Dude Ranch Days

Funding for dude ranch days was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Wyoming Council for the Humanities. It's late spring in Wyoming. The hills are green again. Wild flowers are in bloom. And the horses are returning to Eatons do. We're going. To have. To. Take them all straight. You can really tell that they know that they're close. Boy it's pretty rough keeping them back. I know and in the spring they're coming up to our ranch even though they're going to be written all summer by our gas. Doesn't seem to make any difference. All we want to do is get up to the ranch. They have a fairly good life. They're only four months out of the year. They seem to enjoy the trip almost more than we did.

The 100 mile trip takes Frank eating. His two daughters. And the crew three days and two tonight. But some of these wranglers aren't full time cowboys. I'm an investment counselor from Orange County California. I'm a physician from northern Ohio so I am retired now but I spent 35 years in the marketing and advertising business. Wait a minute what are these guys doing here. Well what they're doing is doing what people drawn to the west have done for over 100 years cowboy. And despite three days of rain they love it. My first year with the group. I heard about it last summer when I was on the ranch. It took quite a lot of fun. I really enjoyed. My fourth tour. I enjoyed the whole. Part of ground even Of course he's. Driving really

feeling like you were the big guy. And. Grub. With. The group. Great chewing tobacco chew tobacco. Which was my last call 42 days but this is a ONE OF A KIND Thing. I don't know of any three day guys who can be a part of it and have fun. We all do occasionally like when John Wayne died I stopped. For. The dude ranch that uniquely American place whether it's a working

cattle ranch or a luxury resort or somewhere in between the basic ingredients are the same beautiful country good horses and have families who offer. Traditional Western hospitality all wrapped up in the romance of the Old West. I'm Lindsay Wagner and I love it. My family loves it. We go to a dude ranch every year. You know it all began in 1882 on a ranch owned by three brothers from Pittsburgh it was all in. WILLIS And Howard Eaton. And their friends who were lured by the romance of the West they soon joined them. The Egan's had always been very hospitable people. And they were glad to see them and greeted them as friends and got horses for them and fed them all. And finally. The friends realized that they weren't helping me eat it all with their cattle or they were putting them definitely in the red. So they came to them. And they said look we love it here. We'd like to stay longer

but we feel we should pay. At first we said oh no. And then you began to look into their finances and decided yes perhaps it would be good. So that was the beginning of the dude ranch. Some of the most successful early dude ranchers were from the East often wealthy or well educated who understood what their guests were looking for. The ranchers often played on customers from their area because it was a very personal thing. Contacting people they knew or people who had heard of them. And then they were able to get them as their constant customers and guests on the ranch. The Eatons moved their ranch operation to Wolf Wyoming in 1984 near Sheridan and Big-Horn National Forest. Writers often pick spots where they would have access to other land where they could have used a way to get their customers to places they wanted to see where they can face where they could where they could camp. And in the early days of the national forests and national

parks and BLM land the federal government was very sympathetic and even quite helpful to the ranchers as the two were working for the same thing to make people more aware of what was available and therefore build up the business for both the Eaton said no guests that first year but well the dude said oh no we're coming. And 70 of them came and they worked right along with the carpenter. They helped what ever they could and assumes the cabins were finished and they moved before that they lived in tents. They ate off of. Ironing board. They really had a wonderful time doing a lot of hard work in those early years. Even the dudes were usually wealthy. Well they had to be in the old days. It took so long to get up here. They would stay. There. So. Someone.

Somewhere. Would come through Chicago. And Manhattan and take today from Chicago. Well in the early days I met them on ranches. Once a stagecoach. 12 miles across country three hours anyway. My uncle was always driving they went faster. He scared half the doods today. My grandmother used to say. In the old days all I cared about was riding him. We didn't have a dance once in a while. Everybody just wanted to ride home. It is still owned and operated back to the original family. Now in its fifth generation one of the oldest is the fifth generation that is involved with the ranch. I really wanted to help ensure that the ranch is going to carry on for another five generations. It's exciting. Think back what it was like here when the first generation even Brothers right here to

