FIELD REPORT
Ruins Evoke Legendary Era of Aviation
in Antelope Valley
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Image courtesy of Charles Barile
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In the late forties and early fifties over the then isolated
Muroc Dry Lake Bed - the largest natural flat space on earth
- night-flying military and civilian pilots had a remarkable
navigational beacon: the shimmering, iridescent blue-green glow
of the swimming pool at Pancho Barnes’ Happy Bottom Flying
Club. An unmistakable and exquisite landmark on a lakebed with
a curvature of less than 18 inches over a six mile distance,
it was then the only pool in the Antelope Valley. Pilots landed
on Pancho’s adjacent private airstrip to partake of her
generous hospitality at what was the watering hole of the most
world-renowned flyers of the post war era. For regular patrons
including aviation icons Chuck Yeager, A. Scott Crossfield,
Jimmy Doolittle and H.H. "Hap" Arnold well as the engineers,
designers, mechanics and military personnel who built and flew
a remarkable array of airplanes (including the XP-80, ZX-1,
F-104, X-15 and SR-71), Pancho’s barroom was at the literal
center of the supersonic age and served as the unofficial -
and always congenial - debriefing room for the most elite test
pilots in the world.
Pancho’s remote 368 acre Rancho Oro Verde
property was, at the height of its fame, reachable only by air
or a brutal 20-mile dirt road from Lancaster. In spite of its
isolation, the compound offered a swanky 20 room motel surrounding
a remarkable 80’ fountain in the shape of the Army Air
Corps insignia, a well-stocked horse corral, a restaurant, airplane
hangars, three landing strips, a dance hall (partially open-aired),
gambling den and the world-famous bar where she hosted what
she called "the fastest and bravest men on earth." Bordered
by lush planting of cottonwoods, Chinese elms, poplars and bamboo,
the Happy Bottom Flying Club was a verdant oasis in the desert
and the site of a lifestyle as exuberant as its host.
Pancho Barnes is a legend in the aviation community,
a daring pilot who stole the world’s speed record for women
from Amelia Earhart, in 1930. She continued her aviation career
by barnstorming around the country as the star of "Pancho Barnes’
Mystery Circus of the Air" and performed aerial stunts for Howard
Hughes’ epic motion picture, "Hell’s Angels." After
depleting her fortune through a lavish lifestyle, she ended
up settling at this remote ranch in the Mojave Desert.
Arriving on the scene soon after the Army Air
Corps established its operations on the desert playa in 1933
(first as Muroc Army Air Field then later as Edwards Air Force
Base), Pancho’s Rancho Oro Verde was seamlessly transformed
into the only recreational spot for the officers and young soldiers
to drink, debrief and blow off steam. Leading into the war years
and the huge military expansion at the base, she enlarged her
spread and Oro Verde became the Fly-Inn Dude Ranch and then
finally the Happy Bottom Flying Club - named by Jimmy Doolittle
who, after a long ride on a new horse was asked by Pancho if
he liked the animal. Doolittle responded, "oh yes, it gave me
a happy bottom."
Today, little remains of what was once the raucous
desert playground but the surviving ruins hint at the high style
and grand opulence that was Pancho’s trademark. In addition
to the remarkable four-tiered cascading fountain (originally
topped by a statue of a nude goddess) that graced the motel
esplanade, the double-sided fireplace and door frames from the
dining room and bar still stand as well as some outbuildings
including the shell of the dairy barn which was used for illicit
gambling. On the eastside of the ranch is the infamous wooden
gate which Yeager struck on horseback - breaking two ribs -
the night before he became the first man to break the sound
barrier. North of what were the main buildings are the remains
of a Ryan PT-19 aircraft which was ‘borrowed’ from
Pancho’s personal fleet of airplanes by two young locals
and crashed short of the main runway. Most remarkably intact
is the shell of the 30-foot wide, round swimming pool. After
the first pool was destroyed in the 1952 Tehachapi earthquake,
two grain silo construction contractors from the Midwest approached
Pancho. They proposed using their silo molds to erect a new
pool, and Pancho readily agreed.The silo casts, which consisted
of massive, inter-connected quarter sections, were customized
with special options demanded by Pancho including recessed underwater
lighting and, most astonishingly, a gently sloping ramp that
allowed Pancho and her horse, after particularly arduous rides,
to cool off by walking directly into the pool.
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The pool, as it looks today, showing the gently sloping
shallow end where Pancho would ride in on her horse to
cool off after riding in the heat of the Mojave.
Charles Barile photo
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Each September the site is open to the public
for "Pancho Barnes Day." Sponsored by the Flight Test Historical
Foundation at Edwards Air Force Base, this year’s event
featured among its special guests Eugene "Mac" McKendry, 81,
a WWII pilot and Pancho’s fourth and last husband. Although
frail, his spirits were enlivened by once again visiting the
ranch where he and Pancho hosted many notorious revelries, and
he reminisced fondly about the infamous rodeo that opened with
the entrance of one of the ranch hostesses as Lady Godiva clad
only in a long blond wig and the airborne treasure hunts where
pilots, given written clues, flew all over the lake bed searching
for a buried jackpot of 200 silver dollars.
Mac remains resentful over the government’s
seizure of the Happy Bottom Flying Club in 1954 for the construction
of a 27 mile long runway to accommodate a then-planned atomic-powered
aircraft, but was quick to invoke Pancho’s philosophical
attitude about the loss of the legendary club: "Like she always
said, ‘Well, f*** it, we had more fun in a week than most
of the weenies in the world have in a lifetime."
Information about visiting the remains of the
Happy Bottom Flying Club for the annual "Pancho Barnes Day"
can be obtained by writing the Flight Test Historical Foundation
at P.O.Box 57, Edwards, California 93523 or by calling (661)
277-8051.
