"DUDE RANCHES"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 15

"DUDE RANCHES"

AMERICAN INNOVATION

FOR "WILD WEST" HOLIDAY

PROVING POPULAR

Dude ranching, already one of the important industries of the West, made big gains this season and is now making plans for further expansion, writes Rose Henderson in the "New York Times." The University of Wyoming is starting this Fall a four-year course in. "dude wrangling," combining hotel management and "horseology." An aitline is planning a twelve-hour service, a "dude ranch special" from New York City to the foothills of the Rockies. In Colorado a commission has' been formed to encourage the establishment and regulation of these ranches. This summer the dude-ranch business topped 1929 and 1934 by about 50 per cent., according to Lee Hermann, secretary of the Colorado Dude Ranch and Guest Ranch Association, with between 50,000 and 100,000 guests registered. One travel bureau had inquiries by 100,000 persons interested in this type of vacation. The ranches, which vary in altitude from 3000 to 9000 feet, are located mostly in five mountain States. Wyoming and Montana ha^ about seventy-five, whose business is concentrated in the wanner months; Colorado has twentyfive, which seek guests all the year round and are active in the Fall; and Arizona and New Mexico also twentyfive, catering largely to winter guests. Their visitors are mostly wealthy Easterners, or persons in moderate circumstances from the South and Middle West. Air-conditioning of passenger trains on Western railways has been an.important factor in the promotion of dude-ranch business. Airlines also bring many tourists to Montana and Wyoming, putting these sections on a competing basis with the lakes region, the North Woods, and smart watering places nearer the large centres of population. In the United States one can hardly live more than a day away, by air, from one's favourite ranch. Thrift also is playing a part in the increase of tourists, for dude-ranch vacations are simple and wholesome and may be inexpensive, with small outlay for dress or other incidentals. They offer fishing, pack trips, mountain climbing, horseback riding, and other Western recreations, with cow-' boy-riding and roping at the ranches and nearby towns. Dude ranches offer accommodations for all sorts of people. Some ranches cater to parents and children, some to young -people, and others to adults only. Many welcome both old and young. ■ FOB ALL SORTS. The dude ranch is said to have originated as a kind of emergency measure with Howard Eaton, who had a horse ranch in South Dakota and was so overwhelmed with guests that he found he was spending in entertainment all that he made on'his horses. He, built some guest cabins, planning at first to have his friends merely share the expenses, but they came in such crowds that he decided to make a business of entertaining them. Later he moved to "VYolf, Wyoming, and his outfit is still there, though he himself died a number of years ago. Tourists-like a dude : ranch for-many of the same reasons that they like Western stories and films, rodeos, and other Wild West shows. It is a fundamentally American institution and resembles nothing else. The picturesqueness -of the- old West is there, its pungent humour, its beauty and romance, and something of its adven- . tuire. On a dude ranch a guest has more freedom than at other types of resort. He may dance, play cards, sit around a campfire and yarn, go in for outdoor sports, or enjoy absolute quiet and solitude. He may hunt deer, bear, elk, wolf, cougar, and other wild game with a gun or a camera. If he is a good horseman he may ride alone on wellknown trails —just ride, eat, sleep, and ride, if that is what he wants. Most dude ranches go in for scenery in a big way, such as stretches of yellow desert set with purple mesas, or miles of rocky canyons in the depths of pine forests, with plunging waterfalls and misty, snow-capped peaks. A carpet .of wild flowers in spring and summer and the rustle of brown leaves, the flame of aspens and mountain ash along the autumn trails. Orange campfires against dusky tree trunks in vast, shadowy forests, with a few stars shining through. Miles of sage like a sea of silver, under a full moon. EGO DEFLATED. The immensity of a Western setting irons out artificialities, soothes jangled nerves, and tends to deflate the human ego. It sharpens perceptions. One retains in one's memory vivid pictures of the places and the people in them. Of the silly, pompous youth, for example, reduced to absurd insignificance by the grandeur about him, and of the bronzed old cattleman holding his own as serenely as a mountain pine. Of the fat woman from Boston who gave the cowboys so much fun and trouble whenever she got on or off her horse. Of the middle-aged banker who climbed on backward the first time he attempted to ride and sat down with a surprised expression facing the horse's tail. At most dude ranches one almost lives in riding clothes and even learns to dance in cowboy boots. Masquerade parties in the big clubhouse are extremely democratic. A New York millionaire with grey hair and a vanishing waistline wears a rakish squaw costume and dances hilariously with a slim cabin girl dressed as a Mexican charro. Bankers, lawyers, merchants, artists, writers, school teachers, debutantes, dowagers, in other outlandish costumes, and young cowboys in their own picturesque garb, all mingle with carefree friendliness. The ranch belongs to the guests. The atmosphere is wholesome and refreshing; clean, pine-scented air, the rush of mountain streams, the whisper of forests, the maze of desert colour, sunlit space, and solitude take the place of crowded streets. They give you a gentle, reliable cow pony at a dude ranch, and a patient, good-natured cowboy will teach you how to ride. Usually your horse is your exclusive mount for the duration of your stay, so you get used to him and he gets used to you. He knows more about negotiating a tricky trail than you do or ever will, and he is no more anxious to fall down or slide off a shelf than you are to have him 'do so. So, if you get in a tight place, give your horse his head and your prayers. SPECIALLY CHOSEN. In the corral he may have seemed a brainless, irresponsible brute, but on a ticklish bit of trail he is all seriousness and horse sense. He has been chosen for a dude horse in part because he is reasonably foolproof. The chances are that he can get you out of any place you can get him into and, anyway, the best you can do is leave it up to him. To start jerking his mouth . and using your spurs is to court disaster. The word "dude" as used by Westerners has .no uncomplimentary connotation such as "tenderfoot" has. It does not imply the soft and foppish, but simply means one who uses hired guides and cooks, or who pays to stay