think that I'm riding the same trails that they once filled. Well it's an honor to be a part of it and to be part of the history. I suppose you want the one that. I'd love. There have been some changes over the years. Now most guests stay for only a week or two. They prefer writing in small groups and they want more organized activities and entertainment. But the pattern set long ago persist lifelong friendships a favorite horse returning guests who are grateful to find nothing's changed. But the seat still fits feels fits. Good for another year. The lasting deep friendships that we make out here. Thanks come back year after year for you. There's a natural true straightforward way of life out here to get you back squarely on your feet again. I came here about. Fifty five years ago with my

father. I finally Renu my perspective on things out here. It's something that gets into your blood. I saw the Cowboys. And I saw my wife. We would go. And we do the same. I ask her what will we do when we go swimming through the tennis. Oh we were good. Enough to be a cowboy. Well Hollywood had it right for many people from all over the world the chance to be a working cowboy if only for a week. The ultimate experience there was a lot of people in cities that had no idea that you could actually come to a ranch and go on that kind of a vacation.

And that's one thing Billy Crystal did. Of course Hollywood had to glamorize it. But. The basics of what he brought to people in city slickers is true. Back to basic living basic values and that's what he returned to someone else found himself. You pretty much figure when you're catching horses out on the first day just you catch out your bomb proof horses. So you give them their bomb proof horses you ride out the first day and you'll look at them you watch again and you can find a great home next time around a lot better because you know they come on a ride all the time. I ride every day. You know. With.

They don't know kind of how to judge their own abilities. They really don't know what they're up against as far as the terrain here. And what's required of them and how the horses handle this country you start your day and enough cattle Abram for the day. They come together you take everything else and we make sure there's enough of us with them so they don't get tangled up and go back. I really like this particular ranch. I love to ride. I love how much space there is out here right. And you also get to learn how to ride something different how to ride a cow horse how to round up the cattle around the horses wanted to stay wanted to go well push one or two because it's a lot more complicated than it seems in order to get it right. And. We get a lot of work done with these people. We get all you

know you have to you have to have your experience people mixed in with. These people here this week especially our returning people. They knew what they want to do and. Then. We went to work back about 15 16 17 years in there somewhere. The cow business just went to the basement and lotsa fish went broke and we was right next door to them. We decided at that time that we was going to do something that was not tied so close to it. How guest ranches got started a hundred years ago is basically how we got started. Just. I have had friends and relatives. Enjoy stay and so. We. Thought that it would be interesting to see. You know what kind of a guest business we could start with. It took me about three years to talk my dad into.

Into trying at least trying to have a few guests come to the ranch and sharing. The. Same lifestyle that I had always had as a kid. Finally one year he says ok. He says. You get the people. He says I'll do the rest. I don't know why that would be such a romantic idea of the cowboy life caught on so it was popular with the people from Easton and people from even care across the waters in Europe they come out here to find people who are like that. I don't think we're quite as wild and woolly as and western as those people in the books by this are our way of life to mathematics or the college. And so I've been a cowboy out here getting tired and sweaty. Here's where I get it. We just took the horses out. I've been riding tonight. All the day. You know it's time for something that won't be far behind. I like to work hard.

But not only do I want to be a working cowboy. They're looking for a different experience. We're saddling up means riding through beautiful country at their pace not accounts. And at the end of the day relaxing that time honored cowboy win. I'd like a. Spinach salad with a. Lot of the ranches in Wyoming and Montana pretty much. We're working cattle ranchers that have had friends from back east come and visit them in Colorado. Probably more the ranchers maybe start out as little cattle ranches and stuff like that. But hunting and fishing was always real big in the mountains of Colorado. And so some of the ranchers found they could build these little cabins out alongside the streams and people would actually pay them to come stay at their ranches which is sort of the case of drowsy water ranch along about the end of the 20s a clothing salesman from Chicago his name was Pops Glessner a

great big £225 guy. He specialized I believe in ladies Wandrei which is a long ways from dude ranching but anyway he bought up these homesteads and started building groundwater as a dude ranch. OK. So this area of Colorado was known as the dude ranch capital and it's a great area. We have nice weather few afternoon showers. Beautiful views of the continental divide. Probably more than anything. Most all the call ranch ranchers I would say are are based around a pretty strong family oriented program of entertaining people in Montana and Wyoming ranchers being some second and third generation ranchers geared more around cattle and stuff but. Found that that's not all they really needed to do was take people horseback riding and work the cattle and so forth. And as the Colorado ranchers more of them weren't necessarily second generation people having these ranch people actually built

around them people like things like square dancing and hay ride we try to entertain people. My. Horses are still the main focus for gas. Even the little buckaroos where the parents are out riding the kids ride around the ranch. They learn to stop their horse and turn their horse and try it a little bit in the ranch. I guess the one thing we really wanted to do was have a chance to do some stuff together. I used to ride a lot when I was really young and my children really haven't had that opportunity to ride and I thought this would be a great vacation because it puts them on a course to be given back riding a little bit. We've been out every day. Have fun.

