Jaye H. Wells has watched people arrive at his ranch, exhausted, anxious, and overstimulated. He remembers one guest in particular — a teaching physician from Southern California who specialized in childhood abuse and rape trauma — checking into Rancho de la Osa, worn down by the emotional weight of her work.

Five days later, Wells offered her a ride to the airport.

“I said, ‘Well, how did you enjoy yourself?’ She goes, ‘More than I ever dreamed.’” Wells still pauses at that line. “Stress relief is for all of us, regardless of your socioeconomic class,” he said. “It really kind of changed my mind.”

That instinct — to preserve the places where people rediscover themselves — is the heartbeat of “100 Years of Dude Ranching: Celebrating the Centennial of the Dude Ranchers’ Association,” a coffee table book Wells published through the Ranch Preservation Foundation. 

Wells’ Rancho de la Osa is one of the oldest ranches in Arizona, with a building constructed by Jesuits in 1722. “It celebrated its 300th birthday a few years ago,” Wells said. “It’s a hacienda‑style place. It’s in the book so you can see it.”

The book recently received a 2026 Will Rogers Medallion Award in the Western Photographic Essays category, a recognition Wells calls “validation of our mission to preserve the rich tradition of dude ranching.”

The project began, fittingly, on a ranch. Wells and his business partner, longtime rancher Russell True, had just purchased Blackwater Creek Ranch outside Cody, Wyoming. During a visit to the Dude Ranch Foundation’s museum, executive director Carleen Hudson mentioned the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Dude Ranchers’ Association. 

“We don’t know what to do,” she told him. Wells asked how many ranches had been hosting guests in 1926. “I thought there might be like six or seven, but nobody knew,” he said.

So, he started digging.

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When the survey was complete, the number stunned him: 26 ranches across Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming had been welcoming guests since the DRA’s founding — and were still doing so today. 

“For a trade association, it’s just phenomenal,” Wells said.

That discovery became the spine of the book: a photographic and historical tribute to the “Centennial Ranches,” the families who built them, and the guests who kept returning generation after generation.

To bring the idea to life, Wells assembled what he calls “a super strong team.” Photographer Scott T. Baxter — whose fine‑art work appears in museums and private collections — took on the monumental task of capturing modern images of all 26 ranches. 

Baxter had already completed a massive project for Arizona’s centennial, photographing 100 ranches that were 100 years old. Wells knew he was the only person who could handle the scale.

“He drove over 20,000 miles over two summers,” Wells said. “He had three days to do it. So, he had to go in there and scout, and then he’d drive another seven hours to the next ranch and spend three days there.”

The resulting images — paired with historic photos — anchor the book’s visual storytelling. They show ranches that have evolved from modest horseback‑riding outposts into full‑scale adventure destinations offering mountain biking, archery, climbing and more. Yet the spirit remains unchanged: guests still come to disconnect.

“We have a 48‑hour rule,” Wells said. “You can get somebody who just gets off the plane, and they might have had a delayed flight or whatever, and they’re just angry. And then 48 hours later, like a little kid.”

Historian Lynn Downey wrote the book’s narrative history. A board member of the Dude Ranch Foundation and author of “American Dude Ranch,” Downey brought deep knowledge of the industry’s early days. 

But Wells needed the story to stretch beyond the 1920s. “She wasn’t caught up with what happened in the 80s and the 90s and the last 50 years,” he said. “She had to round it out with that, and that made a huge difference.”

The result is a sweeping chronicle of dude ranching’s evolution — from its origins as a simple horseback vacation to its modern identity as America’s first destination getaway out West. The book also traces the history of the Dude Ranchers’ Association, an organization that helped formalize standards, preserve traditions and support ranch families across the region.

For Wells, the project was personal. His own path into ranching wasn’t inherited; it was accidental. He grew up in Memphis, studied at Parsons School of Design, and built a career in architectural preservation. 

When he moved to Tucson in 2000, he became involved in saving historic properties — including the birthplace of quarter horse racing. Eventually, his friendship with True led him to Tombstone Monument Ranch, Rancho de la Osa, and a growing collection of historic ranches he now helps steward.

“You never know where life’s going to take you,” he said.

Today, Wells and True’s Trivinch collection includes several of the Centennial Ranches featured in the book. 

The Ranch Preservation Foundation — the nonprofit publisher behind the book — continues to work on projects that protect historic ranches, including Montana’s O.T.O. Dude Ranch and Rancho de la Osa. Its mission is simple: “to promote the protection, restoration and preservation of historic western ranches and related projects.”

Receiving the Will Rogers Medallion Award felt like a milestone. “Scott and Lynn put in many miles on the road and hours of research,” Wells said. “The result is this beautifully photographed and wonderfully written book on America’s first destination vacation out West and its enduring appeal today.”

But for Wells, the book is more than a celebration. It’s a reminder that in a world of constant connection, there are still places where time slows, where strangers become friends, and where a teaching physician can sit outside her casita, diagnose her own relaxation, and rediscover what it means to breathe.

“Getting disconnected from the world is such a rarity,” Wells said. “And dude ranches still give them that.”