The Happy Bottom Riding Club (1935–1953), was a

dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agrotourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

, restaurant, and hotel operated by

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

Florence "Pancho" Barnes near

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...

in the

Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is a valley primarily located in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, Kern County, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

. Barnes and her club were featured in

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

's 1979 book, '' The Right Stuff'', and its 1983 film adaptation. Also known as the Rancho Oro Verde Fly-Inn Dude Ranch, the establishment was a favored hangout of test pilots and the Hollywood elite during the 1940s, boasting over 9,000 members worldwide at the height of its popularity. When the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

intended to buy the club via eminent domain in order to extend their runways, a long and contentious series of lawsuits ensued. Barnes eventually won the lawsuits, but after the club was destroyed by fire in the 1950s, her plans to re-open in a nearby location never came to fruition.

Establishment

In 1935, Barnes originally purchased the property where the club would later stand to grow

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial plant, perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, ...

, raise

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

s and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

and start a

dairy A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

. As the nearby

U.S. Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

base at

Muroc Army Air Base Muroc (also known as, Rogers, Rod, Yucca, and Rodriguez) is a former settlement in Kern County, California in the Mojave Desert. It was located on Rogers Dry Lake east of Edwards, at an elevation of 2283 feet (696 m). Circa 1929, Valyermo, ...

expanded in the post

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

period, the ranch's other business as a restaurant, bar, and hotel quickly outgrew its humble beginnings. Eventually, the ranch also included a hospitality business with an all-female staff and it became a destination of choice for

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

relaxation.

Amenities

Along with a swimming pool and a

rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqu ...

stadium, Rancho Oro Verde had an

airstrip An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

that was the first amenity Barnes created in 1935 to stay in touch with her aviator-friendly social circle from south of the

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains () are a mountain range located in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert ...

. Visiting civilians and military men alike flew into the strip to stay at the Rancho Oro Verde, with Barnes often holding events to entertain her guests that included barbecues and a treasure hunt for 200 silver dollars. The rodeo stadium held three-day weekend rodeos jointly sponsored by the local VFW post in

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

.Happy Bottom Riding Club
(photos, documents and ephemera). Retrieved on November 24, 2012
Archived
from the original on October 26, 2013. The original swimming pool was rectangular, and was one of the first built in the

, but was destroyed by the

1952 Kern County earthquake Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 f ...

. The replacement pool was circular and had a circular ramp which reportedly allowed Barnes to ride her horse into the pool. This later pool was modeled after one Barnes had owned in the

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

area. The pool was lit at night — an aid to visual air navigation. As depicted in the book and film ''The Right Stuff'', a tradition was started when Chuck Yeager broke the

sound barrier The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, th ...

in the

Bell X-1 The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces– U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by B ...

and Barnes provided him with a free steak dinner. After that, pilots were given a free steak dinner when they personally broke the sound barrier for the first time. Following Yeager's achievement, the sound barrier was broken frequently from Edwards AFB in the late 1940s and early 1950s with Barnes giving free dinners multiple times during the course of a week.

Fire and sale

Despite a friendship between Barnes and the military, relations grew sour after a change of command in 1952, four years after Muroc Army Air Base became Edwards Air Force Base. One reason for friction between Barnes and the base commander was the increase in flights out of Edwards, along with an increase in flights at the club's landing strip. After he assumed command at the base, General

Albert Boyd Albert G Boyd (November 22, 1906 – September 18, 1976) was a pioneering test pilot for the United States Air Force (USAF). During his 30-year career, he logged more than 23,000 hours of flight time in 723 military aircraft (though this number of ...

, an admirer and friend of Barnes, would berate her if her clientele came too close to military airspace and flight paths. Allegations surfaced that the club was a brothel, something Barnes believed was connected to her refusal to sell the ranch to the government for a runway expansion. The rules Barnes posted for hostesses were strict, and many seemed to discredit the allegations. Acting on the rumors, however, the Air Force prohibited servicemen from visiting the club, destroying the vast majority of her business. Since she and the government were in the middle of negotiations regarding establishing a fair price for her business and property, Barnes felt betrayed by the prohibition. When the government added a suit to appropriate the ranch, Barnes counter-sued for slander, harassment, unlawful acquisition of land, and conspiracy. The ranch was destroyed by fire on November 13, 1953, shortly before the lawsuit concluded. Barnes ended up resettling in nearby Cantil and the land was purchased by the Air Force via eminent domain. The proposed runway expansion was never implemented. Barnes' plans to reestablish the Happy Bottom Riding Club on her and her husband's land in Cantil never materialized.

Legacy

Along with depictions in ''The Right Stuff'', the club was also immortalized in

Lauren Kessler Lauren Kessler is an American author, and immersion journalist who specializes in narrative nonfiction. She teaches storytelling for social change at the University of Washington and for the Forum of Journalism and Media in Vienna. Biography L ...

's biography of Barnes, ''The Happy Bottom Riding Club''. Barnes' life was chronicled in a 2009 documentary film for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

member station

KOCE-TV KOCE-TV (channel 50) is a PBS member television station licensed to Huntington Beach, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's secondary PBS memb ...

, entitled '' The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club''. A made-for-TV movie aired on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

television network, ''

Pancho Barnes Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes (July 22, 1901 – March 30, 1975) was a pioneer aviator and a founder of the first movie stunt pilots' union. In 1930, she broke Amelia Earhart's air speed record. Barnes raced in the Women's Air Derby and was a m ...

'' (1988), starring

Valerie Bertinelli Valerie Anne Bertinelli (born April 23, 1960) is an American actress and television personality. She began acting as a child actor, child and made her screen debut in a 1974 episode of Apple's Way, ''Apple's Way''. She gained wide recognition f ...

, featured a fictionalized version of Barnes' life and events relating to The Happy Bottom Riding Club. Chuck Yeager, who made a cameo appearance in ''The Right Stuff'' film as the bartender of the club, stated "if all the hours were ever totaled, I reckon I spent more time at her place than in a cockpit over those years." Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club was listed on the Promenade directory as located in section 02-111 in the television series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''. Air Force personnel from Edwards hold an annual

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

on the site of the Happy Bottom Riding Club in remembrance of Barnes and the ranch. Visitors may still see the remains of the pool, the restaurant's foundation (including chimney), and the barn. From the air, an outline of the airstrip is visible.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Gibson, Karen Bush. ''Women Aviators: 26 Stories of Pioneer Flights''. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2013. . * Pelletier, Alain. ''High-Flying Women: A World History of Female Pilots''. Sparkford, UK: Haynes, 2012. .

External links

Happy Bottom Riding Club
restaurant/bar/casino
Pancho Barnes
(estate official site)
Archived
from the original on June 30, 2014. {{authority control Dude ranches in the United States Ranches in California Defunct resorts in California Antelope Valley Buildings and structures in Kern County, California Edwards Air Force Base History of Kern County, California Defunct hotels in California Demolished buildings and structures in California Hospitality companies established in 1935 Hotels disestablished in 1953 1935 establishments in California 1953 disestablishments in California