And a lot of things. I love nature horseback riding. The people doing what the other people on the trail rides and learning. About this area on this land. I just just like getting out of the really actually and see what we're doing to do well. We have our car. Up. Here. I love to take trail rides and I enjoy sharing what I see up there with our guests. I love the trees and the flowers. Well we're fortunate enough today to see. Our black bear that still had a lot of her winter coat on. She's been coming for three years. She's a three year old. My favorite part is when we're halfway down into the valley up the mountainside just get a part of it. And time stands still. It doesn't matter that I have an office waiting on a life outside of here.

It's just a suspension bridge to see these traditional dude ranches today gives you no sense of what it took to make them successful. But members of those pioneering families remembered well when I was growing up Jackson Hole was a very young country as far as development but it was just after the depression and during the war and everything that you had. You either made or canned or canned me canned vegetables you had your own gardens. No electricity. It was the front tier in the modern age and the first year our. Water froze. And Spike had to carry water from the current. Which is no. Mean feat. And made absolutely how cow. And we didn't have a telephone because the snow

cut the line down. Spike was trapping. And. I was alone all day. I think that was the most difficult part. I thought that a rancher a really fine people. Then to me years ago in Bellingham a Northern Hotel every year where did the oil go down and see everybody and they used to come in on their boat some. Fancy clothes on. We were impressed. We thought branching was the way to go. Way and then the business and my 30. Way to our $35 a week. And that and Caudron females in the cabin and then I've tried everything and everybody thought that was so expensive.

Don't think would ever make it. But we get up early in the morning and we're still usually going about midnight. Was a tough time when I married Billy. And of course was going to live out here. The mothers of my friends referred to me as poor. Because they weren't sure that there were bear sitting on my front doorstep. They were ones doing war dance the camp. Why did they feel like this. Where did people get these ideas about the West and the cowboy life. My father had collected all those great books and I started reading them and I just lived in the West. And that really I think. Started me wanting.

To go west. Wanting to be a part. Of the West. Nan Whitman's experience is typical of the way in which most people learned about the West from writers artists and entertainers whose work created and shape the myths of the romantic West and doods expectations of what they would find in the late 19th century no one was more influential in writing about the West particularly for the upper classes in the east than Theodore Roosevelt later around the turn of the century. People like Owen Wister had a profound impact on the traveling habits of people who became doods came out West seeking to live the life of the Virginia. One of the most prolific of the Eastern writers who portrayed the West was Mary Roberts Rinehart. I went first to the ranch the new bear country was strange to me and I did not like it at the beginning. Now for 15 years it has been to me my second home land.

Beautiful beyond words. And here was a new life with the horse King in the cowboy night in my starved romanticism flourished there. I read people that with Indians and with Buffalo I even became a romantic figure myself to myself when I tied a bright handkerchief around my neck and kicked my horse into a lope. I was on the trail. Hi ho for the trail and the brave adventure. The ranch she writes about his feet is the cabin where she stayed. She was. Probably the most popular. And widely read writer of her day through the Saturday Evening Post and other popular magazines. I think she came to the ranch to write in those days of course. She came out here for weeks on end. Unlike nowadays where people get to do ranches for a week or two so she could get quite a bit of work done and get away from the distractions of city life. I think that's why she kept on coming back. Buffalo Bill had the most profound impact of all. It was

