Happy Bottom Riding Club Ruins can it be accessed by the public?

Looking at Edwards and remembering The Right Stuff and the legendary Pancho Barnes I was wondering if the remains of the ranch are still accessible or do they considered within the boundaries of Edwards?

Google maps wants you to go through the base, but near the Century park at the West gate there is a dirt road off of Rosamond Blvd called Willow Springs Road.

en.wikipedia.org...

Thoughts

Thoughts

Change the thread title to something that doesn't sound like a porno.

originally posted by: neo96
Thoughts

Change the thread title to something that doesn't sound like a porno.

I may have seen that one. Its its actual name and aviation types should be aware LOL but I will comply and add "Ruins"

a reply to: FredT

From what I've read, most of what was left was moved off base to the Boron Aviation Museum. Now they're looking to move it to a new museum somewhere else. But I don't think the original location is publicly accessible.

a reply to: FredT

Most won't be unless they know The Right Stuff, or are a lot more into aviation than the average Avnerd.

a reply to: FredT

The first few seconds should answer your question.

Is it accessible.

Yeah military escort required so not publicly accessible

General Atomics has Pancho's hangar. Barring someone stepping in, they're going to demo it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I recognized it...

a reply to: Barnalby

Most won't.

a reply to: FredT

Just read that little snippet, the fire sound's like Arson after she refused to up stakes when Edwards tried to take the land by eminent domain - we call it compulsory purchase over here.
I suspect most people at the time believed the same thing, still from Edward's point of view I can see two good reason's for this action.
The site while popular was likely a hive of alien agent's seeking the US secret's.
And they needed the land for there use but probably the former was there main reason for wanting to take the site and also the reason why she never then recreated the site nearby after this one was destroyed, most likely they made it difficult for her.

Interesting though, of course it is a bit of important American history so really should not be allowed to rot and should rightly be restored if only as a museum piece.

en.wikipedia.org...

Very interesting.

a reply to: FredT

Visitors to Edwards Air Force Base can sometimes arrange a tour of Pancho's through the Air Force Flight Test Museum. These visits have to be coordinated because the ruins are located behind the small arms range and, though distant, are considered to be in a hazard zone.

Sometime, possibly in the early 1980s following the premier of "The Right Stuff," Edwards officials started having annual barbecues at the Pancho's site. It was invitation only for Edwards personnel, family, and select friends. Then about a decade later it was opened up to the public with tickets purchased through the Museum and a few other venues in Lancaster. The base archaeologist started getting worried about the impact of all these visitors. So, instead of letting guests wander freely through the ruins, guided tours were provided by the Environmental Branch. I was one of the volunteer tour guides for several years.

Eventually, the annual barbecue at Pancho's was essentially eliminated and moved to a different location to prevent further impact. Kind of sad, really, but at least the site remains accessible to the occasional tour. I'm not sure what advice I can give on that front. If you show up unannounced at the main gate, asking for a tour, it doesn't hurt to be a celebrity. Just sayin'.

The ruins include the airfield and rodeo grounds, cattle ranch, foundations of the main house, bar/dancehall, and hotel, the fountain, and a round swimming pool with a ramp for horses. One of the foundations is marked with impressions of Pancho's Rancho Oro Verde brand.

After being ousted by the Air Force, Pancho Barnes attempted to start up again in Cantil, but never achieved her former success. She eventually moved to Boron, where she died. Her abandoned house in Boron still remains but I have never visited that site.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What can I say? I'm a sucker for the high tech/low living juxtaposition inherent in a good, dingy flying club, and reading all the stories of test pilots going to this local dive bar to chill and shoot the [poo-poo] after a day of doing incredible, stressful things just does a ton to humanize them.

When i was young i knew Pancho Barnes..

The funny part is my great grandfather was a wagon master for the 7th Cavalry out of Fort Riley, Kansas.

He worked under Percival Green Lowe the head wagon master for the 7th Cavalry and wrote the book “Five Years a Dragoon,”
www.accessgenealogy.com...

Percival G. Lowe brother was Thaddeus S.C. Lowe Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps for Abraham Lincoln.
www.mountlowe.org...

Thaddeus S.C. Lowe"s grand daughter was Pancho Lowe Barnes.
en.wikipedia.org...

You can find some strange connections when you do genealogical research like the 6 degrees of separation between you and someone else you knew.

a reply to: LABTECH767

The site while popular was likely a hive of alien agent's seeking the US secret's.

a reply to: Phage

I have to admit that is extremely funny and of course only the best non existent sci fi film bar in history, take the wild west and adobe building's, add a dash of UFO, throw in a few human walrus hybrid's and guy's with strange head's (just like the denizens of this site if we could see another) and a few sesame street reject's and there you have it the cantina at mos eisley.

This is not a game but it is a recreation of Mos Eisley by some of the artists at Obsidian and you can download it to walk around there recreation, even find a BB8 Gun a useless joke which fires bouncing BB8's, hmm perhaps they too disliked the new Disney movies.
www.youtube.com...

There are NO NPC's to interact with just a few droid's walking around beeping go gonking which is sad since what made mos eisley so cool was the idea of a city filled with many different races from across the fictional star wars universe living a vibrant existence if of course also often a violent one but if you are a star wars buff you need to explore it at least once even though the download is 7.5 gig's, of course you can then delete it once you get bored which will be pretty fast but still it is intriguing to see just how good the unreal engine really is.

And hey you never know just maybe some of those Alien Agent's are indeed really Alien's but then are we not all alien to one another.