Stallion Springs: a look back at an earlier time

Kirk Smith, a former Tehachapi resident, recently sent me photos of an old marketing brochure for Stallion Springs, which he has had in his possession for more than 40 years. It’s interesting to see how things have changed since the sleepier days of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Stallion Springs still had an equestrian center back then, and Kirk’s wife, Teri, was the manager. There were rides offered on local deeded trails, and equestrian events of different kinds were held at the center.

The Stallion Springs Lodge was one of the best places to eat in the Tehachapi Mountains, and the Lodge was justifiably famous for their abundant Sun- day brunch. Many local awards dinners, wedding receptions, service club installations and other celebrations were held at the Lodge, perched high on a hill overlooking Stallion Springs and the west side of Cummings Valley.

There was a family of raccoons, inquisitive and entertaining, that made nightly appearances on the terrace outside the Lodge, and were often treated to scraps from the kitchen. A boulder outcropping just outside the dining room made a fun place for children to climb onto while adults socialized. I often made a beeline for it when I was at the Lodge as little kid.

There was a swimming pool on the north side of the Lodge, and local kids often finagled a way to swim, if one of their friends was working at the Lodge. My older brother worked nights at the Lodge while in high school, including doing cleanup after all the guests were gone, and he enjoyed the scenic views and the raccoon family shadowing him.

I was there one night when an eerie glow filled the sky from the north — it turned out to be a rare occurrence of aurora borealis, the northern lights, which had made an appearance down this far south.

As panoramic as the view from the Lodge could be, it could also be shrouded in dense fog sometimes. You could enter Stallion Springs off Banducci Road and have good visibility, but by the time you drove the curving road up to the top of the Lodge, you could be totally lost in pea soup fog. It made the place, already a bit surreal and like an out-of-place Hotel California, seem to be even more of dreamscape.

Also thriving at the time was of course the Horse Thief Country Club, the 18-hole golf course with a bar and restaurant. I’m not a golfer, but I always loved this course and the way developers left all the rock piles, boulder outcroppings and native oak trees and designed the course around it. Golfers would come from Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California and Kern County because of the natural beauty of that beautiful course.

I also liked the club itself, and attended a few wedding receptions there as well as Tehachapi High class reunions (not my own, but I took photos at the reunions of older alumni).

Stallion Springs had once been the ranch of Rex Ellsworth, a thoroughbred breeder whose horse Swaps, raised and trained in Cummings Valley, won the 1955 Kentucky Derby. In 1969, the 10,500-acre Ellsworth Ranch was sold to Benquet California for the Stallion Springs subdivision.

After all or at least most the lots were sold, some of the amenities went away. I think the Stallion Springs Equestrian Center was the first to go. We used to host Elderhostel programs at the facility in the early 1990s, and I was sorry to see it sold. I believe it is a private home now.

I don’t know what the status of the Lodge is these days. It’s been closed to the general public for years. The guest rooms and dining area are no doubt showing their age, since they are 50 years old now, but that location is still stunning. I hope that someday it will again be appreciated for its potential.

The golf course may someday rise again too, though of course California’s endless drought has complicated the outlook of any golf courses in Southern California.

Though the amenities weren’t cared for like I wish they were, it’s always been a challenge as a business proposition, partly because there’s not much through-traveler activity. Stallion Springs is essentially at the end of a road. You couldn’t just hop off a freeway and be there, to eat or spend the night, and then jump back on the freeway to continue your trip. It’s always been a great getaway, but many travelers want immediate proximity to a freeway.

But Stallion Springs is a beautiful place to live, and the Stallion Springs CSD has added a swimming pool, recreation center, and other amenities and activities. And the iconic Chanac Creek Covered Bridge still stands in quiet charm.

Thanks Kirk, for sharing that look back at the first decade of Stallion Springs’ existence as new community in the Tehachapi Mountains.

Have a good week.