Rich Cabins is a camp managed by the Boy Scouts of America

Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...

's Philmont Scout Ranch

Philmont Scout Ranch

Philmont Scout Ranch is a large, rugged, mountainous ranch located near the town of Cimarron, New Mexico, covering approximately of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico...

, a backpacking reservation in northern New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. Rich Cabins is located on a portion of the Vermejo Park Ranch

Vermejo Park Ranch

The Vermejo Park Ranch is a ranch owned by Ted Turner in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado that is said to be the largest privately owned, contiguous tract of land in the United States....

, which is owned by Ted Turner

Ted Turner

Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...

. The Rich family lived at this location from the late 1880s to the 1920s.
The cabin was built by the Rich family beginning in 1880, when the eldest brother Joseph immigrated from the Tirol

Tyrol (state)

Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...

 province of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. Eventually, all four Rich brothers (Joseph, John, David, and Louis) lived there. The family ran a successful cattle ranch which stretched down-canyon to where Ponil is located today. The family left abruptly in 1926, reportedly due to one of the brother's gambling debts. At that time, they sold their brand (a heart outline) to the Chase family. The Chases use the heart to this day.

Rich Cabins was part of the area that burned during the Ponil Complex Fire of 2002. A combination of back-burning and defensible space cutting by the Philmont and Cimarron Volunteer Fire Departments saved the cabin, barn, and tool shed. The chicken coop and one latrine were lost in the fire, but have since been rebuilt.

Activities

The program here is homesteading and includes: historical first-person interpretive cabin tours, gardening, wood working (some years), catching chickens, milking cows, and various projects that the staff may be working on to improve the camp. There is also a commissary where trail food can be picked up and white gas can be purchased. As of 2007 Rich Cabins has an official evening music program where campers can hear traditional songs from regions that the Rich family would have traveled through from Austria.

Details

• Type: Staff Camp
• Map Section: Northeast and Northwest (2006 maps), North (2007 double-sided map)
• Elevation: 7793 feet (2,375.3 m)
• Water Source: Spigot behind cabin, spigot in springhouse, cistern in springhouse, Middle Ponil Creek
• Facilities: Commissary
• Program: Homesteading