Hidden Valley Ranch

What’s Juicy?

The majority of the narrative of Kenneth “Steve” Henson’s story is taken from an interview in the Los Angeles Times with Steve by Sergio Ortiz. The quotes of both Steve and Audrey came from the same source. The voices are not theirs.

Alaska did not become a state until 1959, ten years after Steve moved up there to become a plumbing contractor. It is unclear how he went from driving a truck for Hollywood and learning how to be a plumbing contractor. The picture sarcastically labeled Military Industrial Complex is actually Site Summit, but it is a Cold War military installation in the Alaskan wilderness. The story of clogged pipes and poor diets is made up, but there was mention of Steve trying to get them to eat more vegetables. There was also mention of him trying to find a lower fat alternative to Blue Cheese dressing. The quote is from the LA Times article, word for word.

I stumbled upon the article where Steve was involved in a cave in. It was never said that he left Alaska because of the incident but it seemed plausible.

Gayle and Steve went back to California and moved to the Hope Ranch Park neighborhood and Steve quickly became bored. I am not sure what causes you to have a dream of owning a dude ranch, but that was Steve’s. The ranch was named the Sweetwater Ranch and Steve did rename it immediately to The Hidden Valley. The reason is never mentioned. The story of making up stories about the bear skin rug was taken from an interview with CBS Sunday Morning. Of course, the Showbiz Pizza Place was my addition.

Gayle would play the organ for dance parties at the ranch. Here is an advertisement from the February 1, 1957 Santa Ynez Valley News.

The ranch was difficult to keep occupied especially during the winter months. The Hidden Valley Guest Ranch would close down due to low business as is mentioned in this article from 1958. His real name was Kenneth but he went by Steve.

Steve’s desire was to keep the guest ranch as a private club with no advertising. However, he was forced to start having open houses to gain interest in the ranch. Here is one of the early advertisements from 1956.

The dressing was popular and guests left with quart jars full of the stuff. The story of Audrey Ovington and the Cold Spring Tavern is true. This is how I was made aware of the story years ago when I would work in Santa Barbara. There was a small framed sign on the wall that said, “This restaurant is the first restaurant to serve Hidden Valley Ranch”. There is an article written about a recipe for Banana Fritters from the Sweetwater Ranch (the name before Hidden Valley). The article was written by Audrey. Stay tuned for a morsel about that one.

The story about the Hawaiian guest asking for 300 quarts of dressing is from the article. Him using it for a luau to cover up the taste of poi and kalua pork is made up. If you have ever tasted it though, you would love to have a side of ranch with it. I livened up the conversation with the Hawaiian and Steve using a Frommer’s article named Twenty Words Every Hawaii Visitor Should Know. I was trying to do a haka-style delivery even though it’s from New Zealand. I don’t know if the owner of the Copper Ranch was the same guest, but it’s pretty wild that Hawaii is the only other place besides California that I found ranch dressing mentioned in a newspaper. This article is from 1965.

The story of his mail order business taking off is true. I really wanted to find an advertisement in a newspaper somewhere, but it seems to be from word of mouth. The early logo had the dancing cowboy. It is never mentioned that it was because of Gayle’s organ playing at the ranch, but I’d like to think she was honored by that.

The story of Kelley’s Korner is true. The store is no longer in Santa Barbara.

The story about the Stagecoach road being difficult for the trucks to travel is true, however, my picture is a dramatic representation.

The story of the Independence Day party guest dying from a skull fracture is true. The editor missed the headline saying “Injudy” instead of “Injury”. I am not sure if this is why he decided to get rid of the ranch, but I am sure it was not the only incident that made owning the ranch more trouble than it was worth.

By 1970, the company distributed ranch dressing mix to 25 states. I found this article about Hidden Valley Ranch coming to Texas in the Odessa American in September of 1970.

The fried appetizers mentioned all came to be after Hidden Valley Ranch was created. “Chicken strips, Ranch-style dip, and wings from buffalo” is a line from the Robert Earl Keen song, “Furnace Fan”.

Henson sold the company to Clorox of all companies for $8.7 million in stock. That is a lot of $0.75 packets. Clorox was based in Oakland, California.

The story of Waples-Platter and the lawsuit is true. There was another suit pending between Hidden Valley Ranch and Kraft Foods. Kraft started selling a ranch dressing mix and Hidden Valley wasn’t happy about it. You can read the entire case here. The Fort Worth connection was too good to pass up.

Bottled ranch dressing is not that good. Notice the amount of times you hear people say that a certain restaurant has the best ranch dressing. Chances are, they are all using Hidden Valley Ranch Mix made for restaurants. This is still mixed with buttermilk instead of regular milk. You can still buy it in the store under “Restaurant-Style”.

The logo cowboy did change, get smaller, then disappear. I wish they would bring it back, at least for a throwback label. Here is a history of the logo.