on a ranch. The hardened cattleman may turn dude, and often does, by hiring men to go hunting or camping with him. An "ornery" dude is one who is critical and hard to please. "Wrangle" is another word with a special meaning in the West. There it does not mean to dispute or quarrel; it means to drive op direct. You wrangle horses. Cattle are punched or hazed. A dude-Wrangler wrangles dudes —plans entertainment for them, decides what would be nice to do and who will get along best in which party, managing it so deftly that the dudes do not realise they are being wrangled. The dude-wrangler is often an Eastern college man who has been West long enough to know the country and to be enthusiastic about introducing others to it. No two dude ranches are exactly alike. Some are stock ranches that have added guest accommodations and continued their regular ranch work. Other outfits have been built especially for dudes, from the selection of the scenic location to the designing of guest bedrooms, recreation rooms, private swimming pools, and the like, and are devoted entirely to entertainment. It is wise to choose a ranch that appeals to your special interests. If you want to gallop after cattle, rope calves, and help cowboys with roundups, choose a regular cattle ranch where such jobs are part of the routine. There are also special fishing camps and hot springs resorts. BIG RANCHES IN THE SOUTHWEST. Some of the largest ranches are in the South-west. One covers more than 100,000 acres. Many ranches are located in historic settings. One ranch near Wickenburg, Arizona, was an old adobe stage station, set among giant palms and cottonwoods on the banks of the Hassayampa River. Another, in the hills above Wickenburg, is known as the "dude-ranch capital" of the South-west. At the annual three-day rodeo held here riders and ropers compete' for world championship trophies. Indians dance war dances, masked bandits hold up stages; many events typical of Wild West days add variety to the spectacular bronchobreaking, roping, and bull-dogging. Near Durango, Colorado, is a ranch 8000 feet above sea level, extending five miles along both banks of the Pine" River. This is a rugged country with fine horseback trails, beautiful mountains, valleys, and forests, and good trout fishing. Near Buffalo, Wyoming, are ranches in.the historic Big Horn country. Here thousands of acres, off the beaten trail, in the heart of the old Sioux, Crow, and Cheyenne hunting and battlegrounds, offer fresh fields. The old Boseman Trail runs nearby, and not far away are the sites of the Custer, Fetterman, and Red Fork massacres.