Home on the Range

Home on the Range

Clad in boots and cowboy hats, a line of wide-eyed riders on horseback amble along a foothill trail in the Sonoran Desert north of Wickenburg, Ariz. (pop. 5,082). It’s not a scene out of an Old West movie, but rather a day in the life of the town that bills itself as the Dude Ranch Capital of the World.

In fact, Wickenburg has been introducing the cowboy way of life to city slickers since the early 1900s when local working ranchers opened their doors to out-of-town guests.

One of the first to do so was the Kay El Bar Ranch. Opened to guests in the 1920s, visitors could rent a room there for $8 per day, with the promise of meals and hot and cold running water. Today, the accommodations have improved considerably, and rates average $185 a day. For its 700 guests who visit from October through May, it’s a small price to pay.

"When guests come to the ranch, they feel that they are just coming to your home," says Nancy Loftis, who bought the Kay El Bar Ranch eight years ago with her husband John.

Its days as a working cattle ranch date back to 1909, and it appears on the National and Arizona registers of historic places. The Kay El Bar, which today is purely a guest ranch, can accommodate up to 24 visitors, offering the standard dude ranch fare—horseback riding, hiking, outdoor cookouts and even cowboy poetry around the campfire.

"Guests should not worry about being novices," Loftis says. "For beginners, we have an instruction-based riding program, and we supply loaner hats and boots for city slickers."

Wickenburg’s ranching roots were planted in the mid-1800s, around the time that Henry Wickenburg—the town’s namesake—discovered gold nearby in 1863. By the early 1900s, ranchers discovered the financial benefits of hosting visitors at their working cattle ranches, and people from all walks of life came to the area to sample the cowboy way of life. From the 1930s to the 1970s, a dozen dude ranches flourished around the town, earning Wickenburg the distinction as the Dude Ranch Capital of the World, according to Dana Burden, a Wickenburg native and local historian.

Today, four ranches remain, including the Kay El Bar Ranch, Flying E Ranch, Rancho Casitas and Rancho de los Caballeros.

The latter is the largest of the ranches, covering 20,000 acres with large conference facilities, a golf course, shooting range and restaurants. Since its inception 57 years ago, Los Cab, as it’s locally known, has been a destination guest ranch. But the big draw for its 6,000 seasonal guests is getting into the saddle.

"Most people have never seen a cow from the back of a horse," says Jeff Deming, manager of the ranch. "Once guests get on the horse and participate in team cow penning (a timed event in which cattle are herded into a pen), they concentrate on the cow, their natural riding style comes through, and they learn very quickly."

Wickenburg’s Old West roots also extend into town. "The town is authentic, and horses have the right of way on all Wickenburg streets," says Julie Brooks, executive director of the Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce.

The town proudly displays its heritage in the 45-year-old Desert Caballeros Western Museum. "It is an amazingly high-quality museum for its size and the size of the town," says Nathan Augustine, the museum’s registrar and exhibit designer. "We have extensive collections of Western art, cowboy memorabilia, a huge gem and mineral display, and a collection of Bola ties, the official neck wear of Arizona."

Wickenburg is best described by Jim Herro of Merton, Wis. (pop. 7,988), who had his first dude ranch experience in 2004 at the Kay El Bar Ranch. "The Sunday brunch ride out in the desert, the food and the atmosphere was great," he says. "The overall thing is that you come as strangers and leave as friends."

Joseph and Carol Berke are freelance writers in Sun City West, Ariz.

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