Rancho Linda Vista near Oracle evolved from a rustic Hollywood retreat into a freewheeling 1960s art commune.
In 1968, a Bold counterculture experiment came to life in an unlikely locale: a territorial stagecoach stop turned Old Hollywood guest ranch in Pinal County. As the Summer of Love faded and the nation reeled from assassinations, race riots and the Vietnam War, 10 families tossed aside convention and formed a cooperative living community based on freedom and creativity.
“We had no clue as to what we were doing; we just wanted to live in the country and create art,” longtime member Chuck Sternberg says.
Comprising about 20 ramshackle buildings (15 homes and five additional structures) near the town of Oracle, the still-active commune – called Rancho Linda Vista – is approaching its 55th anniversary, a remarkable feat of longevity considering its rocky start in the crosshairs of the law.
Though cowboys and cattle had little to do with the lifestyle envisioned by the new owners, those Old West tropes were deeply written into the history of the property. It was founded as a stagecoach stop in 1882, about 30 miles northeast of Tucson.
George Wilson purchased the property in 1911 after moving to the area six years earlier from New York to convalesce from asthma and a high-school baseball injury. Wilson made a name for himself locally after befriending William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and pitching for the Tucson Brannens, a semi-pro baseball team. Creatives resided at Wilson’s ranch as early as 1922, when Tucson author Harold Bell Wright penned his bestselling melodrama, The Mine with the Iron Door. When a silent movie based on the book was filmed there three years later, it became one of Arizona’s first dude ranches.
Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth were among those who square danced in the barn and rode horseback through the high desert near the Santa Catalina Mountains. Ranch guests came back a bit parched from their outings, but serving liquor was forbidden by the National Dude Ranch Association. “George Wilson’s son, Boyd, built the Oracle Inn in 1938 so ranch patrons could have a libation there on their rides without breaking the rules,” says Royal John Medley, an Oracle Historical Society member.
Wilson died in 1957, and his heirs split and sold the property. New owners added a swimming pool, but the guest ranch concept was fading. A classified ad in 1968 listed the 80-acre, 24-building property for $67,500. Two University of Arizona art professors, Charles Littler and Bruce McGrew, and eight other families each contributed $1,000 for a down payment on the foreclosed property.
“Littler is generally acknowledged as the Rancho Linda Vista founder and visionary, though it was truly a group effort,” says Paul Gold, author of the 2020 book Bend in the Wash: The Rancho Linda Vista Artist Community. “Charles was an untraditional leader who had worked in New York City in the 1950s in abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann’s studio, but eventually [he] eschewed the art establishment altogether.”
The property was still in escrow when Andy Warhol and his avant-garde New York City entourage arrived on site. They had been filming the Western parody Lonesome Cowboys at Old Tucson Studios, but were tossed for upsetting tourists. “Littler knew Warhol and invited him to finish the movie at the ranch, which the bank still owned,” Gold says. “Some Oracle residents stopped by, unaware Warhol would shoot a rape scene. As it unfolded, pandemonium ensued, and they grabbed their kids and scattered. The Pinal County sheriff arrived and thought things were weird enough to call the FBI, who investigated whether the art movie had violated interstate pornography laws.”
Littler’s assemblage of art professors and graduate students moved into the run-down adobe cottages and converted barns into studios. “There was only one kitchen, so we had to eat together every night in a communal building,” Sternberg says. “McGrew said it felt like being in the army, and he added a kitchen to his place really fast.” The nonconformists also dabbled in skinny-dipping, pot, psychedelics and free love. But the community’s art initially suffered from more quotidian concerns. “There is so much maintenance and manual labor to do,” Littler lamented to the Tucson Daily Citizen in 1969.
“The first year was tumultuous, with lots of divorces and wanderers stopping by,” Sternberg says.
He adds that there was always a generational divide with the visiting hippies, as the ranch residents were older and had a mortgage, and many of them still taught at the UofA. “Some Haight-Ashbury guys sneered at us for using deodorant,” Sternberg says.
After a few years, the community stabilized, and the ranch flourished without the help of endowments or grants. “Many communes were launched nationwide then, but this is one of the few to survive,” Gold says. Some of the original residents have passed away, but new artists and their families, often kids who grew up there, have moved in, retaining the community’s vitality. Currently, 14 families call Rancho Linda Vista home. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Oracle, a funky town once surrounded by pristine desert, is in the midst of a housing boom but still attracts oddball projects such as Biosphere 2.
Some of the art created there resides in museums and commands impressive prices. But the community might be the greatest creation. “It’s survived, probably because everyone understands and takes the community ethos seriously,” Gold says. “Sure, they have had their squabbles, but they like, respect and help one another.”
With their singular lifestyle, the residents carry on the guest ranch’s legacy of being an extraordinary place. “We’ve gone through adolescence [and] old age, and now we’re being reborn with younger residents, mainly musicians,” Sternberg says. “The process is very organic. We don’t think about the future and just handle things as they arise.”
Other Artsy Collectives
Phoenix Art Colony
In 1921, the Phoenix Women’s Club sponsored an exhibit by Taos artists at the Miller-Sterling Gallery. The popular show encouraged creatives to relocate, some of whom launched Northlight Studios along the Arizona Canal near Piestewa Peak. Community artists formed the Phoenix Fine Arts Association in 1925 to exhibit local works, including those by Lillian Wilhelm Smith and Lon Megargee, whose home, Casa Hermosa, would later become the Hermosa Inn.
Cattle Track Arts Compound
Rachael and George Ellis, the latter of whom built homes for Frank Lloyd Wright and Sandra Day O’Connor, established an artists’ community in 1937 in what is now Scottsdale. Their daughter, Janie Ellis, still manages the rustic 11-acre complex that houses an eclectic mix of artists. Painter Philip C. Curtis, founder of the Phoenix Art Museum; midcentury architect Bennie Gonzales; and guitarist Nils Lofgren are but a few who have been associated with Cattle Track.
Cowboy Artists of America
This ranch-centric fine art organization started after Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye and Johnny Hampton traveled to Mexico to punch cows in 1965. Upon their return, the trio had beers with George Phippen at Sedona’s Oak Creek Tavern and decided to form a professional association to promote their works that depicted the Old West. Hampton declared that they wanted to direct their destiny: “We didn’t need to sit around and wait for the East to say something good about us.”
