Gene Kilgore grew up about as far away from ranch country as you can get. Born in New York City, he spent his early childhood on the busy streets of San Francisco before his first taste of the wild west.
“I remember getting my first rope and seeing the Wranglers – I wanted to ride one of the calves in the rodeo.”
Gene was 8 years old on that first trip to Trail Creek Ranch on Wyoming’s western border. From then on, he was hooked.
In 1979 he found himself working on a cattle ranch in Daniel, Wyoming. “It always bothered me that I couldn’t shoe my own horses like the other cowboys. Somehow I found out about horseshoeing school in Montana and they had an opening, and off I went!”
“I was fit, I was lean, I got to work outside… it was heaven”
Like most life stories, it didn’t always make sense. “None of it makes any sense,” says Gene, reminiscing. “But boy was that great, just the good people — I was fit, I was lean and I got to work outside. It was heaven.”
Since then, Gene managed to do a lot more than live his cowboy dream. For the past 40 years he has been considered “The World’s leading authority on dude ranches” by American Express. What started as an aptly named travel guide, Ranch Vacations, has turned into a vast network of websites showcasing everything from high-end luxurious ranch resorts to authentic western cattle ranches.
Gene with his first edition of Ranch Vacations at an Orvis book signing in San Francisco
He still travels the west, visiting hundreds of ranches dedicated to offering travelers a taste of the cowgirl and cowboy culture. Some guests enjoy the much needed time to relax, others roll up their sleeves and join in on the action.
“A lot of life is luck,” Gene says, wearing one of many cowboy hats in his office. “At the end of the day, you hope that you made a little difference to make the world a little better. That’s what I think.”
Luck played a big role in guiding him away from medical school and into his life in dude ranching. Before his ranching career, he was studying to be a doctor at Grenada's St. George's medical school. During his time there, he started to feel that something wasn't right, that maybe he wasn't cut out for medicine.
“When I was out on the tip of the island in Grenada, I remember going right to the edge of the shore and the waves were lapping in front of me and beside me and I looked out to Venezuela and I said, ‘God, guide me…what should I do?’”
“God, guide me… what should I do?”
Gene comes from a family of doctors. His grandfather was a cardiologist and founded a medical unit from UC Berkeley that was sent to France during the first world war. His father was a well-known hand surgeon in San Francisco. His sister was a nurse. All the stars had aligned for him to follow in his family footsteps, to continue the medical tradition. But after struggling through his biology major in college and barely making it to medical school, he found himself here on a Grenadian cliff, wondering where to go next.
What was God’s reply?
“He talked to me and said, ‘This is not it.’”
“I think it’s important to be spiritual and to acknowledge that you don’t know everything. The more we’re out in nature the more we ought to stand back and say ‘Wow,’ it’s nature who is brilliant, man is only a fraction of the brilliance.”
Reflecting on how this spirituality has helped to guide him, he advises, “find your path, find your railroad tracks. Once you find that, you can pour all your energy and all your emotion and all your goodness into that one thing and it makes such a huge difference.”
“I think anybody that’s doing anything well, whether it’s gymnastics or ballet or jazz piano or business tycoons, the one thing that they have besides their passion is their focus.
Gene focused his life on the beauty of the west, showcasing the rugged country-side and tough outdoor spirit all in his trademark pink button-down and matching bandana.
When asked how he would like to be remembered, he pauses before saying, “I would like to be remembered as someone that did what he loved, that was a good father, husband, brother, friend, and somebody that tried to make a difference.”
Besides his huge impact on the ranch business, he will also certainly be thought of for the difference he makes in the lives of others. His selfless acts of generosity include showing up to doctor’s appointments with burritos for the staff or bottles of his Gene Kilgore Ranch Red wine to his friends and neighbors — always with genuine kindness in his heart.
Before we ended our interview, he shared one last story about friendship.
“You know I looked all over the west for an Australian Shepherd: Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho… But God opened up the door and here was Lucky in Glen Ellen. I feel very very fortunate and blessed we have her in our lives.”
For a man who spent much of his youth following the footsteps of his family’s medical legacy, there’s something to be said about rekindling the passion for ranch country he discovered in childhood.
“Sometimes what you need is sitting right next to you,” and the best stories are often right in your backyard.
From left to right: Lucky, Gene Kilgore