National Register of Historic Places

Rancho Bonito

Mountainair, Torrance County, New Mexico
Listed
November 29, 1978
Type
Building
Period
Colonial
Ref No.
78001834

About this property

The Rancho Bonito in Torrance County, New Mexico was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The listing included five contributing buildings on 14 acres (5.7 ha). It is located about .5 miles (0.80 km) south of Mountainair, New Mexico on Gran Quivera Rd. (New Mexico State Road 14). The five buildings were all built in the late 1930s. The Rancho served as an International Folk Art Museum, consisting of workshop spaces and display area for Clem "Pop" Shaffer's animal art. Cultivation on the Ranch also provided produce for the Shaffer Hotel in Mountainair, which Shaffer built and operated. The display house closest to the entrance, once a workshop, is a frame 24 by 24 feet (7.3 m × 7.3 m) gable-roofed structure, decorated with cut and brightly painted logs. It has a log-encased chimney, which looks dangerous. Shaffer was born in 1880 in Harmony, Indiana. He moved to Mountainair with his new wife in 1908. In his autobiography he wrote: "In 1929 I built a dining room on the hotel also 8 more rooms the dining room is my unusual piece of work." And "Then in 1937 I started to build my tenant a house and barn on the ranch I also built a show house, for my wooden animals. I also built a work shop where I make all my wooden animals."

Location

Mountainair, Torrance County, New Mexico
34.50639, -106.23966

Categories

ARTARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Shaffer Hotel
Industrial
0.9 mi
Willard Mercantile Company
Industrial
1 mi
Mountainair Municipal Auditorium
Industrial
1 mi
Quarai
Listed
7 mi
Abo
Listed
8.9 mi

Questions about this property

When was Rancho Bonito listed on the National Register?

Rancho Bonito was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 1978.

What type of historic resource is Rancho Bonito?

Rancho Bonito is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Rancho Bonito?

The period of significance for Rancho Bonito is recorded as the colonial era.

Can I research the history near Rancho Bonito?

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