What was the Ride-n-Rock?
In 1949, two years after Scottsdale started calling itself “The West’s Most Western Town,” Dorothy and Burke Patterson opened a dude ranch to match. The Ride-n-Rock spread over 80 acres on Indian Bend Road, north of the little town, with casitas for 28 guests, a swimming pool, shuffleboard, a putting green and stables. Guests rode out into the desert in the mornings and came back to cowboy breakfasts cooked over open fires.
It was the first of a postwar wave. The City of Scottsdale’s historic context lists it, built in 1949, ahead of more than a dozen guest ranches that followed in the 1950s (our dude ranch entry has the list). The same year, a Chamber of Commerce meeting resolved to “give preference to the horseback rider over the automobile.” That was the town the Ride-n-Rock was selling.
Dorothy Patterson sold the ranch in 1967. It ran a few more years under new owners before most of the land went to resort development. Unusually for a Scottsdale dude ranch, part of it survives. Some of the original casitas are still houses along North Rocking Road.
The ranch and its neighborhood
Where it was. Indian Bend Road, near Scottsdale Road, in what was then open country between the town and the McCormicks’ Arabian horse ranch. The Paradise Valley Guest Ranch at Scottsdale and Chaparral, the Smoke Tree on Lincoln Drive and the Rainbow Guest Ranch on Scottsdale Road were all nearby. By the late 1950s Scottsdale Road north of Camelback was lined with them.
What it was like. By Joan Fudala’s account, the Ride-n-Rock had the classic Scottsdale formula: horses and desert in the morning, pool and putting green in the afternoon, and a cookout to start the day. It was a “soft” dude ranch for winter visitors, more resort than working ranch.
What’s left. Fudala writes that some original casitas survive in the Ride-n-Rock neighborhood on North Rocking Road. A restored piece of the old ranch, a two-acre “Patterson’s Ride n Rock Ranch” dating to about 1952, is rented out today as Ride ‘n Rock Ranchos near 6806 N. Rocking Road. Those are private homes. The street name and the low buildings are the visible trace.
Why the dude ranches disappeared
The Ride-n-Rock is the guest-ranch story in small. In 1949, eighty acres north of town was cheap and the winter visitors wanted horses. By the late 1960s Scottsdale Road was a resort corridor, the land was worth more as hotels and subdivisions, and visitors wanted golf and tennis. The ranches sold one by one, the Ride-n-Rock among them.
The sources, and the gaps
What’s solid. Joan Fudala’s “A Sweet Spot: Indian Bend and Scottsdale roads bustle with activity” (July 13, 2022) gives the Pattersons, 1949, the 80 acres, 28 guests, the amenities, the 1967 sale, the resort and the surviving casitas. Her breakfast column adds the cookouts. The City of Scottsdale’s historic context on the arts colony and tourism lists the Ride-n-Rock as the 1949 start of the postwar ranches. Our 1949 page has the Chamber’s horseback resolution.
What’s missing. The exact address and the ranch’s boundaries; when it stopped taking guests; who bought it in 1967; which resort took most of the land; and how many casitas still stand. A 1968 postcard of the ranch circulates among collectors.
Where the answers are. Maricopa County deed and plat records for Indian Bend Road west of Scottsdale Road; the Arizona Republic’s resort advertising from 1949 to the early 1970s; and the Scottsdale Heritage Connection at the Civic Center Library.