The men began mixing surplus bulk leaf tobacco from North Carolina and wild-grown rustica in the basement of Marion's rented house.

[2] In 1986, the company's board of directors hired Robin Sommers, a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who had been a subscription data specialist for Newsweek and Esquire in Greenwich Village before briefly running the Ice Palace nightclub on Fire Island.

Sommers moved the company from the railyard warehouse to Santa Fe's White Swan building located on Cerrillos Road.

Natural American Spirit became popular with celebrities, with Sean Penn, Joni Mitchell, and Gwyneth Paltrow praising the cigarette in magazine interviews and Mac Miller having the company logo tattooed on his chest.

[2] In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration sent the company a letter warning that “natural” and “additive-free” were false marketing of a “modified risk product”.

Japan Tobacco has so far continued to source its leaf from Santa Fe Natural's Oxford manufacturing plant, even sending its research scientists on a North Carolina State University agricultural extension tour.

[2] In September 2015, a complaint was filed against Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleging that the company's "organic and additive-free marketing claims for the Natural American Spirit brand" constituted fraud, false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and unfair competition.