More Than Ski Slopes: The Lake, Golf Course and Airstrip That Built a Town
Angel Fire is famous first for its ski slopes, but the family that created the resort never planned a winter-only place. When Roy and George LeBus of Wichita Falls, Texas, bought the 9,000-acre Monte Verde Ranch in 1954, and added the 14,000-acre Cieneguilla Ranch from the Maxwell Land Grant Company in 1956, they were running cattle in the Moreno Valley. Within a decade, as the cattle business declined, Roy was imagining something else on that ranchland: a year-round resort with a ski area, a country club, and a golf course.