, 1927-05-18


publication issued in Philadelphia.
appeared the following article I'M
der the caption IAN Eastern Dude
in the West The story is well
written. and if the reader viii par
don the fact that it has to do with
but one of the many splendid re-
sorts in the Buffalo Bill country,
the story will prove of rea interest.
Mr.. Getze is a regular guest q.
Aldrich Lodge each year
The Dude Ranch
(The writer has eve been In
terested in horses nor in the idea
of spending part of a summer on
a western ranch. Many friends.
however, have talked so enthusiast
tically ON the subject, that at last
l decided hat there must be some
thing in it; SO partly out of cur
iosity and partly out of self-defense
L spent ten weeks last summer in
Wyoming and Montana, dividing
my time between two so-called dude
ranches and Yellowstone and Gla-
cier National Park. l am now as
enthusiastic as my most vociferous
friends and l want if / can pass on
some of this enthusiasm to the
members of the League or at least
to give them a sketchy idea of what
l saw and did in those glorious
two months. Since 1 spent my
first weeks on the ranches l will
stallments tell something of the two
parks.)
In the first place, for the uniu-
itiated 1 will define a dude" as a
person from the more civilized
parts of the country, usually from
a city, and particularly an eastern
city, who goes to a western ranch
or one of the, national parks for
recreation. He heed not be a
dandy; indeed he may be a, lover
of the outdoors, an expert 'horse-
man., and a real S'heman,H but if
he is not a native nor an adopted
son of the western range country.
he is a dude. This is not a term
of disparagement, but merely one
of classification like summer
boarder," tourist! and the like.
Also he" may be a she, for men,
women and children alike heed the
called dudes, though the female. of
the species is sometimes referred to
as a "dudeen." OF course it fol-
lows that a dude ranch is. one
which caters either incidentally or,
more usually, as it's main business
to dudes. The fencing in of the
old open ranges, resulting from
government grants to homesteaders,
has practically ruined the cattle
business in Wyoming and Montana.
The sparse Dasturage is quickly FIX
hausted on a ranch of five hundred
or even a thousand acres, and with
h vast government-owned tracts,
either parcelled out or at least clos
ed as common grazing land, it is
impossible to maintain large herds
of cattle and stock. The aver in
creasing number of vacation seek
ers from the east and from the Pa
cific coast have proved a God-send
to the ranch owners, who have cut
down their cattle and stock to a
minimum and are finding in the
dudes an unexpected solution to
their difficulties.
To be sure, not all the ranches
in Wyoming and Montana are dude
ranches by any means. nor do all
the dude ranches pay; many of
them, through poor management or
failure to provide the kind of thing
that the dude lis looking for. do
not. But some OF them have been
pre-eminently successful and it was
good . fortune to spend seven
weeks on two that have been sue
cessful for the simple reason that
If you would like the ranch life at
all you would like the life as lived
there. They were not perfect, but
a perfect dude ranch like a good
many other perfect things does not
exist and it probably wouldn't be
recognized If it did! Anyhow, these
two were SO different thai the de-
fects of one were usually missing
in the other. and 1.-THE advantages o.
each were more than enough to
keep any reasonable mortal happy
And now with this preamble con
cluded. step off the train with me
at 7:15 A. M. of a glorious June
morning m get acquainted with
Cody. Wyoming. named after BUT
falo Bill and the nearest railroad
town to my first ranch. In the
first place, the station is over a mile
from t4e town. Whether the found
ers expected the town to grow to
the railroad. orithe railroad ran out
of rails or made an error in laying
out the road 55bed is something /
can't answer. '4sAt all events, that
mile must be travelled before you
can see that Mains Street Cody. as
Just like the monies eexxcannt ~far tha.