The ranch was named KL Bar, in honor of Romaine’s mother, Katherine. The brand was registered in 1909, and the ranch eventually grew to 640 acres. In 1914, the first adobe building, currently the Homestead House guest casita, was built as the ranch headquarters and bunkhouse. 

In addition to ranching, Lowdermilk became a writer and Western entertainer. His writing career began with a weekly column of “wit and wisdom” for a Prescott newspaper. The column led to the ranch’s first paying guests in 1918, after Lowdermilk’s editor visited the ranch and spread the word about staying at the Kay El Bar. 

In those early days, accommodations were rustic, bathrooms were communal, and there was a basic menu of the “three B’s”: beans, bacon and biscuits. Horseback riding and cowpunching were the sole amusements. There were few guests at that time, but visitors were eager to sample Western ranch life, and hosting them supplemented income when the cattle business slowed.

In 1925, Lowdermilk took a partner, Henry Warbasse, and the two of them built the large adobe lodge expressly for use as a dude ranch. The Kay El Bar Guest Ranch opened in 1926; the next year, Lowdermilk sold out to Warbasse and his wife, Christine. In 1929, Warbasse was elected the first president of the Arizona Dude and Guest Ranchers’ Association.

Dudes ride out of the center of the Kay El Bar Ranch with the adobe lodge and Homestead House visible in the background.

For the next 45 years, the ranch experienced many changes in ownership. It operated as both a guest and cattle ranch until 1958, when then-owner Morton Bodfish, a Chicago financier and president of the International Savings and Loan Association, sold the 120 acres with the dude ranch facilities while retaining the surrounding acreage for cattle.  

Romaine Lowdermilk, founder of the Kay El Bar, was also a writer and Western entertainer; he became known as the “Father of the Arizona Dude Ranch,” later establishing other such properties.

Robert Kratville and Eugene Kilmer bought the ranch in the late ’60s, and for some time, it was home to actor Val Kilmer. When Eugene and Gladys Kilmer divorced, the ranch was put up for sale. Then, Gladys met William Leach at a local ranch, and he later surprised her by buying the Kay El Bar from her ex-husband. After they married, the Leaches operated the property as a guest ranch until the last six years of their ownership, when they simply lived on the property.  

In the 1970s, the ranch was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the Arizona equivalent. In 1978, Charles and Carol Peterson took over the ranch and 60 acres of land; the other 60 were retained by the Leaches. Halfway through their second ranch season, though, the Petersons were ready to sell. Jane and Jay Nash and Jan and Charlie Martin had been looking for a ranch for the two sisters to run, and the couples fell in love with the Kay El Bar. Over the years, they spent countless hours refurbishing the ranch while managing it for 17 years.

John and Nancy Loftis bought the ranch in 1997 and ran it into the 2000s. Their guest ranch interest began after they took their own children to guest ranches in Colorado in the mid-’80s. The ranch was closed for many years until 2018, when, on its 100th anniversary of welcoming guests, the Kay El Bar resumed operation as a guest ranch. It hosts guests for an intimate Western experience as part of the True Ranch Collection, a selection of historic dude ranches across the West.

Today's guests can experience the same western ambiance as the early visitors, sleeping in adobe-walled buildings, walking among mature stately trees, and riding the same trails as those first guests from almost 100 years ago.