Much of Catalina's history and the land it now sits on is connected with the Golder Ranch. According to historian David Leighton of the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, Lloyd Golder III and family moved to Tucson from Illinois in 1956 and by the following year had purchased the Rancho Vistoso, which at the time was a 4,800 acre ranch. In 1959, Golder bought the nearby 18,000-acre, Rail N. Ranch from Roberta Nicholas whose ranch house is now the administration building for the Miraval Resort. The land included parts of what is now Catalina State Park to the south and part of the land where Biosphere 2 now sits, to the north.