House at Otowi Bridge

The name Otowi comes from the Tewa word p’otsuivi, meaning “gap where water sinks.” It is an appropriately descriptive name for the area, located along the Rio Grande at the head of White Rock Canyon. In 1886, a station and bridge were built here for the Chili Line, a narrow-gauge railroad that ran from Antonito, Colorado to Santa Fe.

In 1923, a post office was built here to serve the Los Alamos Ranch School. In 1928, Edith Warner, a former schoolteacher, was hired to manage the station. She came looking for solitude, but her little station soon became a gathering place for visitors near and far. Edith became friendly both with the inhabitants of the Ranch school (especially the founder’s daughter, Peggy Pond) and the local San Ildefonso tribe. She also opened a small shop, restaurant, and tea room that welcomed everyone.

Just as soon as the Chili Line closed in 1941, Otowi became another kind of bridge—one between the old world of Native Americans and ranchers and the new world of the Atomic Age. When the Manhattan Project came to Los Alamos, the house at Otowi Bridge became a frequent destination for nuclear physicists.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb himself, kept a standing reservation at the restaurant for whenever he wanted to dine. In particular, Edith’s chocolate cake became a local favorite. The relationship between the scientific laboratory, Edith Warner, and the Pueblo people is told in Peggy Pond Church’s novel, The House at Otowi Bridge. Edith died in 1951, and was buried in the traditional Pueblo way, with no markers except broken pottery shards. Her home, too, rests on Pueblo land, now unmarked and unnoticed as time and traffic pass it by.