Eatons' Ranch

by Paul Higbee

A cloud of dust rises from the sagebrush-covered prairie as Jeff Way and five other seasoned riders lead 140 horses across northern Wyoming toward Eatons' Ranch, the nation's original dude ranch.

"They move fast the first day, after being fenced in a pasture all winter," says Way, 38, of the spirited horses. "Cattle you drive from behind, but horses are followers, so I put all my riders except one up front."

Over three days in May, the horses and riders travel 100 miles before arriving at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains, where five generations of the Eaton family have introduced thousands of people to the Western ranching lifestyle over the past century.

"The ranch is our family livelihood, but it's also a way of life that we're preserving," says Way, general manager of Eatons' Ranch near Wolf, Wyo. "If I ever forget that, there are plenty of dudes who will remind me."

The first Eatons to host guests were Way's great-great-grandfather Alden, and Alden's brothers Howard and Willis. Originally from Pittsburgh, the brothers traveled west individually beginning in 1868. They reunited in Dakota Territory, started a ranch near present-day Medora, N.D., and in 1882 accepted payment from their first dude, Bert Rumsey of Buffalo, N.Y. Other visitors followed and, when the three brothers relocated to Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains in 1904, their dudes weren't far behind.

The original dudes

Guest ranches multiplied as outsiders developed a fascination with the West and its larger-than-life mystique. A hundred years ago, railroads delivered Easterners eager to see the West's free-roaming wildlife and scenic beauty. But because "there weren't many accommodations, ranchers started taking visitors in," explains Colleen Hodson, executive director of the Dude Rancher's Association, based in Cody, Wyo.

Those ranchers coined the term "dude" to refer to their guests, especially those from Eastern cities, who paid for food, lodging and the use of a horse.

A hundred years ago, guests often put their lives on hold and stayed for months. They sometimes helped with chores such as branding livestock and herding cattle to fresh pastures. Nowadays, hundreds of ranches across the West cater to guests, and a typical stay is a week or two. Dudes still help with chores on some ranches, but not at Eatons'.

"We just couldn't get much done taking even a handful of guests out to work with us," Way says.

The hardest task for many modern-day dudes is learning to relax and withdraw from their fast-paced, technology-driven lifestyles. Only a couple of spots on Eatons' Ranch offer cellular phone reception and guest cabins aren't furnished with televisions or telephones.

"Most people enjoy that," says Frank Eaton, 67, president of Eaton Brothers Inc. "If they don't, they don't come back," he adds with a smile.

Still, most of today's dudes spend time on the ranch for the same reasons that people did a century ago: to get away from hectic jobs in bustling cities, enjoy the West's wide open spaces and ride the trails on horseback.

"Horses are the main attraction, but just being surrounded by that vast expanse of beautiful country is wonderful, too," says Bots Young, 79, a retired fiberglass-sales executive from Lake Forest, Ill.

Young claims a five-generation connection to Eatons' Ranch. His grandparents first visited in 1909 and he joined the family outing in 1934 as an 8-year-old lad.

Returning summer after summer, Young honed his riding skills and learned to fly-fish for rainbow and brown trout in the swift, clear waters of Wolf Creek. But his best catch at Eatons' happened in 1947 near the horse barn, where he met his future wife, Ann, after her horse stepped on his foot. She was a dude visiting from Connecticut and, 59 years later, the Youngs say their three grown children and six grandchildren love the ranch just as much as they do.

Working cattle ranch

Today, Eatons' 7,000-acre spread is both a dude ranch and a working livestock operation, with a couple hundred head of cattle grazing in the mountain shadows 18 miles west of Sheridan, Wyo. (pop. 15,804).

Five Eaton family members work on the ranch year-round, vaccinating livestock, hauling cattle feed and hay when the grass is gone, and keeping water troughs from freezing when winter weather sets in.

Way's uncle, Bill Ferguson, 55, leads the cattle operation, and another uncle, T.J. Ferguson, 51, manages the horse herd and barn staff. Frank Eaton, and his wife, Kathy, oversee ranch maintenance and improvements.

The ranch has 51 guest cabins, along with a lodge, dining hall and outdoor swimming pool. Over the decades, guest structures have been well cared for but not altered much, though conveniences such as ice machines arrived on the scene in the late 1960s and coin-operated washers and dryers were installed in the 1980s.

During summer, when as many as 125 dudes roam the premises on any given day, a few other family members may show up to tackle everything from cleaning the barn to serving dining hall specialties such as baked salmon, prime rib, lamb chops and venison. Sixty employees join the family to cater to guests from June through September.

One of those employees is horse wrangler Nate Schmeiser, 23, who has worked at the ranch since 2003. Schmeiser is among the first people met by ranch guests as they report to the barn to be matched with a horse and fit to a saddle.

"Are you experienced with horses, or just beginning?" Schmeiser asks two teenage boys, eyeing them to calculate how long to adjust their stirrups.

Dudes ride out with Schmeiser or one of the other wranglers a couple of times, and then are encouraged to explore the ranch on their own, ride to neighboring ranches or venture up mountain trails. The Eatons are comfortable promoting unchaperoned trail rides because they know their horses, Way says. Hired wranglers and family members who work with the animals recognize each by name, and the long drive in May can reveal traits and temperaments.

"Everyone here is relaxed," says Kathy O'Brien, a Greenwich, Conn., dude who visited Eatons' Ranch for the first time last summer with her husband, Michael, and their three children, ages 5, 9 and 11. "That attitude made my kids relaxed as they rode."

When the cool mountain breezes of September begin blowing, the dudes return to work and school while the horses are trailed—or hauled by truck—back to winter pasture near Echeta, Wyo. That's when Way finds more time to ride out and check on cattle, mend fences by stretching barbed wire tight, and enjoy the solitude of the nation's original dude ranch . . . in between answering the phone and taking reservations from guests eager to visit next summer.

Visit www.eatonsranch.com or call (800) 210-1049 to learn more, or log on to www.duderanch.org to locate another Western guest ranch.

Paul Higbee is a freelance writer in Spearfish, S.D.

first appeared: 6/4/2006