DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission put on record at Bandera County — now let me do it justice. Some dreams are so big they need wings just to get off the ground. And Colonel John Henry Lapham — Jack, to everyone who knew him — well, Jack Lapham was born into a family that thought in those kinds of terms.
His father helped co-found the Texas Company, the outfit that would eventually become Texaco. So Jack grew up understanding that a bold idea, properly executed, could reshape the landscape. He just chose a different kind of landscape than his father did.
By 1920 Jack was living in San Antonio, fingers in all manner of business interests, and somewhere along the way he fell hard for the sky. Now here is where the Lapham story tips from interesting into something else entirely — because Jack did not keep flying to himself. His wife, Julie Edna, got her pilot's license.
Their four children got their pilot's licenses. The whole family took to the air like it was the most natural thing in the world, and people started calling them The Flying Laphams, which is about the finest family nickname the state of Texas has ever produced. Jack's second wife, Lucy Jane Thomas, was an accomplished pilot too.
That was simply the standard in that household. Jack was a veteran of the First World War and the Second, a retired Army Air Corps colonel, and by 1945 he had a dream that was equal parts Texas audacity and aviation romance. He wanted to build the first dude ranch airpark in the United States — a place where a man could fly his own plane in, tie her down, and then go ride horses and sleep in a villa and generally live like the future had already arrived.
In 1945 he bought a 486-acre ranch near Bandera from a Dr. J.O. and Ethel Butler, and he called it the Flying L Ranch. By late 1946, the place had an airstrip, villas, lounges, a pool, and a flight training school for veterans coming home from World War Two.
Jack Lapham was not thinking small. And the details — oh, the details tell you everything about the man's imagination. Those villas?
From the air, they were designed to appear as planes flying in formation. He was building a property you had to see from above to fully appreciate. The Pilots' Lounge itself was a two-story concrete block quonset hut — now that sounds plain until you hear the rest of it — trimmed with handmade oak arches and cedar siding, finished with a concrete roof.
The second story opened onto a horseshoe-shaped balcony with wooden floors and handmade oak railing and stairs. A large southeast-facing window looked straight out over the landing strip and grounds. A pilot could sit up there and watch the planes come in and feel like the whole world made sense.
In May of 1947 the Flying L Ranch hosted a Fashion Rodeo, which is exactly the kind of only-in-Texas event that sounds like someone made it up. Several magazines took notice, but the crown jewel was a spread in LIFE. Photographer Cornell Capa showed up and shot more than a hundred pictures of a fashion show hosted by Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus.
Cowboys and couture, runways and airstrips — Jack Lapham's ranch was a place where the worlds collided and somehow it worked. Now, the tall tale always has its shadow. Colonel Lapham dreamed of establishing a whole series of properties like the Flying L, a chain of dude ranch airparks strung across the country.
That dream never materialized. And in 1956 — the same year that marks the end of his story — Jack Lapham and three others were killed in a plane crash near the very airpark he had built. The colonel died in the sky he loved, within sight of the land he had shaped.
There is something in that which defies easy summing up. But the Flying L Ranch kept going. National brands found the place — Coca-Cola filmed commercials there, aircraft manufacturers filmed commercials there.
Families came. Celebrities came. And in 1959 and 1960, when John Wayne was down near Brackettville filming The Alamo, he stayed at the ranch.
The Western movie star resting at the dude ranch airpark that a flying colonel built on 486 acres of Hill Country — if Jack Lapham had written that detail himself, people would have said he was laying it on a little thick. The Texas Historical Commission put a marker on that Pilots' Lounge in 2016. And when you stand there looking out that southeast-facing window toward the strip, you're looking through the same glass that framed Jack Lapham's dream — the one that was, for a time, exactly as big as he believed it could be.
What the marker says
Colonel John Henry "Jack" Lapham (1885-1956) was a son of a co-founder of the Texas Company (later Texaco). He was living in San Antonio by 1920 and had many business interests. Jack, his wife, Julie Edna (Capen), and their four children all had pilots' licenses and were known as "The Flying Laphams." Jack's second wife, Lucy Jane (Thomas), was also an accomplished pilot. Jack Lapham, a WWI and WWII veteran, was a retired Army Air Corps colonel with a dream to create the first "dude ranch airpark" in the United States. In 1945, he bought a 486-acre ranch near Bandera from Dr. J.O. and Ethel Butler and established the Flying L Ranch. By late 1946, the site featured an airstrip, villas, lounges, a pool and flight training school for WWII veterans. From the air, the villas were designed to appear as planes flying in formation. The Pilots' Lounge was designed as a two-story concrete block quonset hut trimmed with handmade oak arches and cedar siding with a concrete roof. The second story has a horseshoe-shaped balcony with wooden floors and handmade oak railing and stairs. A large southeast-facing window provided a view of the landing strip and grounds. A May 1947 "Fashion Rodeo" at the Flying L Ranch was featured in several magazines, including an article in LIFE. Photographer Cornell Capa captured the event with more than 100 pictures of the fashion show hosted by Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus. Col. Lapham's dream of establishing a series of similar properties never materialized, and he and three others were killed in a 1956 plane crash near the airpark. Several national brands including Coca-Cola and aircraft manufacturers have filmed commercials here and guests have ranged from families to celebrities. Western movie star John Wayne stayed at the ranch when he was filming The Alamo near Brackettville in 1959-60. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2016