OLD-TIME DUDE RANCHES OUT WEST
As Buffalo Bill Cody and others knew very well way back in the 1880s, plenty of Easterners longed to experience the Wildand Woolly West. Some of these Easterners actually made it to the frontier, often hiring guides to show them the way througha wilderness or around a horse. These guests in the West were dudes; they often arrived by railroad and were usually willing topay for the privilege of experiencing the frontier. In 1882, a man from Buffalo, N.Y., paid to stay at the Custer Trail cattleranch in Medora, N.D.; the dude-ranch business was born. “At the turn of the century and throughout dude ranching’s heydayin the 1920s, the western ranch was as exotic a destination as the African wilderness,” writes Elizabeth Clair Flood, whosebook features 20 operating ranches with names like Circle Z, Lazy K Bar Ranch and Tumbling River Ranch. This 96-pagebook offers 100 vintage and contemporary photographs, plenty of history and even some ranch recipes, making it a treat evenfor dudes not likely to hit the trail anytime soon.
