The Custer Trail Ranch in the Dakota badlands is where it all began. In 1879, that outfit was the first to use the term “dude ranch.” In Arizona, there’s no definitive answer on which came first, but the Circle Z, south of Patagonia, claims to be the oldest continuously operating dude ranch in the state. That, too, is uncertain. What we do know is that by the 1920s, there were at least 10 legitimate dude ranches here. And by the 1930s, hundreds of others had joined the crowd, many in an…
