[1] It is located on the South Fork of the American River, 2.5 miles (4 km) west of Echo Summit,[2] at an elevation of 6,873 feet (2095 m).

Joseph Wells Davis Phillips began cattle ranching here in 1859, and opened a hotel in 1863.

[2] The Vade post office operated at Phillips from 1912 to 1961.

[2] As of 2020, the Phillips family still owned the townsite, which has long been a site for manual surveys of Sierra Nevada snowpack.

This El Dorado County, California–related article is a stub.