Pancho's Place: The Happy Bottom Riding Club

About a dozen miles east of the highway, out on the flats by Rogers Dry Lake, lie the cracked foundations of one of the wildest watering holes in American aviation history.

Florence Leontine "Pancho" Barnes (1901–1975) was born into Pasadena wealth — her grandfather, Thaddeus Lowe, ran a balloon corps for the Union Army in the Civil War. She bristled at every expectation placed on a society woman. She earned her nickname after months riding through revolution-era Mexico, reportedly disguised as a man. In 1929 she flew stunts for Howard Hughes's epic film Hell's Angels, and in 1930 she beat Amelia Earhart's women's air-speed record at 196 mph in a Travel Air "Mystery Ship." She later founded the first union for movie stunt pilots.

In 1935 she bought desert land near the Army's remote Muroc airfield, raising alfalfa and hogs. As the base swelled during and after World War II, her ranch — Rancho Oro Verde, "green gold" — grew into the Happy Bottom Riding Club: a bar, restaurant, hotel, swimming pool, rodeo arena, and private airstrip. At its height it claimed some 9,000 members.

This was the off-duty home of the men flying faster than anyone ever had. When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947, Pancho fed him a steak — and a tradition was born: bust the barrier, earn a free dinner. Tom Wolfe immortalized the place in The Right Stuff.

The Air Force eventually wanted her land for longer runways. A bitter fight over eminent domain followed, and on November 13, 1953, the club burned. The cause was never firmly established. Barnes sued and largely won, but never rebuilt. She died of cancer in 1975, near the desert she'd made her own.