What is the Las Dos Homestead?
Long before European explorers came to America, a tribe of Tewa speaking Native Americans inhabited the land between the Sangre de Cristo mountains and the Pajarito Plateau, just east of the Rio Grande. When the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, they named Tewa people ‘Tesuque Indians’ because they declared that Tesuque meant ‘Tewa people in the narrow place by the tall cottonwoods.’ The Tesuque Pueble is now a sovereign nation, but certain parcels of land in the New Mexico Territory were taken by the US Federal Government and via the Homesteading Act of 1862 were passed on to settlers in the Santa Fe County area. The Las Dos Homestead was patented 68 years later by two women who would eventually, give it to us. The Kenneys.
Our Homestead story began in 1930 when great-grandfather Alfred Maurice Bergere, register for Santa Fe County, responded to his daughter's request to find homestead property for her and her friend. Bergere found 2 sections (1257 acres) available for homesteading just 12 miles northwest of Santa Fe. Daughter Nina Otero-Warren and Mamie Meadors paid $67.40 for 2 homestead applications, and after five years, were granted this land by President Roosevelt.
Nina and Mamie conformed to laws set forth in the Homesteading Act of 1862. They agreed to spend an average of five months a year in residence for four years, and to improve the land by building 2 houses, fencing the acreage, installing a surface tank to collect rainwater, cultivating a bean crop, developing a natural water catchment basin for wildlife (Lagunita Park), maintaining the road and planting vegetation to control soil erosion. These remarkable women with the devoted help of Jorge Martinez, would build 3 little houses, a carriage house, a corral and 2 rainwater cisterns. They also fenced in that 1,257 acres while they learned from the Tesuque Indians how to cultivate corn and beans, winning the bolita bean contest at the 1933 Fiesta. Las Dos were women ahead of their time who did all of this in order to be granted ownership in their own names. (see *Nina Otero-Warren of Santa Fe, a book by Charlotte Whaley, University of New Mexico, 1994).
What is the current history of Las Dos?
Upon Nina Otero’s death, the Las Dos property was given to Nina’s nephews, Dr. Bergere Kenney and his brother, Jack Kenney. Both lived in Santa Fe, NM. In 1973, Jack and Bergere Kenney created the of Las Dos Subdivision, which has since become home to a committed group of conservationists and wild life lovers. Jack and Bergere’s environmental covenants for Las Dos eventually helped to form the Santa Fe County land development regulations. Jack Kenney was also president of the Sierra Club.
The three original Homestead houses are still standing and cared for by Nina Otero’s great-nieces and great-nephews, who love the land and history.
In 2021, our family group is putting resources and attention into our family legacy for the fourth generation. We are building a small bathhouse with electricity and water so that the next generation will utilize and care for the property. All upgrades are compliant with the convenants. The three original Homestead Houses were placed in a grandchildren’s trust. Presently, over 310 acres are still owned by descendants of the original homesteader, Nina Otero- Warren.
In the creation of the Las Dos covenants, the two brothers, Jack and Bergere Kenney, Nina’s nephews, reviewed Aldo Leopold’s land ethic to take guidances from the conservationist.
The covenants address these items:
Land use:
Preservation of native plants and trees
Restriction of quantity of large animals
Restriction of grazing
Restriction of hunting
Restriction of off road vehicles due to erosion
Restriction of any form of dumping pollutants into the ground water or soil
Prohibition of use of herbicides and non-natural pesticides
Water conservation:
Using drought resistant native plants for landscaping
Low flush toilets and shower head restrictions
Encourage water runoff harvesting
Well meters to manage water use
The Covenants are overseen by the Architectural Control Committee, a small group of Las Dos landowners, who review potential construction and enforce compliance to maintain integrity of the land.
The Las Dos Parcel for Sale
The Las Dos community, with its breathtaking vistas and mystical pinon pathways, is located as the “crow flies” between Los Alamos and the ski-run basin. It is adjacent to the Tesuque Native land and the BLM.
The parcel that we are selling spans a ridge with building sites that look out to 3 mountain ranges. Westward, the property borders Bureau of Land Management land, overlooking the Jemez Mountains and the gorgeous Rio Grande Valley. Eastward, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains glow with the sunlit hills and snow covered peaks, bordering more open Las Dos land and the Tesuque Pueblo Reservation. Down the hill eastward, the land takes you into well shaded arroyos with tall pinon trees, water catchments, and a pristine area in which to walk the dog, or ride your horse. The southern part of the property borders a family park, “Bootleg Hill," named after the 'old bourbon still' used during Prohibition! and looks out clear to the Albuquerque Sandia Mountains, 60 miles away.
To the north, the property is bordered by a 12.5 acre lot of raw land, a single home on 25 acres, and 3- 12.5 acre properties with lovely residences . This little Phase III enclave gives residents a sense of safety, a fair road maintenance agreement, and the brilliant certainty that you will never be totally stranded on the border of BLM or Tesuque land if there is a problem (like a needed cup of sugar or a dead battery!)
Each home is owned by like-minded conservationists, who relish their wilderness experience far from the bustling crowd, and at the far end of the road.