The UU Bar Ranch, (Double U Bar Ranch), established in 1848 by Lucien B. Maxwell and once owned by the Oklahoma oil magnate Waite Phillips, is now owned by Z&T Cattle Company (Zane Kiehne) headquartered in Pecos, Texas. The Land Report lists Z&T Cattle Company as the nation's 23rd largest landowner in 2025 owning almost one half million acres, including more than 30,000 acres located within Texas’ oil rich Delaware Basin. The UU Bar is located south of Cimarron, New Mexico, USA. UU Bar Ranch is located on the south, the east side and the north side of Philmont Scout Ranch. The UU Bar Ranch and the Philmont Scout Ranch were both part of the 1,714,765 acre Maxwell Spanish Land Grant. UU Bar's headquarters, located on Rayado Creek, was part of Lucien B. Maxwell's ranch headquarters and is adjacent to Maxwell's original home. Cattle have continuously ran on the UU Bar Ranch since 1848. When Waite Phillips purchased the UU Bar in the 1920s it totaled over 300,000 acres. [1] Waite Phillips wanted to brand his cattle with a W Bar brand. However, New Mexico brand laws do not permit duplicate brands and the W Bar brand was already taken. Since Double U sounds like W, Phillips registered the UU Bar as his brand. Phillips donated a portion of his UU Bar Ranch to the Boy Scouts of America in 1941 (approximately 127,000 acres) and retained the best grazing, hunting and fishing land, the core land of today’s UU Bar Ranch. Without the use of the Villa Philmonte, Phillips briefly moved the UU Bar Ranch headquarters to the historic Casa del Gavilan near the base of Urraca Mesa, selling the ranch in 1943 to a family with the last name of McDaniel. [2]
The UU Bar Ranch’s cattle and (hunting and fishing) operations are managed by Zane and Tanya Kiehne and the UU Bar Ranch is considered the premier elk hunting ranch in North America. Since purchasing the UU Bar Ranch in 2018, Z&T Cattle Company has purchased adjacent land and increased the UU Bar Ranch's size to close to what it was prior to the Boy Scout donations. UU Bar now contains 282,000 acres and is known as, and widely considered to be America’s Greatest Ranch.