History
The land housing the modern-day Camp at Capilla Peak was originally part of a 148-acre homestead deeded in 1908 to a settler named Jose Zamora by President Theodore Roosevelt.
The property passed through several families and was divided and reconfigured multiple times before the 40-acre portion described as “The Northeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter (NE ¼ SE ¼) of Section Twelve (12), Township Five (5) North, Range Five (5) East of the New Mexico Principal Meridian” was bought in the early 1960s by the Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society, which for three decades operated a youth camp there for the children of its employees.
In 1995, the property was sold to Cabot Van Sinderen, a member of the Heaven’s Gate Cult, led by Marshall Applewhite. Some 125 cult members lived and worked on the property for about a year, constructing a 4,000-square-foot “Earth Ship,” or structure made of tires and rammed earth, as well as an underground tunnel with gas and electric lines and a septic system. The Heaven’s Gaters intended the compound to be a kind of monastery and commune where they could safely exercise their beliefs.
When cult members learned that the Comet Hale-Bopp would soon be streaking across the sky, Applewhite convinced his followers that there was a UFO trailing behind the comet and that they would leave their earthly bodies, or “vehicles,” behind and be picked up by the spaceship to fulfill a higher purpose. They left New Mexico and traveled to Rancho Santa Fe, California, where they lived until March 26, 1997, when 39 members of the cult committed suicide.
After the cult members left the Manzanos, the property was owned for five years by a private individual and then was vacant for five years before we purchased it in 2006. In 2007, we added 20 acres to the 40 original acres and began to restore the property as The Camp at Capilla Peak. The Trigo Canyon Fire of 2008 destroyed three cabins and a section of Ponderosa Pine, Alligator Juniper and Pinon trees, but much of the acreage was spared.
Two thinning projects contracted with Claunch-Pinto Soil & Water Conservation District have improved the fire resistance of The Camp and allowed the remaining trees to thrive, providing food and shelter for many types of wildlife.