A week on the trail driving cattle can cost the German city slickers as much as DM 2000. Walbert says many of his clients are at least in part inspired for their Western visit by May's books, the film adaptation of Winnetou, and of course, Hollywood. They want to stay on dude ranches, live the cowboy life, work cattle, and ride horses. German tourism to Canada has almost doubled within the last decade to 397,000 visitors a year. While dude ranches are an attraction, some Indian villages, such as the Piapot Reserve near Regina, recreate traditional villages where the tourists can experience Indian culture.
Visitors dress in buckskins and feathers, live in tepees, skin muskrats, and join pow-wows.
Frustrated by the outbreak of World War I, the group used their savings to create a slice of frontier life in Bavaria. The club, located on the banks of the Isar near the Munich zoo, is hidden from view behind a lush, green curtain of trees and bushes. At the Cowboy Club and other German Wild West clubs, the emphasis is on authenticity. We're not against Karl May as a writer, but as an ethnologist. May depicted the Indians as all feathers and warpaint.