Ghost Ranch
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Ghost Ranch El Rancho de los Brujos |
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| Coordinates: 36°19′47.24″N 106°28′26.4″W / 36.3297889°N 106.474000°WCoordinates: 36°19′47.24″N 106°28′26.4″W / 36.3297889°N 106.474000°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New Mexico |
| County | Rio Arriba |
| Website | www |
| Designated | 1975 |
Ghost Ranch is a 21,000-acre (85 km2) retreat and education center located close to the village of Abiquiú in Rio Arriba County in north central New Mexico, United States. It was the home and studio of Georgia O'Keeffe, as well as the subject of many of her paintings. The conference center and lodgings at Ghost Ranch are run by the Presbyterian Church but open to the general public.
Ghost Ranch is part of Piedra Lumbre (Spanish, "Shining Rock"), a 1766 land grant to Pedro Martin Serrano from Charles III of Spain. The Rito del Yeso is a stream that meanders through the canyons and gorge, providing a drought-resistant source of water for life to thrive.
The canyon was first inhabited by the Archuleta brothers, cattle rustlers who enjoyed the coverage and invisibility that the canyon provided as well as their ability to see for miles down the valley. They created two jacal homes and would move stolen cattle throughout the night to Box Canyon. By transporting the cattle through streams, footprints would be lost and they could not be tracked. Stories of people staying with the Archuleta brothers who had gone missing (and their clothing on the men) circulated around the area. One day one of the brothers made a transaction without the other, and claimed he had buried the gold for safety. Out of anger, the second brother killed the first who had hid the gold, and kept his wife and daughter hostage until they admitted to knowing where the gold was hidden. Though the mother and daughter feared the rumored spirits of the canyon, they mustered up the courage to sneak away at night through the Chama Valley. A group of local men then came to the ranch, fighting through their fear, and hung the remaining brother and his gang from the cottonwood tree by one of their casitas. Other visitors who stayed in the casita later on noted that they could hear voices of a man and a woman fighting.
Roy Pfaffle won the deed to the ranch in a poker game. His wife, Carol Stanley, took the deed, put it in her name, and divorced him the next day. Stanley sought to create a getaway, and eventually many of her friends moved to New Mexico for the peaceful atmosphere in the 1930s. One of the most influential people to visit Ghost Ranch was Arthur Newton Pack, writer and editor of Nature Magazine. Arthur's daughter suffered from bouts of pneumonia, so he and his family had to move to an area with a drier climate- he came to Stanley's ranch. Though Stanley had wealthy families coming to the ranch, she was having trouble breaking even. She then sold the ranch to Arthur Pack.
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Wikipedia