Page 90 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL FALL 2021 DISCOVERING SANTA FE

Accommodations are utilitarian and rustic, with Ranch visitors included Charles Lindbergh, Ansel
no telephones, TVs, or air-conditioning in the Adams, John Wayne, and several scientists from
rooms. Los Alamos taking a break from building the
Where Ghost Ranch stands today, dinosaurs Atomic bomb.
once roamed swampy wetlands. Many thousands Once again, a chance discovery changed O’Ke-
of years later it turned into an arid high desert effe’s life. “I’d been staying down around Alcalde,
populated by Navajos, followed by the Spanish east of here, for several summers in the nineteen-
rancheros. Arthur Pack, one of the country’s first thirties,” she wrote. “One day, the boy who was
environmentalists, bought the land for an exclu- trying to teach me to drive said he knew of a place
sive dude ranch for the rich and famous. For a time he thought I’d like better than any I’d seen, and he
O’Keeffe belonged to that club and worked out of brought me up here. It was operating as a dude
a tiny adobe that still stands. Other notable Ghost ranch then. Before that, it had been a working

90 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE FALL 2021