Background
The Villa was built in 1926 by oil magnate Waite Phillips who used it to oversee his 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) cattle ranch in northeast New Mexico. It was built in a Spanish-style motif befitting the American Southwest. Phillips named the house by combining the first half of his name with monte, the Spanish word for mountain. In addition to the Villa, Phillips built several other retreats on his ranch’s property, including Fish Camp on the Agua Fria Creek and Hunting Lodge near Cimarroncito.
Phillips donated the Villa, along with 91,538 acres (370 km2) of land and the Philtower office building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to the Boy Scouts in 1941, supplementing a 1938 gift of 35,857 acres (145 km2) that had created the Philmont Rocky Mountain Scout camp, near Cimarron, New Mexico. The Boy Scouts of America has operated the property since that time and opened the Villa to Scouts and visitors as a museum. Regularly scheduled tours are offered during the summer.
Read more about this topic: Villa Philmonte
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