Santa Fe Living Treasures – Elder Stories

In Ketchikan he worked in the fishing industry. In San Francisco, in 1944, he worked in the shipyards while finishing seminary. His first churches were in Morenci, Arizona, Arlington, Texas and Hobbs, New Mexico, where he worked in the oil fields. All that hard outdoor work and varied pastoral experience prepared him for the assignment of his life: running Ghost Ranch.

In the 1950s it was just another ranch, at Abiquiu, in Georgia O'Keeffe country, when its owner, Arthur N. Pack, deeded the property --complete with buildings, livestock, machinery, and mineral development rights-- to the Presbyterian Board of Education. In 1961 Jim Hall took over the reins of the 23,000 acre spread. In twenty-five years as director of Ghost Ranch, he turned it into a popular conference center, while his wife, an ardent paleontologist, laid the groundwork for a small museum.