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SILVER CITY’S BEAR MOUNTAIN LODGE:
A BRIEF YET INTRIGUING HISTORY
By Dr. Donna Eichstaedt
Those of you who have ever stayed at the Bear Mountain Lodge just north of Silver City may be surprised to know that its history has ties to World War II, Sigmund Freud and the renowned Psychoanalytic Institute in Vienna. It may also be of interest to know that the main building, still standing on Cottage San Road, was built by the late Walter C. Langer, one of Harvard’s most prominent Psychology graduates.
It all began in 1910 when Lillie and Camps Dye homesteaded 160 acres on the
 lodge’s present location. In 1918, Maggie and William C. Franks bought the place and ran it as a ranch. After William passed away, Maggie took in boarders and one of them was an emotionally disturbed young man from a wealthy family in the East. Maggie found it difficult to help the boy, so his family hired Langer to travel to Silver City to evaluate their son. During his stay at the ranch, Langer and Maggie Frank’s daughter, Juanita, became acquainted and a romance blossomed.
They married in 1927 and a year later built a new ranch house on the property, the present Bear Mountain Lodge. In keeping with Walter Langer’s profession, they opened the ranch as a school for mental health patients—naming it the Rocky Mountain Ranch School for Boys. It operated for 2 years but with the stock market crash of 1929, the program failed. Wealthy parents of the boys enrolled were no longer financially able to send their sons to the Langer’s ranch.
Juanita and Walter then moved to Boston, where they opened a similar school, but it too failed when a fire destroyed it completely. A small fire at the Silver City ranch brought Juanita back to New Mexico—never to return to Boston. Once back at the ranch, she began taking in boarders, just as her mother had done years before. Langer stayed in Boston and continued his studies in psychology, receiving his doctorate from Harvard in 1935. He became a prominent psychoanalyst, researcher and author after further study with Sigmund Freud’s daughter Anna and at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute (1936-38). Juanita and Walter were divorced in 1936.
It was during his years of study in Vienna that Langer, along with other intellectuals, found himself in the midst of the Nazi “Anschluss”—the annexation of Austria (1938). Being Jewish intellectuals, Freud and his daughter were persecuted by the Nazi regime and reluctantly fled Vienna. Their departure was aided by Langer, who spirited them away to France in a daring escape under the close surveillance of the Gestapo. Europe lost some of its finest s cholars during that time, as the Nazis persecuted, imprisoned, deported or killed them by the thousands. Once back in the U.S., Langer, like many of the Vienna “school” of psychoanalytic scholars, settled in the Boston area.
Langer gained further international prominence during WWII, when the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) of the U.S. government commissioned him to do an extensive psychological study of Adolf Hitler. The secret report, “The Mind of Adolf Hitler,” became a valuable resource for not only the U.S. government, but after the war, a treasure of information for scholars around the world.
Continuing to run the ranch, Juanita renamed it “Bear Mountain Lodge” adding a swimming pool, tennis court and playground. Her brother Alvin Frank built a golf course
on the property, saddle horses were made available to lodge guests and, on Sundays,
Juanita served chicken dinners to the public. But times were tough during the Depression, so Juanita sold the ranch and returned to college to pursue a degree in
social work. When WWII broke out, she signed on as a Red Cross volunteer social worker, was stationed in England at the 62nd General Hospital and was on duty the week of the Normandy invasion when l,000 patients a day were cared for.
 For the next 23 years, a variety of people bought and sold the ranch. Not only was it used as a lodge, but for banquets, high school senior dinners, wedding receptions and anniversary celebrations. Some owners, like the Horton family, operated the lodge as a dude ranch. During the war years, servicemen stationed at New Mexico military bases often spent time there. After the Hortons, two couples leased the ranch and hosted cougar hunting expeditions. Still another couple leased it and lost their life savings attempting to set up a nursing home. In 1946, George and Anna Kinsinger purchased the property for $40,000 and opened it to the public. It was during their tenure that the well-known film The Salt of the Eart, was shot in and around Silver City. Actors and others associated with the film stayed at the ranch, one of whom was Will Geer - better known for playing Grandpa in The Waltons TV series.
The Kinsinger’s sold the ranch to Clayton and Emma Zaagman from Michigan in 1954, who leased it shortly thereafter to a “Duke and Duchess D’Autry.” Sup-
posedly, the Duke and Duchess had been involved in lucrative uranium deals, but their reign was short-lived. Problems with the Duke’s business deals landed him in Leavenworth prison and the “Duchess,” it is said, ended up taking in laundry.
In 1956, Mattie and James Davis and M. and Ann Fitzgerald bought the property for what has been said to be a “paltry sum.” Deferred maintenance had been practiced for years and the ranch was in need of repairs. It had even been rumored that the town of Silver City had considered buying the property, planning to use it as a country club and to tear down existing buildings. This never happened, as in March of 1959, Myra and Frederick McCormick of Albuquerque bought the lodge and began a historic era of ownership. With the buildings in very ba d shape, they embarked on a long and arduous process of preserving and restoring the lodge and turning it into a successful business enterprise. Known particularly for her Audubon workshops, Mrs. McCormick conducted nature tours and related activities for 41 years until her death in 1999. Those who remember her describe her as colorful, eccentric, and even cantankerous. She did much of the cooking at the lodge, was said to be frugal to a fault, and ran the inn with a tight grip. However, she left a legacy of having inspired guests from around the world with her vast knowledge of wildlife, particularly birds.
The lodge is now owned by the Nature Conservancy of New Mexico, having been endowed by Mrs. McCormick. Major renovations have taken place, but in keeping with Mrs. McCormick’s wishes, it will continue to serve its guests with birding, hiking and naturalist programs.
*This brief article about the history of Bear Mt. Lodge in Silver City, NM is taken from a manuscript- in- progress by Dr. Donna Eichstaedt, a board member of the Dona Ana County Historical Society and a faculty member at Dona Ana Community College.
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