A local Iraqw house, photographed in the 1950's

The area around the nearby village of Karatu was cultivated as early as 2000 years ago by the Mbulu or Iraqw, a Cushitic group of people who migrated south from Ethiopia and Yemen, and who still dominate the area today.

The Maasai came fairly recently, in the late 1700's, but were driven into other areas more suitable for cattle herding by repeated wars with their agricultural neighbors, and by the sleeping sickness in their herds.

The first European settlers to arrive were the Germans, in the late 1800s. After the First World War, Tanganyika became a British Protectorate. In the late 1920s a coffee farm was established by a German farmer, subsidized by the German Government. During the Second World War, the British Custodian of Enemy Property took over the Farm.

Neglected through the war years, the Farm was bought in 1948 by James Gibb, a British war veteran, who returned it to production. In 1959, he married Margaret, who was born in Tanzania to British parents. Margaret, an avid gardener, started a small vegetable and flower garden on the property.

In 1960, the Serengeti National Park was partitioned and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area was established along the northern boundary of Gibb's Farm. As more and more visitors became attracted to the Conservation Area and surrounding National Parks, James and Margaret built guest cottages in 1972, making Gibb’s Farm one of the first guesthouses in Northern Tanzania.

James Gibb died in 1977, but Margaret Gibb continued to run Gibb’s Farm until 2003 when Margaret and her late husband Per Kullander passed on the Gibb’s Farm tradition to new investors - users of the lodge for the past 20 years. This is a new era in the history of Gibb’s Farm. Building on a Legacy, the Farm is currently undergoing major upgrades and improvements.