Frijole Ranch

Frijole Ranch sits at a spring on the dry lower slopes of the Guadalupe escarpment, a mile and a half northeast of the Pine Springs Visitor Center. Two brothers named Rader built the first permanent ranch house in the area, at a spring, in 1876. The place got its name, for nearby Frijole Peak, after John T. Smith and his family arrived and began developing the ranch in 1906.

The Smiths turned it into a self-sufficient farmstead. They planted an orchard next to the house, walled with stacked stone and watered by ditches from the spring, and grew apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums and apricots, and even tried lemons and oranges. A post office opened here in 1916 with Nella May Smith as postmistress. In the early 1930s the bus that carried tourists back to Van Horn from Carlsbad Caverns stopped at Frijole so its passengers could eat a family-style supper cooked by Mrs. Smith. The Smiths sold the ranch in the 1940s, and the ranch became the headquarters of the larger Hunter ranch that later went into the park. In 2006 Eagle Scouts replanted part of the orchard.

Today the old ranch house holds the Frijole Ranch History Museum, which follows the people of the Guadalupes from Native Americans to the park. Outside are a one-room schoolhouse, a spring house, and shade trees over a courtyard where the spring water still runs. The museum opens when staff or volunteers are available; the grounds are always open, and the Smith Spring loop trail starts here.