Ghost Ranch supplied Georgia O'Keeffe with many of the desert landscapes, cliffs, and animal bones that became signatures of her New Mexico paintings. She first visited the area in 1934 and rented a house there for extended periods.
The ranch lies near Abiquiú in northern New Mexico, beneath dramatic multicolored formations known as the Piedra Lumbre basin. O'Keeffe collected bones while walking and carried them back to her studio, where she painted them against the sky or enlarged them into monumental compositions.
Ghost Ranch is sometimes treated as synonymous with O'Keeffe's Abiquiú home, but the sites are distinct. Abiquiú was her principal house and studio; Ghost Ranch was a separate retreat and source of motifs. The area later became an education and retreat center operated by the Presbyterian Church.