Cody who really fashioned the cowboy as a heroic character. Prior to that time in the dime novels and other presentation of the West the Cowboys were unsavory characters with not very many redeeming qualities. Well Buffalo Bill could put up a poster with his own image with a buffalo background in the lettering that simply said I am coming and the world would know what that meant. He produced a show that beginning in the mid 1880s and stretching into the early 20th century that was a marvel of organization. I did my deal but it was only way more than any other source was to find the romantic West Indians outlaws and the Cowboys hero. An interesting twist. Cowboys themselves on the range begin to admire that half that Tom Mix wore and began to insist on a more

flamboyant appearance and so life did imitate art and. But undoubtedly these are the kinds of images that doods carried with them when they came out to the ranches and what cowboy hasn't taken a glance at himself in his own shadow. Shizuoka long range and indeed what do has done that as well. That's part of the challenge. And for a dude ranch the most important part of that shadow has gone like this. I think what makes a horse special is that they have a different rider you know on a weekly basis and they figure those people out adjust accordingly. And in most cases or else they wouldn't be here. Take good care of those people. At least one day a week we have the kids if they'd like to to groom their horse. They get to know their arse. We encourage people to you know get their horse and talk to their horse.

We personally know every horse and we know what they do. Probably Randy more than me. We're very attached and. We have a pasture that we keep sort of for the geriatric group that's retired and they provided a great service for our guests and for us through the years and we just let them spend their rest of their years here eating grass. The love that many do advancer's have for these horses is matched by their gas big and little and it's not surprising that a good horse often has a home for life. The best ones we use. That I try to find when I'm buying them are old ranch horses. 10 12 years old. You always need a few of those old dogs that just barely move along but they're getting harder and harder to find. As far as getting horses for a dude ranch I think this is one of the biggest flumes for most Desgranges this year. We had to go to South Dakota to pick up three horses that came out of Canada.

Many dude ranches used to raise some of their own horses but not anymore. Not enough time and no experience to help. However a few still carry on this tradition and are exploring new training techniques especially what is called Natural Horsemanship. A lot of guests that come to ranch's may not realize that walking quickly up to a horse's head placing your hand on the horse's head padding hard. It's really not the approach that's safest for the horse or for the human. I think one of the things with natural horsemanship and with this imprint training is you have an opportunity a window of opportunity with these young babies to train them not to be frightened of those kind of experiences to expect it. We try to get them use to everything that might happen so that we can provide the safest encounter with horses for all of our guests. Natural partnership comes from the Spanish school which is more of an

artist taking a partnership in a harmonious way to ride. And then there's the dramatic repression school which was more mechanical. You know they needed all those horses for war and they needed hundreds of horses as quickly as they could. And that's really where the old west writing came from and they didn't have time to sit around in the veranda and talk about horsemanship. You just brought them in like a gorilla like this and rope one in and fought with him until you got him broke and tied him up and ride him out. He shouldn't have to do that to a horse because it's a trauma thing with the old way. You have to just keep an eye on them because they do have some bad habits that imprint. If just let's say that you can trust them and they trust people. Welcome to the world. I

think it's important to be just one of the natural events it's there at birth. And I think horses who have that early learning. Tend not to fear humans. Dogs is another way to show that you want to be a friend is very gentle breathing right into the nostril. That's kind of a polite way of saying hello and fourth line which I'm going to work on our feet for shoeing. I want to touch them everywhere that might need to touch them in case they were in any harm or needed vetting. She's already trying to stay in that home. Several times in 12 hours I'll teach her to wait. 24 hours. I'll try later. She'll pretty much learn it all first today.

Our. Thing the. Bag to bottle is the warmest place you. Ours is the warm place. Any body's mine. Is be. A key part of any do operation. Is the Wranglers cowboys who wangled doods instead of Prowse who take care of horses gear give lessons and lead trail rides. Best thing for me about hearing is bringing the horses in the morning. When you get out in the morning you're just all by yourself up there.

And. In. Can sense just come. And. Still. Make. Me think that's best for me. I love taking people that I know have real healthy lifestyles and live city and whatnot. Shown what this country is really like. Some people don't know what Silence is. And you know to get them into the Candler where there are no sound at all but the birds within that. That's rewarding for me to know that some people have never heard that before. But the first step is getting horse and rider together. That's the responsibility of the head Wrangler when I see a 12 year old

boy. I don't care what they tell me. He's a 12 year old boy and I know what that means. And I have my 12 year old boy horse. Sometimes I'll even that a little bit and put him on a horse that anybody can ride. But just tell him you know this is real killer here. You've got 200 horses you've got to keep track of them. When the guests come you find out how they ride. And then try to match. Horse with the right guess. After they ride four or five days they may want a horse that has a little more spear. So you get people that come that. One a different one every day. They make up things they don't like about the other. We had a guy come in. Here a couple of hours ago. He wouldn't ride an ugly horse. By God it didn't matter if that was the best horse on the face. If he was ugly he was going to ride it. I think I do. Wrangling. Hasn't changed a whole lot but the do wranglers have changed.

