The Fading Glory of Dude or Guest Ranches
February 27th, 2010
The glory days of dude or guest ranches are fading. Probably they reached a high point in the 1920s when guests came from England and the East Coast after three or four nights on a sleeper train and perhaps a week’s transatlantic crossing on a ship (hopefully not the Titanic). They came with their steamer trunks and often spent the whole summer at a ranch where they could ride, fish and party to their heart’s content without the social constrictions they often felt at home. They loved a fast gallop and the feeling of accomplishment when they helped their rancher hosts to round up wayward cattle. Often a lifelong friendship grew between rancher and guest despite the differences in social background and guests returned year after year and generation after generation.
The summer climate in the Rockies is usually superb and the air is far healthier than the polluted cities of London and New York. In those days too most people knew how to ride from an early age and could fully profit from the fine horses and fabulous countryside of the West. Towns like Dubois, Wyoming where gambling was legal were booming. Guests visited frequent rodeos and had wild parties. Prohibition was an incentive for consuming more alcohol and led to greater harvests of the juniper berries growing on the mountain slopes.
Guest ranches survived the depression and the Second World War to prosper through the 1950s, but then a gradual slump began as Americans became more and more inclined to sit behind the wheels of their cars rather than in the saddle of a horse. They had shorter vacations, put on more weight and wanted instant satisfaction or an effortless nap in the sun beside the swimming pool.
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