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Click to grab your copy of the 2007 T Cross Newsletter as well as the 2006 newsletter! You will need Adobe Acrobat to open the file.
Equitrekking with PBS and T Cross Ranch
Our dude ranch enjoys hosting old and new friends and every season brings its excitements and pleasures. Read about our guest ranch and public television, wilderness pack trips, horseback riding, fly fishing, and family vacations and reunions.
T Cross guests this summer lucky enough to be at the ranch on August 6 and 7 found themselves in the middle of a 3-person crew filming a segment for an upcoming PBS show. Equitrekking is a television program that explores the world on horseback, scheduled to go national on PBS early next year.
Darley Newman created the Equitrekking concept and produces and hosts the programs. With her at T Cross were film maker Doug and still photographer Chip. T Cross riders obeyed Doug's instructions to come up over that hill one more time, maneuvering their horses in best wrangler style. Darley interviewed Mark Cardall and Ken Neal and caught a trout in record time under Phil Dudley's guidance. Still photographer Chip found T Cross very photogenic and took a multitude of shots.
In Darley's blog she said,"I am happy to say if you are looking for an authentic dude ranch experience, I have just found a true one. The T Cross Ranch outside of Dubois, Wyoming, is it. You won't find a spa here. Just a third generation ranching family, raising their fourth generation on the ranch, plus good horses, fishing, food and scenic landscapes." Read more at http://special.equisearch.com/blog/equitrekking/2006_09_01_archive.html
Also read about Equitrekking's T Cross visit on www.equitrekking.com under the Fly Fishing and Riding Vacation and check out the photos. T Cross will soon be added to the site's World Vacation Guide.
Five Pockets Pack Trip
Five Pockets Pack Tripe - Amelia Heroux
What I really liked about the pack trip was how cold it was when we first woke in the morning and then how quickly it warmed as soon as the sun came up over the mountains. I also believe that we saw the sun before the rest of the ranch since we were up so high in the mountains, although my dad doesn't necessarily think so. It was quiet and the sky was so beautiful that we felt like we were really in the wilderness.
Each morning Jake had a great breakfast for us and in fact every meal he prepared was great. We roasted marshmallows on the fire and competed with each other to see who could get the best "tan" on the marshmallow. Ken. Neal showed us the technique of "tanning" it, eating the skin, and tanning it again; from then on, it was a challenge. Caroline and I took the wine and beer bottles from the adults and placed them in the hot coals so we could get glass sculpture in the morning. I loved sitting around the fire and keeping it going, telling stories and jokes, playing cards, and getting to know everyone so much better. The stars were so beautiful at night, and early one evening a deer came right into our camp looking for the old salt licks the hunters leave.
Five Pockets Pack Trip_part2
As for the riding, because we stayed in the mountains overnight, we were able ride further and higher than any of the all-day rides normally allow. That meant that we could ride to a glacier, throw snowballs - more like ice-balls. We saw a herd of elk (Ken estimated about 60 head) and got to go to places that you only normally get to by hiking or riding. When we returned to the camp at Five Pockets, Caroline and I rode through the meadows for about two more hours, bareback! By staying in the mountains we also had time to care for the horses and help tack them, and early in the morning help feed them.
A T Cross Story - One Family’s Affair With the Ranch
It was July 1939 when 20-year-old Dottie Ewers boarded a train in Pittsburgh for the first of several legs of a journey that would end at T Cross Ranch in Dubois, WY. From Pittsburgh to Chicago then on to Salt Lake City, after 3 nights on the train, she and her friend, Betty Power, arrived in Riverton, WY. The last leg of their journey was in a station wagon driven by T Cross owners Bob and Helen Cox, who met them to drive them to the ranch, along bumpy, winding Horse Creek Road and the same narrow ranch driveway that today's guests traverse.
