Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club
In 1930 Florence "Pancho" Barnes broke Amelia Earhart's women's speed record. She lost much of her fortune in the Depression, and in 1935 she bought a ranch near Muroc Dry Lake, beside what later became Edwards Air Force Base.
The ranch turned into the Rancho Oro Verde Fly-Inn Dude Ranch, which everyone called the Happy Bottom Riding Club. There was a bar, a pool, a dance hall and a landing strip. Test pilots went there after flying, among them Chuck Yeager, who broke the sound barrier in 1947. A first supersonic flight earned a free steak dinner.
The fight with the Air Force
In the early 1950s the base wanted a longer runway, and the ranch was in the way. Barnes took the Air Force to court. The main building burned in 1953. She won a settlement in 1956 but never rebuilt on the site. She died in 1975, and her ashes were scattered over the old ranch. The ruins sit on base land, and Edwards has held "Pancho Barnes Day" events there.
Pancho Barnes has her own chapter in Desert Eccentric.
Sources: Lauren Kessler, The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes (2000); Edwards Air Force Base history office; Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum biography.
Illustration: AI-generated, artistic interpretation.