NAN Ranch, also known as Y Bar NAN Ranch, is a ranch in
Faywood, New Mexico, that was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1988.
The property was developed as a ranch beginning in the late-1860s by John Brockman, who grew corn, alfalfa, and several types of fruit and bred cattle. Cattleman John T. McElroy purchased the ranch in 1927 and hired
Trost & Trost
Trost & Trost Architects & Engineers, often known as Trost & Trost, was an architecture firm based in El Paso, Texas. The firm's chief designer was Henry Charles Trost, who was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1860. Trost moved from Chicago to Tucson, ...
to renovate and expand the ranch compound to become the NAN Ranch headquarters. The project included a new house, extensive landscaping, swimming pool, a slaughterhouse, powerhouse, and other residential and ranch buildings. It is historically significant due to its architecture and its role as a major 19th century ranch.
Geography
NAN Ranch is located along the
Mimbres River,
less than east of
NM 61 and north of Dwyer, New Mexico.
History
The property, developed in the late-1860s by John Brockman represents 19th century agricultural enterprise and New Mexican architecture in the Mimbres Valley.
By 1869, he had cultivated 1,000 acres, operated the first flour mill in the area, and had more than 3,000 head of cattle.
He patented his homestead claim in 1881. Archaeologist
Adolph Bandelier
Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier (August 6, 1840March 18, 1914) was a Swiss-born American archaeologist who particularly explored the indigenous cultures of the American Southwest, Mexico, and South America. He immigrated to the United States wit ...
called the homestead a "plazita" following his visit in 1883. Considered a "model ranch" in the ''Silver City Enterprise'', Brockman produced corn, alfalfa, cherries, peaches, pears, grapes, and apples.
He was the only supplier of hay to
Fort Bayard and
Fort Cummings
Fort Cummings is a former U. S. Army post located near Cooke's Springs, in Luna County, New Mexico. It is located 20 miles northeast of Deming, New Mexico.
Cooke's Spring
Cooke's Spring () was named for Philip St. George Cooke 2nd U.S. Dragoons ...
.
''The Clifton Clarion'' said in 1886 that he had the best all-purpose ranches in the state of New Mexico. Besides his agricultural pursuits, Brockman bred black and Shorthorn cattle.
Brockman sold, what was considered "one of the three principal places on the Mimbres", in 1901 to the NAN Ranch and Cattle Company, which owned property just north of Brockman's land in Gallinas Canyon. NAN Ranch, which began developing its ranch in the 1880s, then moved its headquarters to the Brockman homestead. John T. McElroy, a cattleman from
El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
, bought the ranch in 1927.
The El Paso-based architectural firm
Trost & Trost
Trost & Trost Architects & Engineers, often known as Trost & Trost, was an architecture firm based in El Paso, Texas. The firm's chief designer was Henry Charles Trost, who was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1860. Trost moved from Chicago to Tucson, ...
was hired by McElroy and his wife to complete a US $300,000 ($ today) project to renovate and expand the complex to include a new house, swimming pool, large courtyard and landscaping. The house alone cost $100,000 ($ today). The following year sixteen additional residential and ranch buildings were constructed, including a power plant and slaughter house. It became "the best country place" built in New Mexico in the 1920s according to Baker Morrow, the landscape architect who consulted for the
New Mexico Historic Preservation Division The New Mexico Historic Preservation Division is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
Responsibilities
The division is responsible for the preservation of New Mexico's historical heritage. The division's activities includ ...
. In 1945 the ranch, that was then 100,000 acres, was sold. In 1988, when it was registered as a historic place, it was owned by W. B. Hinton.
By that time the servants quarters building was used for archaeological teams from
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
who excavated the property's
NAN Ranch Ruin
The NAN Ranch Ruin site is a Late Pit-house and Classic Mimbres village located along the Mimbres River, at Dwyer, New Mexico and the NAN Ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It was occupied by MimbreƱos from ...
.
Archaeologist Harry J. Shafer at the university began working on the excavation of the ruins after having been contacted by Margaret Hinton, who him told of the ruins found on the ranch and the connection to the nearby
Swarts Ruin
Swarts Ruin, also known as the Swarts Ranch Ruin, is an archaeological site in New Mexico's Mimbres Valley excavated from 1924 to 1927 by Harriet S. ("Hattie") Cosgrove and Cornelius B. ("Burt") Cosgrove.
Although the self-taught husband-and-w ...
of the
Mimbres culture.
It was listed on the National Register as part of a 1988 study of historic resources in the
Mimbres Valley
The Mimbres Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in southwestern New Mexico near the towns of Deming and Silver City. The AVA includes the Mimbres Watershed of the Mimbres River, and most vineyards are planted at elevations ...
of
Grant County.
Description
The approximate 18 acre NAN Ranch headquarters contains historic residential, farm, blacksmith, grain silos, and other buildings.
The Brockman homestead was built about 1880.
The
Spanish Colonial Revival McElroy House (1928) has a red clay tile gable roof, stuccoed walls, cast
Solomonic columns, exposed wood and cast stone details, and wrought iron fixtures. It has a central octagonal sun room and a sleeping porch. A swimming pool, red clay tile deck, high-walled courtyard, and wooden arbor are near the two main residences. The property is landscaped with cypress, cottonwood, mulberry, and hollyhock trees. Roses, hollyhocks, iris, English Ivy, and privet hedges also feature in the landscaping.
Other historic residences include houses for the foreman, gardener, servants and cowboys. The foreman's house is a bungalow and a bunkhouse was built for cowboys. Other buildings include a slaughter house, blacksmith shop and power plant, chicken house, smoke house, laundry, garages, and barns. Irrigation ditches built by John Brockman were modified to concrete irrigation gutters.
See also
*
List of Trost & Trost works
*
Notes
References
External links
*, National Register of Historic Places submission
{{NRHP
Ranches in New Mexico
National Register of Historic Places in Grant County, New Mexico
1860s establishments in New Mexico Territory