Yavapai County Family's Ranching Heritage Spans More Than a Century

In January 1915, Cooperative Extension held a two-day agriculture short course on the University of Arizona campus, for the first time offering a women’s section, acknowledging that men and women were partners in the arduous task of keeping ranches running.

Now as then, women are an integral part of Arizona agriculture, and Angela Teskey Peterson and her daughter, Ellyn Peterson, 16, are holding that torch high. Both have been lifelong hands on Yavapai County's Dugas Ranch, which has been in their family for almost 150 years.

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Angela’s great-great-grandfather, Louis Dugas, homesteaded on the original property in the late 1870s, quickly turning it over to his son, Fred, while he ran the Lucky 7 bar on Whiskey Row in Prescott. Fred built a beef operation, and the family still raises beef cattle on the ranch, which now sprawls across 25,000 leased and deeded acres.

The Dugas Ranch has served as a foundation under several generations of women. 

“I’m fifth generation, Ellyn is sixth, and we have seven generations now,” said Angela, who was with Ellyn recently at the Pima County Fairgrounds for the annual 4-H Stock Show and Roundup.

Though the methods of raising and grazing cattle have changed, one thing hasn’t - women are not just ranchers’ and farmers’ wives. They’re ranchers and farmers.

“My grandfather had Parkinson’s, and he got to a point where he couldn’t go out and work. It was always my grandmother who was the cowboy. My grandmother grew up being a horse-breaker. I’ve never felt like it wasn’t a place for women. In our family, the women are out there, sometimes roping just as good as the boys … and just as tough,” she said.

Angela is a member of the Yavapai County Cowbelles, a group that started as a social club but evolved into an important advocacy group for the beef industry. They conduct workshops, promote ranch heritage, support youth in agriculture, and share and amplify ranchers’ contributions to land stewardship and protecting the environment, according to the group’s website.

The family is also active in 4-H. Angela, a  leads the Lonesome Valley Wranglers club in Dewey. Her husband, Tom Peterson, is on the Youth Foundation Board, and Ellyn shows large and small stock and will take a leadership role in the Arizona 4-H Summit in June. Ellyn will also attend the National 4-H Congress in Atlanta in November.

Ellyn’s ranch work and 4-H have helped her gain skills that will likely serve her well. Her knowledge and passion go beyond wrangling and riding into business.

“I raise market beef every year and sell it through the fair. I know exactly what’s in my feed. There are six ingredients in the feed I use – oats, barley, corn, molasses, minerals and hay. I can tell buyers all of that, so they know it’s a wholesome product. It’s important to have that relationship with your consumers to build trust,” Ellyn said.

Ellyn is considering welding as a career, but she wants to keep working on the ranch. She thinks about her role as a woman in ranching and a family where she is the youngest of four with two brothers.

“People see ranching as a male-dominated industry, but women definitely have a huge impact, whether they’re out riding on the range or staying home making lunch for all the cowboys. I’ve definitely helped my grandma with that a lot, and that’s a very important, vital part of all of this,” she said.

Angela is proud to watch her daughter become a woman in agriculture. Growing up in a ranching family gave Ellyn a foundation on which she can build anything.

“It’s very exciting knowing that she’s grown up knowing that she’s empowered to do anything she wants to do.”