By LIZ MARTINEAU
Los Alamos
Dear Community,
This week the Art in Public Places Advisory Board is scheduled to discuss a piece of artwork called “The Boys of the Pajarito Plateau.” This community treasures Fuller Lodge, which is one reason I think this subject has generated such interest. (As someone who believes in historic preservation this warms my heart!) However, I want to provide some background information about the Los Alamos Ranch School students and dispel some inaccuracies that I have heard circulating in the community.
- The subject matter of this painting is a group of Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS) students. We have a tendency to honor people “at the top” or people in power, but this painting honors young people. They are the youth who not only lived and studied here, but also worked to build many of the local hiking trails that are still in use today. If you have hiked Hamilton Trail, the Ranch School Trail (into Acid Canyon) or enjoyed Camp May, you have walked among the work of LARS students.
- Many of these LARS boys went on to make significant contributions to society. John Crosby was a founder of the Santa Fe Opera. Sterling Colgate became a senior physicist at LANL, president of NM Tech, and co-founded the Santa Fe Institute. Many students fought in WWII.
- However, this painting does not portray any specific person. Instead, it recognizes this amazing group of young people collectively as “The Boys of the Pajarito Plateau.”
- Los Alamos Ranch School was not owned or operated by the Boy Scouts. LARS students, however, were also part of Boy Scout Troop 22, a mounted patrol that still exists in Los Alamos today. LARS closed in 1943. A copy of the letter from the government acquiring the school “for military purposes” hangs in the History Museum.This painting honors some of the young people who occupied part of the Pajarito Plateau from the time period 1917-1943.
- The painting was created in 2018 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Los Alamos Ranch School. The Historical Society held a celebration of LARS that year.
- Should it hang in Fuller Lodge? The Lodge was designed and built specifically for the school. It symbolizes the rugged outdoor education that these boys experienced at the school. This is the building where LARS students ate their meals, held performances, and socialized. They gathered on the east side portal (which is actually the front of the building) for graduation ceremonies.
- Although there are many locations in Fuller Lodge where the painting could hang, I believe the current proposal is in the Curtis Room, which is a side room—not the large Pajarito Room where dances are held. Like it or not, the Curtis Room was actually the ”smoking room” for the older boys and later became the Sportsman’s Room, a room where gun and angling clubs met. The boys would have spent time in this room.
- Another possible location for the painting is in the anteroom or along the stairwell. This is where the students would lounge and wait for meal times. There are photos of the students in this room, so this is also an appropriate place to honor these young people.
- I have heard people say that we should honor other history. I agree, but I also think that this is a step in the right direction to share local history beyond the Manhattan Project. I hope to see additional projects dedicated to homesteaders, ancestral people, and others in the future! History is complex, overlapping, diverse, and has many points of view, but that is what makes it (and people) so interesting. We can (and should) tell multiple stories.
- Jeff Segler is a local well-respected artist.
To those of you who read to the end of this long list, thank you for spending some time considering Los Alamos history.
As the former Executive Director of the Los Alamos Historical Society, current member of the Historic Preservation Advisory Board, and community member for almost 40 years, I care deeply about Los Alamos history. One way to preserve our history is to use artwork and interpretation to help tell the stories.
We know this painting has a high approval rating from the county survey, but I also encourage community members to attend the meeting on Thursday, July 25 at 5:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building, Room 110.
Living History,
Liz Martineau