On Saturday, we visited Lyons and Campbell Ranch. At one time, the ranch covered a million acres, had offices in New York and Los Angeles, and raised 30,000 head of cattle per year. In Gila, they eventually brought all of their operations into one locale (except for the investment office in New York and the cattle selling in Los Angeles). They effectively built their own town, including the Catholic Church in town (no longer a part of the ranch), a saloon, Post Office, Jail, ice factory (manufacturing ice, as there is no natural ice here as in northern climes), bunk house for the rotating crews of cowboys, laundry, wine cellar and more.
What remains of the ranch is some of the buildings on five acres and is now a non-profit corporation. They host weddings and events, as well as have two apartments they rent through Air BNB, Booking.com and Travelocity - they have an in ground pool for renters use. They give tours on Saturdays at noon. A second group of people were scheduled to join us, but cancelled just as we started. So we had a private tour with Alex, whose family has owned the property since 1961. We started in one large building that housed the post office (and now houses a pool table), the saloon (bar made by Alex, who among other things has been a cabinet maker) and the jail.
We started in the post office. They had found the mail boxes at a dump - the wall which held them had been removed making the room large enough to now house the pool table.
Since it costs too much to get a liquor license, any events must be BYOB - New Mexico laws prohibits for profit companies from hosting BYOB events, but non-profit organizations can. New Mexico laws also only allow gambling at businesses owned by Native American tribes, so although there are slot machines and gambling tables at the ranch, they cannot be used.
In one section of the saloon, there was a chuck wagon - this cabinet could be used on the back of any wagon, and when the door was folded down and out like this, would be the work space for the cook.
The jail is in rough shape, still with bars on some of the windows and the doors were on the floor.
Here is the exterior of the building - they are working on building a new porch to replace the rotted out wood porch. The post office is on the left, saloon is in the center and the jail was on the right.
We then went into the original hacienda where some of the original vigas could be seen - vigas are the logs that have had the bark stripped and have one flat side on which the floor boards of the upper floor (or the roof if there was no second floor) were laid. They think the building had been built by the Mexican army when the Santa Rita mine was first in operation in the early 1800s, but then was expanded by Lyons and Campbell. It now has at least a dozen rooms, all decorated with things the family has collected over the years. The ranch sat empty from the 1920s until the current owners bought it in 1961. The only item found from the original ranch is the stuffed fish on the wall in the third saloon photo above - everything else, the family has found and collected from elsewhere.
There was a library.
Many religious displays were present.
This room used to be the Lyons bedroom, but this bed was brought here from Bali by Alex's brother.
The living room has paintings from Europe, including Charles I in the middle and the Duke of Wellington (he defeated Napolean at Waterloo) on the right.
In the living room, there was a square piano.
In the building that housed the ice factory, they have built a stage with auditorium for plays, operas (Alex's father was a well known opera singer who performed in Europe and across the USA), weddings and parties. Besides seating on the floor, they was also a balcony in the back.
They had a couple more saloons/bars in the ice factory, as well as dining rooms and a large kitchen for events.
The tour also included more modern amenities like the pool, covered BBQ/picnic area and the two apartments they rent out. We did not get to see every building, but the tour kept us busy for two and half hours. Alex is a great story teller. His family had just returned from a three week vacation in Europe visiting Scotland, Sweden and Denmark. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday.
What remains of the ranch is some of the buildings on five acres and is now a non-profit corporation. They host weddings and events, as well as have two apartments they rent through Air BNB, Booking.com and Travelocity - they have an in ground pool for renters use. They give tours on Saturdays at noon. A second group of people were scheduled to join us, but cancelled just as we started. So we had a private tour with Alex, whose family has owned the property since 1961. We started in one large building that housed the post office (and now houses a pool table), the saloon (bar made by Alex, who among other things has been a cabinet maker) and the jail.
We started in the post office. They had found the mail boxes at a dump - the wall which held them had been removed making the room large enough to now house the pool table.
Since it costs too much to get a liquor license, any events must be BYOB - New Mexico laws prohibits for profit companies from hosting BYOB events, but non-profit organizations can. New Mexico laws also only allow gambling at businesses owned by Native American tribes, so although there are slot machines and gambling tables at the ranch, they cannot be used.
In one section of the saloon, there was a chuck wagon - this cabinet could be used on the back of any wagon, and when the door was folded down and out like this, would be the work space for the cook.
The jail is in rough shape, still with bars on some of the windows and the doors were on the floor.
Here is the exterior of the building - they are working on building a new porch to replace the rotted out wood porch. The post office is on the left, saloon is in the center and the jail was on the right.
We then went into the original hacienda where some of the original vigas could be seen - vigas are the logs that have had the bark stripped and have one flat side on which the floor boards of the upper floor (or the roof if there was no second floor) were laid. They think the building had been built by the Mexican army when the Santa Rita mine was first in operation in the early 1800s, but then was expanded by Lyons and Campbell. It now has at least a dozen rooms, all decorated with things the family has collected over the years. The ranch sat empty from the 1920s until the current owners bought it in 1961. The only item found from the original ranch is the stuffed fish on the wall in the third saloon photo above - everything else, the family has found and collected from elsewhere.
There was a library.
Many religious displays were present.
This room used to be the Lyons bedroom, but this bed was brought here from Bali by Alex's brother.
The living room has paintings from Europe, including Charles I in the middle and the Duke of Wellington (he defeated Napolean at Waterloo) on the right.
In the living room, there was a square piano.
Here is Alex in the dining room; the kitchen is behind the curtains.
In the building that housed the ice factory, they have built a stage with auditorium for plays, operas (Alex's father was a well known opera singer who performed in Europe and across the USA), weddings and parties. Besides seating on the floor, they was also a balcony in the back.
They had a couple more saloons/bars in the ice factory, as well as dining rooms and a large kitchen for events.
The tour also included more modern amenities like the pool, covered BBQ/picnic area and the two apartments they rent out. We did not get to see every building, but the tour kept us busy for two and half hours. Alex is a great story teller. His family had just returned from a three week vacation in Europe visiting Scotland, Sweden and Denmark. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday.
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