American Dude Ranch: A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West by Lynn Downey (review)

Reviewed by: American Dude Ranch: A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West by Lynn Downey Stephen P. Cook, lecturer emeritus Lynn Downey, American Dude Ranch: A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2022. 222 pp. Paper, $24.95; e-book, $19.95. American Dude Ranch: A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West reveals author Lynn Downey’s skills as a historian and provides a very detailed overview of dude ranches in America. Her scholarship is extraordinary, allowing Downey to take the reader into an arcane subculture of Americana, beginning in the late nineteenth century around Cody, Wyoming, and spreading throughout the West and moving from there to California and the East Coast. She takes us to Las Vegas, Nevada, and the dude ranches where clientele waited for divorces to become final. She shows Hollywood’s treatment of the dude ranch, dramatizing the interactions between owners of the ranches, wranglers working on those ranches, and the dudes and “dudines” who have come to recreate. Downey even gives us a look (so to speak) at Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch. In southwest South Dakota where I live, the dude ranch is alive and well; for example, High Country Guest Ranch is just down the road in Hill City, and a consortium of family ranches called Northwest Nebraska High Country is only a few counties away. All offer a menu of experiences from tipi camping to star gazing to equestrian activities to the essence of the dude ranch experience, western food and plenty of it (no kale allowed). Chefs are as important [End Page 185] or perhaps more so than the horse wranglers, a reality that allows the cook to be a bit feisty at times and apt to walk out. Some ranch owners circumvent that possibility by keeping food preparation in the family as they do with so many other activities and services. Downey also does an excellent job of tying dude ranches to cultural landmarks: the ethos of the West, open space, the landscape, western clothing, and the experience of being on horseback and on the trail. As mentioned, she shows the ways in which Hollywood, the interpreter of all things Western in America, gives motion, verisimilitude, and drama to the Dude Ranch Experience. Still, as I read on I began to quibble with the author’s approach, seeing within her presentation warrants needing explanation. For example, what role in the American imagination does the West play? Why do Americans and others come to dude ranches beyond having a good time? How much of the experience is role-playing, and what emotional and/or psychic needs are met? How do the tangibles connect to the intangibles during a dude ranch stay? Downey mentions City Slickers but dismisses it as simply not a true dude ranch portrayal. Still, the core of the movie is the transformation going west offers to three men who have arrived at plateaus in their lives and needing to have those lives renewed. The change promised by going west was and is the most central theme of this country’s westward movement. How does this reality factor into the dude ranch experience? Then again, as I quibbled with Downey, I began to chide myself. Am I missing the boat by asking an informative and fun book to move into areas it was never intended to go? Am I being the curmudgeonly scholar? Very possible, even likely. So, perhaps, it is simply better to read the book and enjoy. I will leave it to readers to resolve this conundrum. [End Page 186] Stephen P. Cook, lecturer emeritus Sacramento State University Copyright © 2023 Western Literature Association