The origins of our lodge can be traced back to the pioneering days of Patagonian History. The "estancia" (ranch) on which the lodge is located, was carved out of the wilderness in the last decades of the nineteenth century by an ancestor of the family that still owns it: José Menendez - a man who, having started out in life as a penniless Spanish immigrant to Argentina at the age of thirteen, came to be known, by the time he was fifty, as the "king of Patagonia". His "reign" had no political connotations. The term was coined by the local population as a tribute to the impact of his presence in the region, the scope of his interests and initiatives, and the sheer quality of his tireless entrepreneurial spirit. There is one aspect of his many achievements which is of particular interest to us for a very special reason. The manager of José Menendez’s estancias, where Villa Maria is located was an Englishman: John Goodall. He was a remarkable man in many ways, and had all the qualities required for a position of responsibility in a pioneering enterprise which was far more demanding than mere farming. But there was another aspect of Goodall’s life to which we owe a debt of gratitude. He was a passionate angler, with a preference for trout, who worked (and lived) in an area of the planet where trout did not exist. Encouraged by Menendez, Goodall took the only logical step: he sailed to England and returned with an adequate supply of trout eggs. We like to think that by introducing the "catch and release" philosophy to Patagonia in 1984, and by continuing to promote it, Menendez’s great-grandsons, Jorge and Fernando de Las Carreras, are preserving the work of a man who, perhaps, died without being aware of the dimension of his legacy to anglers who come to Villa Maria from all over the world every year.