You don't find the ranch kids going into the ranching and you get more people to have a mannequin inclination to ride the West from the east or Midwest or West Coast. Many of these cowboys even the head wranglers are now cow girls and for good reason. Right. They're better communicators. You know in this day and age they do get so much more demanding and then it takes a bit of a diplomat to. To handle the people and women are very good at that. They go away for a long time I think sometimes have a hard time taking orders from women. My guys are just fantastic as and I respect them and I think they respect me as well. In the old days the wrangler who took you out on trail often as the entertainer but not these days. It is hard to find a Lanch Wrangler who's an entertainer

of course you know the entertainment runs the gamut. They're on a ranch their staff plays and staff shows. And we're fortunate to have Marcos from Mexico who is ghetto and does a Mexican road show on the black horse. Entertainment is always a big part of my life. I've always enjoyed playing around the campfire singing songs. I think that's part of the Western culture. I didn't have much talent but didn't get them like 30 miles down big get in my chair. I can't go anywhere. When the cold and deep snows shut down most northern ranches for years and headed to the southwest especially Arizona exchanging high

mountains and Alpine Meadows sagebrush Red Rock and. Arizona dude ranches clustered around places where the train stop. Phoenix Wickenburg west of Phoenix and Tucson. Some like the circle Z close to the Mexican border town of a simple oldtime ranch with its cottages. Don't get me on like the white stallion. It's a classic resort style gas French with saguaro cactus and a full range of activities. Arizona ranches differ from Northern ranches and a lot of ways. Arizona ranchers of course have a longer season probably in most cases at least twice as long. Ours are six to nine months and there's usually three or four months in life. People are really focused on weather when they come here. It's a way to escape the winter cold and snow. And as a result of that I think they really look at our outdoor facilities. Another thing probably that distinguishes the ones in the Southwest.

Is the fact that they are relatively close to urban areas. So they have all of the urban amenities too. People can come in they can live in the Western atmosphere but within a half an hour they can go to the big city they can go to shopping they can go to nightclubs they can go to restaurants. One of the most noticeable differences between Northern and our southwestern interest is seeing buildings where they often have log buildings we have the Mexican and Spanish style stuff called arches. Lots of patio guests are always asking us how France got its name. Well actually the owner previous to us wanted to name it after his very favorite horror story the black stallion. But later on he realized that the initials Biff's we're going to look very good on a cow's hip. So at the last minute he changed the name to white stallion ranch. Ironic since white horses get sunburned in Arizona and you rarely see our family experience in the dude ranch business started kind of tough. We were awakened about 6:30 in the morning by the maintenance man pounding on my parents back patio door.

And he was holding a big knife. He said Mr. true he said you've been a great boss in the three weeks I worked for you and I just want you to know I'm going up now to kill Louise the cook. And when I'm finished I'm going to Washington to kill and then Johnson our president. My father never a fan of LBJ in a very dry kind of man without hesitation turned to the guy and said well I can't have you heard Louisa cook but I'll definitely get you a ticket to Washington. And then of course took the knife away and took him to Tucson. You got to do anything you can to say because. You know in his book Diary of a dude Wrangler Strothers route there are two key ingredients to a successful dude ranch good horses and good food and that is the truth because dudes everywhere love to eat often and a lot and it all starts with the cook. Well that is the bane of any. Do you get Marvel comics. To

get some perfectly awful ones. Trying to find a good cook work on dry spells a problem to start with. If you put an ad in a paper you're going to get a lot of inquiries. I watch out for him and we had people call up and make that call. They couldn't even make gravy down they go. People that come to ranch's expect wonderful food many diet every day of their lives. But they hit the ranch. They don't want just junk. And so the cook has a very special person. And you try to keep her happy because if a cop walks out on you then the manager is usually the cook and that's not a great deal of fun.

