Colonel William Boyce Thompson, a mining promoter, financial magnate, and Red Cross officer, chose the Picketpost Mountain area for his winter home after falling in love with it while visiting his Magma Copper Mine near Superior, and before the Picketpost House was completed he had already begun planning the Arboretum. His Red Cross mission to an impoverished Russia in 1917 convinced him that growing and using plants wisely could help solve global food problems, and he also greatly regretted the local damage caused by mining, timbering, and overgrazing. His concern for the land and keen interest in plants inspired him to establish "the most beautiful and useful garden of its kind in the world," with support from many people in the scientific and business community, plants brought from many deserts of the earth, greenhouses and study centers planned and built to blend into the area and serve research staff, work carried out by hard-working gardeners, and roads and pathways carefully placed so as not to interfere with established native plants.