LOS ALAMOS HISTORY
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
    • Quarterly Magazine
  • Museum
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Tours
    • Museum Campus
    • Exhibits >
      • Online and Temporary Exhibits
    • Victory Garden
  • Archive
    • About the Archive
    • Research Appointments
    • Inside the Archives
    • COVID-19 Collecting
  • Learn / Research
    • Information For Teachers
    • Information For Caregivers
    • Explore Los Alamos
    • Topics & Resources >
      • History Blog
      • National History Day
      • Homestead Driving Tour
      • History at Home
      • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
      • Development of the Atomic Bomb
      • Links and Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • 2020 Gala
  • Programs
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
  • Donate
    • Oppenheimer House Fund
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Audio Books & DVDs
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts

​History Blog

The Other Los Alamos That Touched Our History

9/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Eastern plains, San Miguel County, New Mexico. Photo by Sharon Snyder
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
When Ashley Pond Jr. founded the Los Alamos Ranch School in 1917, the road from Santa Fe to the school passed through the tiny village of Buckman, situated on the east side of the Rio Grande.

Buckman was a mail stop for the Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge railroad, and nearby homesteaders and the people from the ranch school crossed a rickety wooden bridge over the river to visit the Buckman post office. The inconvenience prompted A.J. Connell, director of the school, to request a post office. He submitted the ranch name to the postal service, but he soon learned that a town north of Las Vegas, NM, already had the name Los Alamos. He would have to choose another name. 

Connell submit three possible names to the U.S. Post Office Department, and, of those three, they selected Otowi. That name was used until the Manhattan Project took over the plateau and Los Alamos mail channeled through P.O. Box 1663 in Santa Fe. In 1946, the Los Alamos Post Office was built and had no trouble claiming the town’s name because the other Los Alamos was long gone, having passed into history on the edge of the prairie in San Miguel County.
​

Some two decades ago, former historical society archivist Linda Aldrich and I went to San Miguel County to find what might be left of that other Los Alamos. We soon realized that on the edge of the Great Plains, wooden buildings and dirt roads are quickly reclaimed by the land. The area is ranching country just as it was in the late 1800s and early 20th century, so the surrounding terrain is somewhat the same, but the history of the people who lived there is, for the most part, lost in time. Still, old newspapers and government records can give a glimpse of the life of a once thriving town.

Andres Sena, a “dealer in merchandise,” seems to have been a noted citizen of Los Alamos, as he was mentioned in the Las Vegas newspaper quite often. The advertisements for his ranch told readers that he dealt in “Cattle, Sheep, Wool, Hides, Grain, and all kinds of Produce,” along with “freighting to all parts of the Territory.” According to another article, Sena was one of the largest sheep owners in the Territory, claiming more than 5,000 head.

Charles Ilfeld, a noted entrepreneur in early New Mexico, opened a merchandise store in Los Alamos in addition to operating stores in Las Vegas and Tecolote. Ilfeld was one of the most successful businessmen of his time, and the fact that he opened a store in Los Alamos tells something of the town’s growth and success. However, in another news article we learn that “Manuel Gonzales y Baca broke into the post office and was released on his own recognizance after giving valuable evidence concerning others involved.” Some things never change.

A 1911 article notes that 25 men of Los Alamos were listed “as voting for the adoption and passage of the constitution” for the new State of New Mexico. The people of the other Los Alamos lived through some exciting times.
​

The 1998 Roads of New Mexico atlas marks Los Alamos in San Miguel County, but it is not listed in the index nor does it give the population figure. In Robert Julyan’s Place Names of New Mexico (1996), the “tiny hamlet” is listed as inhabited. A decade later, Linda Aldrich and I found a small chapel and an old cemetery. That’s not to say that over a hill there might not have been someone still holding on to history.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    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 Press
    Bohr
    Camp May
    Cold War
    Community
    Dog
    Fallout Shelter
    Fuller Lodge
    Helene Suydam
    Homesteading
    Interns
    Jennet Conant
    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

    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. 
Los Alamos History Museum Logo
Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
    • Quarterly Magazine
  • Museum
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Tours
    • Museum Campus
    • Exhibits >
      • Online and Temporary Exhibits
    • Victory Garden
  • Archive
    • About the Archive
    • Research Appointments
    • Inside the Archives
    • COVID-19 Collecting
  • Learn / Research
    • Information For Teachers
    • Information For Caregivers
    • Explore Los Alamos
    • Topics & Resources >
      • History Blog
      • National History Day
      • Homestead Driving Tour
      • History at Home
      • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
      • Development of the Atomic Bomb
      • Links and Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • 2020 Gala
  • Programs
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
  • Donate
    • Oppenheimer House Fund
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Audio Books & DVDs
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts