Dude ranch is a Western-style ranch that receives paying guests. These guests are usually city dwellers who get little physical activity and contact with nature. Three brothers, Howard, Alden, and Willis Eaton, established what is believed to be the West’s first dude ranch near present-day Medora, North Dakota, about 1880. The ranch moved to a location near Sheridan, Wyoming, in 1904.
Some dude ranches are regular cattle or sheep ranches that entertain a few guests as a sideline. But other ranches are devoted entirely to the business of entertaining dudes (guests). Most of the dude ranches are in the “cow country” of Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon. Guests go on horseback rides along mountain trails, hunt, fish, and in some cases help with the livestock.
