Bishop’s Lodge, then owned by Jim Thorpe, LARS Class of 1942.

​In anticipation of the “boys” returning to Los Alamos for a day, the historical society sent old
photographs from the Ranch School era to the Los Alamos Monitor to publish in advance of the visit. Those same pictures, clipped from the newspapers, were displayed for the men to see during the reunion, and, naturally, they wanted copies of the photographs! The historical society explored the possibility of furnishing prints from the original photos, but that idea proved too expensive to recreate all of them in large numbers. So, another idea emerged.

All of the photos could be put together in a commemorative book that would sold to the men who had attended the reunion. With a little more thought, it seemed a good idea to add some history of the school and captions for the photographs, but all of those plans were to be carried out by a group of volunteers who knew little or nothing about publishing and had no money!

Ranch School master Fermor Church was ill (he would die within a few months), but he and his wife, Peggy Pond Church, agreed to write a short history of the school to go with the
photographs. 

To produce the book, the volunteers who put it all together went to the Los Alamos Credit Union and secured a no-interest loan on a “pay it back as you can” basis.  With the book finally ready to go to press, the inexperienced publishers contracted with a printer in Albuquerque, but they were given a bad press run. When the books arrived, there were mistakes and even some pages missing!

Read More
0 Comments

Who Are The Four Last Graduates Of Los Alamos Ranch School?

1/21/2019

0 Comments

 
By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Society

In the 25 years of the Los Alamos Ranch School’s existence, more than 550 boys came to the Pajarito Plateau as students and/or summer campers. Almost all of them went on to earn college degrees and make contributions to their chosen communities and, in many cases, to the nation.
The last four boys to graduate from the ranch school in late January of 1943 went on to make the school proud, and they epitomize the young men who were our “LARS boys.”



Read More
0 Comments

​Pond Family Leaves Mark on Aviation History

3/29/2018

1 Comment

 
 By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
 
The first airplane to land on the Pajarito Plateau set down in a open field in 1928. It was flown by Ashley Pond Jr., founder of the Los Alamos Ranch School.
 
Pond had planned to volunteer for pilot training in World War I. He tried to enlist in the army, but at 45 he was turned down because of his age.
 
Undeterred, he handed over the reins of the ranch school to A. J. Connell and joined the Red Cross. He served in France as a canteen worker near the front lines, so close that he came under fire during the American attack at St. Mihiel. Unwilling to give up his dream of flying after returning home, Ashley eventually began flying lessons in 1928 with Bill Cutter, the year that Cutter Flying Service was started in Albuquerque. What could have been more tempting for Pond than to fly over the school he created and land in the outer fields?

Read More
1 Comment

A Brief History of Fuller Lodge

2/12/2018

2 Comments

 
By HEATHER MCCLENAHAN
Los Alamos Historical Society
​

Few buildings induce the wonder and awe that Fuller Lodge evokes in first-time visitors.
​
The majestic, three-story building of upright logs is the heart and soul of the community of Los Alamos. From its construction during the days of the Los Alamos Ranch School through today, it always has been.
 
The building was designed by John Gaw Meem, a famous Southwestern architect known today as the father of Santa Fe’s Style. He used the Big House, the Ranch School’s dormitory, which also had upright log construction, as his model.

Read More
2 Comments

​Old History, New Stories

12/1/2017

0 Comments

 
By HEATHER MCCLENAHAN
Los Alamos Historical Society

Many years ago, someone at Los Alamos High School penciled on the fore edge of a history book on the teacher’s desk, “In case of flood, grab this. It’s dry.”

Perhaps many of us had the kind of high school history classes in which textbooks spewed forth dates and names for dead people—“Memorize these for the test!”— and listed names of battles that seemed far away. Such textbooks offered no context to illustrate the importance or why all that stuff should be learned.

Read More
0 Comments

​Severo Gonzales Shares Ranch School Stories

11/18/2017

2 Comments

 
Los Alamos Historical Society:

Severo Gonzales stopped by the Los Alamos Historical Society offices last week. It’s always a pleasure to visit with him and his brother Ray, who—in their 80s—remain active and tell wonderful stories of their lives as children on the Pajarito Plateau in the 1930s. They were instrumental in helping to interpret the homestead-era Romero Cabin, the seasonal home of their maternal grandparents where the boys spent many summers.

On this visit, Severo regaled us with stories of Los Alamos Ranch School Director A.J. Connell. He delivered coffee to Connell every morning and got a reputation among the other workers as Mr. Connell’s favorite “waiter.” Connell would give Severo a list of supplies he needed each day (especially Cokes), and the young man would dutifully fill it at the school’s trading post, run by his father Bences.

Read More
2 Comments
Forward>>

    RSS Feed

    About

    These articles are written by the Los Alamos Historical Society Staff. Many of these articles were originally published by the
    ​Los Alamos Daily Post.  

    Categories

    All
    Ancestral Pueblo
    Archives
    Ashley Pond Jr.
    Atomic Energy Commission
    Bathtub Row
    Bathtub Row Press
    Bohr
    Camp May
    Cold War
    Community
    Dog
    Fallout Shelter
    Fuller Lodge
    Gardening
    Hans Bethe
    Helene Suydam
    Homer Pickens
    Homesteading
    Interns
    Jennet Conant
    John Saw Meem
    Katherine Stinson
    Los Alamos Ranch School
    Manhattan Project
    Martini
    Movie
    Museum
    Oppenheimer
    Pajarito Club
    Peggy Pond Church
    Pierottis' Clowns
    Raemer Schrieber
    Rose Garden
    Rover Project
    Severo Gonzales
    Sig Hecker
    Stan Ulam
    Trinity
    Walking Tour
    Women's Army Corp (WAC)
    World War II

    Archives

    March 2023
    November 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

Home
About
Contact
Plan Your Visit
Shop
​Events
The Los Alamos Historical Society preserves, promotes, and communicates the remarkable history and inspiring stories of Los Alamos and its people for our community, for the global audience, and for future generations. 
Become a Member!
Los Alamos History Museum Logo
Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Learn / Research >
      • Information For Teachers
      • Teachers and Caregivers
      • Adult Resources >
        • National History Day
        • Homestead Driving Tour
        • History at Home
        • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
        • Development of the Atomic Bomb
        • Links and Resources
      • Archive >
        • About the Archive
        • Research Appointments
        • Inside the Archives
        • Share Your Stories
        • COVID-19 Collecting
    • Careers/Jobs
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Museum Campus
    • Museum >
      • Exhibits >
        • Online and Temporary Exhibits
      • Victory Garden
      • Explore Los Alamos
    • Tours
    • Oppenheimer House
  • Programs
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • Autumn 2023 Tour to Trinity
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
    • Volunteer Training
  • Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • History Blog
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts