# Whats the difference between a ranch and a dude ranch?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-a-ranch-and-a-dude-ranch/247554>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 28, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-a-ranch-and-a-dude-ranch/247554 "2004-05-28T18:44:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chefIL11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chefIL11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chefIL11)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-a-ranch-and-a-dude-ranch/247554/1 "2004-05-28T18:44:36Z")

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???

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-a-ranch-and-a-dude-ranch/247554/2 "2004-05-28T18:51:11Z")

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A ranch is your classic working agricultural business set up out in the country, while a dude ranch is a holiday resort with a Western ranch theme. One makes profit from animals, the other makes profit from people and their ideas of an adventure vacation.

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-a-ranch-and-a-dude-ranch/247554/3 "2004-05-29T05:01:13Z")

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Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude! 🆒

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**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-a-ranch-and-a-dude-ranch/247554/4 "2004-05-29T05:23:20Z")

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Just outside Lone Pine, CA is an area known as the Alabama Hills. Large piles of large rocks. If you have ever seen some of the old western movies you have seen the area because a large number of them were made on location there.

In the Alabama Hills there used to be, and maybe still is, a dude ranch where people could go and play like they were Bob Steele, Tom Mix, and other werstern movie actors playing cowboys.

I guess that would be a dude ranch squared.