I can tell you fairly early on particularly on the northern plains outfits began to provide more amenities for their Cowboys not only a chuckwagon but also began to bring in tables and chairs and create a more family type of setting in early outfits that's left over into the sort of family style cooking and serving that you see on the branches today. Our guests come from all over. They come. Singles couples young old and especially those singles it gives them an opportunity to sit with somebody and not feel like they're alone there. They're part of the ranch family here at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center we have two or three different chuckwagon. This one here. This outfit represents a typical outfit on the northern plains and 1930 1940 vintage. It's really a kitchen cabinet with a work table which folds up for transport

all the way up here the chuckwagon nowadays often has four wheel drive but eating out on the trail is always popular. Yeah. Are you hungry this morning. There are times in my book I feel it all scrambled up to 200 eggs. Invariably every once in a while something happens and there's been times when we've had everything all prepared and I guess all with their plates in line and the wind started blowing and one time it was so bad that people could actually hold their plates up and I'd just lay the eggs up and they'd plop right onto it. And they were of course salted peppered with dirt and dust and everything like that. Even the best can run into trouble. A flat tire on the way to camp can be the least of it. There was a bull at him had died in the middle of the road so we had to get around the up. So it was probably 10 and 30 when we got the camp to feed the crew and we did they have our meal ready. And of

course the boys didn't know the cowboys did that the bullet died. So they grabbed the pickup with all of our stuff and it went back to where it was. And we were midnight Phebe's but it was a great lesson it taught us to have our meals ready and be prepared for anything. Going over. Care doobs didn't always stay on the ranch trips were part of dude ranch life from the earliest days. OK. OK. OK. My script just happens to be with a couple from England. Actually even They're going actually very light because they're going to camp every night right at Timberline. Which is going to make it actually an excuse to Triplette physically very demanding in our national parks we're always favorite places for early pack trips.

One of the best publicized was led by Howard eten through Glacier National Park in 1915. However Yellowstone National Park was the most popular destination. Eatons ranch pioneered these trips in the late 18 hundreds bringing everything guests horses and supplies by train to the north entrance. By the turn of the century that annual pack trip was well established Yellowstone National Park. Today the National Park Service has a very open policy toward Outfitters and Packers. They are allowed to come into Yellowstone with a special permit in the same fashion that. Howard Eaton and pretty dick Randall did so long ago. Howard Eaton trail was established in Yellowstone in tribute to him for his 40 plus years of trips in and through early Yellowstone and it is a trail that still runs to the park. It essentially parallels our grand loop road system. Well as you've seen this morning you can tell by the amount of logistics and planning

and so forth it takes for a cripple of this size is only four of them are only going to be gone for a week. So it's kind of mind boggling to. Think about you might say our forefathers such as it is my arms. That used to take gas for a month or six weeks. Oh my gosh they'd have oh 60 70 80 gas probably 25 or 30 help a couple of hundred head of horses and pack pack mules with crystal wine. I went with cable cause they went with shower caps they had made that went along and made all the beds up. And. They had a big dent like a small circus tent. It was a dining room because I had a big tent. It was a great thing on a big trip that was de luxe.

I talked to some of the people that were. They used to work at the ranch. When I came 50 years ago it's still full of work there that when I hear them talk about it we really didn't need it. Up until now you go on and on just ride no trail. Never look back. The era from about 1910 to 1930 is often considered to be the golden era of direction. And this is during the time period when. Partly because of World War One Lots of people went to the western United States and enjoyed it. And it's not a coincidence that that's the time period when the dude ranchers association started in the 1920s. They were going along well and they decided they need more organization.

One. Couple had advertised their ranch. As having running water. And when people back to the ranch they found there was running water in truth but it was and that. They feel. That. There had to be something that. Guaranteed the truth in advertising. And I think that was one of the main reasons the association was started the railroads help do drenches immeasurably more people were becoming interested in them and the long. Trips they made. Were all the railroads good. They had a photographer who came out and made the rounds of all the ranches.

