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VOICE ONE:
Thousands of holiday visitors come to the United States eachyear. Many visit cities like New York, Washington, San Francisco orMiami. Others come to the United States to visit the American West.I’m Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about holiday vacations in theAmerican West on the Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA.
VOICE ONE:
Here is a list of some eating and drinking places that have bandsplaying country and western music. They are the “Lone Star Café,”the “Chuck Wagon,” and the “Yellowstone.”
If I asked where these places might be, you might guess Texas,Montana, Nevada or some other western American state. Would you besuprised to learn that they are all in the city of Tokyo, Japan?
If I said “Laredo,” you might know that Laredo is a city in theAmerican state of Texas. Did you know there is another small westerntown with the same name near London, England?
Lubbock is also a city in Texas. But you can find a Lubbock Townin the German province of Westphalia, not far from the city ofCologne.
VOICE TWO:
The culture of the old American West is extremely popular in manyparts of the world. American television programs about the Old Westare very popular. People who have read or seen movies about the Westoften want to learn more.
Some people come together to form organizations that study thehistory and culture of the old American West.
In Europe, that interest began with the extremely popular booksof German writer Karl May (MY). Karl May wrote a series of booksabout the American West. The books followed the adventures of twomen — a Mescalaro Apache named Winnnetou (VIN-AH-TOO) and his whitefriend, Old Shatterhand. Mister May finished his series of Westernadventures in eighteen-ninety-three. More than one-hundred-millionof Karl May’s books have been sold in more than thirty languages.
VOICE ONE:
Yet Karl May (MY) only visited the United States after hefinished writing his series of books. And he never traveled furtherwest than the city of Buffalo, New York.
Karl May made many mistakes in his books. He knew very littleabout the real American West. But the stories he wrote were good andmillions of readers do not care about the mistakes. Having read thepopular books of Karl May is one of the reasons that many peoplespend their holidays in the American West.
VOICE TWO:
Those who visit the real American West often stay at placescalled dude ranches. A ranch is a kind of western farm. A dude ranchcharges visitors money to stay and help work on the ranch. Orvisitors can learn to ride and care for a horse. They can dance tocountry and western music, eat western foods and explore thesurrounding areas.
Many visitors also buy western clothes to wear. They like to wearthe famous American cowboy hat and cowboy boots. A good cowboy hatand a good pair of boots can cost several hundred dollars each. Youcan even buy a new cowboy hat that is made to look very old and wellused.
VOICE ONE:
The Dude Ranchers’ Association is an organization of Americanranches that provide a western holiday for people who enjoy horseriding and learning about the western United States. Marcia Williamsis the director of the association. Mizz Williams says theassociation has one-hundred-twenty-four member ranches. They are inmost of the western United States.
Some ranches have as few as eight guests at one time while othershave as many as one-hundred-twenty guests each week. Some of thesewestern ranches permit visitors all year while others have visitorsonly in the summer months.
Mizz Williams says most foreign visitors who vacation at memberranches come from Britain. This is followed by visitors from Germanyand Italy. She says it is not unusual to see a person dressed likean American cowboy and speaking English with a German or Italianaccent.
VOICE TWO:
Dude ranch experts say about four-hundred ranches can provide theexperience of living in the American West. An example is theEighteen-Eighties Ranch in the northwestern state of Montana. It isa new Dude Ranch and a little different from many others. TheEighteen-Eighties Ranch is really a small town, very similar toseveral that were found in the American West during theeighteen-eighties.
What is the ranch really like? Come with us for a few minuteswhile we visit this unusual place.
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VOICE ONE:
We are in Montana now. Montana is forever linked to the oldculture of the American West. The Little Big Horn battlefield ishere. That is where General George Custer was defeated by the Lakotaand the Cheyenne Indians. Many other famous Indian tribes lived heretoo — the Blackfeet, the Crow, the Shoshone. The mighty MissiouriRiver crosses much of Montana. The famous Lewis and Clarkexploration team used this river to first travel through theAmerican West.
The Eighteen-Eighties Ranch is high in the Rocky Mountains nearthe imaginary line that divides the North American continent. Anearby mountain is more than three- thousand meters tall. This iswhat is called “big sky country” in Montana. The air here is freshand clean. You can smell the trees and grass. The sky is a sharpblue color.
The Eighteen-Eighties Ranch includes a kind of hotel called aboarding house. Next door is a drinking place called a saloon. Justdown the street is a large Indian temporary cloth house called atipi. Another place to stay is an Indian house made of wood called abark lodge.
One house is made of logs and iscalled a log cabin. Another house is made of dirt that is heldtogether by grass that has been growing for hundreds of years. Thiskind of very thick grass is called sod. The house is called a sodhouse or soddy.
Visitors to the Eighteen-EightiesRanch can stay in any of these places. Each may look like it is morethan one-hundred years old. But they all have modern equipmentinside, including electric power, water and modern bathrooms.
VOICE TWO:
We have sent a request to the ranch to stay in the sod house.American settlers in the West often built this kind of house becauseit cost almost nothing. All it took was extremely hard work. Thedirt and grass sod is several meters thick. Each piece had to be cutand lifted out of the ground. These pieces were cut and fit togetherto make a warm, dry home. You could build a sod house any size youwanted. The one at the ranch is small but comfortable.
The walls of the little sod house have been painted white inside.Our room is bright and clean. This little house is extremelyunusual. Once, thousands of sod houses could be seen across the oldAmerican West. The little sod house at the Eighteen-Eighties Ranchmay be one of the last. It is truly a piece of American history.
VOICE ONE:
Now we will go to the store to buy a cowboy hat and westernclothes. It takes only a few minutes to buy what we need. Afterchanging clothes in our sod house, we look like real Americancowboys or cowgirls. Now, with our new hats and clothes, we can ridehorses into Montana’s high country.
We can choose among many different trails. We can ride far backinto the surrounding mountains to the high mountain lakes. Or we canstay close to the ranch in nearby Levengood Gulch. Or we can ride toLost Creek Trail.
We can ride and explore thousands of hectares of land. When theday is done, we return to the ranch. Dinner tonight will be awestern barbecue. That is beef cooked over a fire, the way it wasdone in the old West.
We planned to stay at the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch for a week. Theprice we paid includes horse riding, three meals each day,entertainment and transportation to and from the airport in Butte,Montana.
Our visit has ended and we experienced a little of what it waslike to be a cowboy in the eighteen-hundreds. The unusual buildingsat the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch provided us with a history lesson. Welearned to ride and care for a horse. And, best of all, we liveddeep in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. We will always remember thebig sky country of Montana and the American West.
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VOICE ONE:
This VOA Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Itwas produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another programabout life in the United States on the Special English program THISIS AMERICA.