Bee Tree County Park began as the estate of Eugene and Lotawana Nims. Eugene founded Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, and in 1929 they had a mansion built by the architecture firm Maritz and Young as a weekend retreat while also maintaining the property as an active farm that grew fruits and vegetables and raised livestock. Designed in the Tudor Revival style for which Maritz and Young were well known, the house incorporated features that took advantage of its scenic location and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. The Nims gave the estate the name Bee Tree, which a 1936 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article said their nephew Thomas Ratcliffe chose when it was first built because he saw bees swarming about a grove of white oaks. St. Louis County purchased the 199-acre property from the Nims estate in April 1968 with funds donated by the Open Space Foundation in partnership with the Open Space Council and with matching federal funds. Today the park includes the historic Nims Mansion, scenic trails, a stocked lake with an accessible fishing dock, a memorial garden and fountain dedicated to Lindell Gordon, and a Mississippi River overlook dedicated to R. Walston Chubb, both of whom were instrumental in raising money for the park's purchase.