The idea for this memorable vacation began when a friend of Dottie's mother, Laura LaCroix Ewers, was glancing through an alumnae magazine from her alma mater Wellesley, and noticed that a classmate, Helen Cox, owned and operated a ranch in Wyoming. After some inquiries into arrangements and costs, Dottie was on her way for a long vacation that would become a legacy to another generation.
At T Cross, Dottie stayed with Ginny Hayden from Connecticut in a small cabin down by the river. Today, Dottie especially remembers her horse Casino, a.k.a. Cassie. She was part thoroughbred, and had a lively trot that required posting. Since Dottie was an experienced English equitation rider, this was not a problem. Cassie - when loose in the corral before being saddled - would respond to Dottie's whistle and come over for a pat.
Another of Dottie's vivid memories is of a long ride to Deacon Lake, high above the ranch and 3-day stay there - in teepees. She also went down to Dubois and shopped at Wylie's for a hat, boots and spurs. Years later, her daughters Jane and Laura would try on this hat and stumble around in her black leather boots.
Jane and Laura spent many hours looking through their mother's old leather photo album, filled with pictures taken by Phil Wooten, a working guest. Dottie remembers that Phil drove all the way to the ranch from his home in New Jersey. Another working guest, Morton B. Ryerson III ("Bunny") from Chicago, rode Fudge, when not doing chores. Dottie also remembers that another guest that year, Ruth Baetjer from Baltimore, MD, was a Wellesley classmate of Helen Cox's.
The T Cross photos, keepsakes, and Dottie's stories left a big impression on her daughters. Nearly 60 years later, Jane Gilbert decided to research T Cross and found through Ranchweb that T Cross was still welcoming guests just as in 1939. Dottie was thrilled, and encouraged the girls to sign up.
A T Cross Story - One Family’s Affair With the Ranch_part2
So in 1998, filled with information and encouragement, Jane and Laura rounded up nine other eastern cowgirls from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida to head up Horse Creek Road to the T Cross. The terrain in their home states didn't prepare them for what they saw when they landed in Jackson Hole. Who ever forgets the first time they see the Grand Tetons, or round the curve to T Cross Ranch?
That year featured cattle drives, evening entertainment with the Prickly Pair, an all-day ride to Deacon Lake, great food, great guests, great wranglers, and a chance to relax and laugh as one can only do with friends. The 11 guests filled Diamond G, and several other cabins as well. Loud whip cracks split the early morning air every day, sending the horses into the corral for tacking up. Wonderful, filling breakfasts prepared the cowgirls for their morning ride - just as they had in 1939.
In September 2003 five cowgirls (three from the original group, and two newcomers) headed again for the ranch. This group added side trips to Yellowstone and the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, and spent time exploring Dubois. The ranch was now passing from one generation to another - the Neals to the Cardalls. It was great to see Garey and Ken continue planning for the future of the T Cross through daughter Gretchen and her husband, Mark.
August 2005 brought eight cowgirls (five "originals") west, again. Gretchen, Mark, and little Kameron now held the reins to the ranch, while Garey and Ken visited from their new house in Dubois. During this trip, Ken led a "death-defying" trial ride for the bravest cowgirls. Later, those who wanted a boot-stomping night in town went to the last square dance of the season in Dubois. Another musical event at the ranch featured Ray Calloway who serenaded the guests with cowboy songs.
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The highlight of the week was the Friday night rodeo in Dubois. T Cross wranglers Brogan and Jarred competed, as they had every week throughout the summer. And we Eastern cowgirls did, too - winning the ribbon pull event, thanks to great running by two of our speediest cowgirls and practice and preparation. Our stretching exercises and wind sprints really paid off. The T Cross team cheerleaders hooted and hollered, and the photographers snapped away as the evening came to a successful close.
2007 will mark yet another trip to the T Cross. Jane and Laura will be back with friends and family to make more T Cross memories. And nothing could make them happier than to once again see the Neals, the Cardalls, Hazel, Phil, Mugs and all the other wonderful caretakers and guests of the incomparable T Cross Ranch.
Copyright © 2007