And took pictures that they used in their advertising. Max the Northern Pacific was the head of people didn't they. Well and help and adventurers set up traps made arrangements for people to be mad. He was excellent help to the after the golden era many dude ranches close their doors to depression poor management and high operating costs contributed to this decline. Others have been acquired by the National Park Service or purchased for corporate retreats and private homes. In the Southwest. There was also increased competition for vacationers with Hawaii and ski resorts and rapid urban growth gobbled up many of the other ranches. When we came in 1965 there were about 30. And Tucson was already a growing

place and my father saw that and when he picked this ranch to buy the five that were for sale he saw that it had the longest term future. And now that there are three ranches left within one hour of Tucson I guess his foresight has been born out to be correct. Dick Randal's otiose ranch near Yellowstone National Park was one of the most famous of this golden era. The ranch officially opened its doors in 1912 and eventually consisted of over 5000 acres and the business just kept growing bigger and bigger and bigger and every fall and winter he would make a trip out of. New York and the big cities and strum up some more business. For the most part did it and that its operations are

beginning a downhill slide in the 30s 1930s. Is chaldron tempted to keep it open longer. But they didn't have the knack that they had to operate it and they eventually sold it. And the boys Thurber's wound up with it. I think sometimes we can feel the past. I have been up here by myself early in my life. And when it's real quiet out you can almost hear the riders coming in from the crowd rides. Sometimes you can even hear glycine. People talking softly. The job here. The riders talking to their horses is.

Probably all that matters to me. It's fair. That. You get up in the morning and you go outside and the smell of fresh air look around you and you. It's beautiful all over again. At first my mother didn't want to buy the ranch but my dad kept talking and finally she said well if I can look at those mountains the south every morning when I get up I'll let you throw our lives away. After all these years we keep looking south. I knew when I was 8 years old I want to be a rancher. There was no question about the I just knew. I love it. I get up every morning and look out at it. You know it takes your breath away. Wonderful. Such feelings about the land are not new. Dude ranchers have a long tradition of environmental concerns as individuals and through the dude ranchers association reflecting the work of members such as Ernie Miller Larry

larum and Charles Moore. The beauty of the Western land was part of what drew these men to the west. They cooperated with the different people in the National Park Service of the National Forest Service and they tried hard not to let any of this land be developed. It would be easy to say that such actions were simply good business enlightened self-interest but that's not the whole story. If. Being part of a life. You feel at all you know what. You're very aware and you respect it and you cherish it. And by me. When my girls get it I want it to be every bit. Well of course you want to take care of it because that's your livelihood. But why. Why change it. Let's just keep it the way it is let's let it be beautiful and let's let the animals have a place here and. And. And still make it.

We're all been very conservation oriented. Mother's family and my father's family both. So when you see changes in. Other areas of Montana Wyoming where they've logged where they've dammed where there's been a rotation because of bad management techniques of grazing or something. You realize how important it is to plan for that. So that's part of what we've always done. Then I got really involved in wilderness issues. And dad did too. So we finally got a wilderness bill passed for our area. We have. A conservation easement on the ranch. So in perpetuity this will remain the thing this land. So there are a lot of dollar per store after. We couldn't stand the thought of turning it over to developers because we had been on a home in Denver and come back up along the mountains.

And we couldn't bear the thought. Boys lookin like that was sort of nature conservancy olution Nash first visited the circle Z ranch with her sister and parents when she was 10 years old. They continued to come until World War II. I was very fortunate that in my family an interest in nature was something that was expected. We were always looking things up and particularly like this out here because there was such a variety by osmosis. When my sister and I both have continue to have this interest in nature and the importance of it in one's life. Twenty eight years later she returned to the circle with her own family. One day I happened to walk into the county supervisors office in

Patagonia. He was also a real estate agent and to our horror we knocked on the wall and saw these huge maps. Of all the area that circles he wrote on. On these maps were driveways and roads plotted out and ran. So with great trepidation we decided that we would buy this area. A couple of thousand acres. Just to save it. No other thought. Just to keep the development away. Two years after we bought the property we found out that the ranch was for sale. So we took a deep breath and said well let's buy it. And I felt always grateful that I could offer to other people the same kind of experience that had meant so much to me in my life. It was all fun. No. Most

people were like kind of a life pretty good job you know is everybody ready. Well it sounds corny or whatever rewards come from people who live here saying they've had the best vacation they've ever had. Have a good ride everybody. All right thanks Rob. You're not in the business if you're looking to make money. It's not. It's not that kind of a business it's a lifestyle choice. I can't manage my life more satisfying. And more daily. And so there is a timeless quality to a dude ranch for that essential experience on trains. It remains a place where people can get back in touch with the natural world back in touch with each other. A place where lasting friendships are spirits or the new

place would be. A video cassette of days PBS home video 1 800 PBS. All. Over to you. For you

dude ranch days was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of the Wyoming Council for the Humanities. I. Guess