Hoot Gibson’s D4C Ranch, Las Vegas, Ladies Cotton Tee

Venue History

Hoot Gibson’s D4C Ranch was one of the most unusual and colorful attractions in postwar Las Vegas, blending Hollywood western fame, dude-ranch fantasy, casino-style recreation, and Nevada’s famous quick-divorce culture. Located southeast of present-day Twain Avenue and Arville Street, the property sat well west of the Strip in an area that was still open desert during the 1940s. The ranch’s roots predated Gibson. In the early 1940s, the site was known as the Nevada Ranch Club, a roadside recreation property with a nightclub and Western atmosphere. In 1946, silent-film cowboy star Edmund “Hoot” Gibson and his partners transformed it into D4C Ranch, using Gibson’s name and frontier persona as the centerpiece of its appeal. Gibson had once been one of Hollywood’s biggest Western stars, and the ranch allowed him to turn that screen image into a real Las Vegas business. The name “D4C” was a play on “divorce,” a direct reference to one of the ranch’s primary markets. At the time, Nevada’s six-week residency requirement attracted people from across the country seeking faster divorces than they could obtain elsewhere. Ranches like D4C offered guests a place to stay long enough to establish residency while enjoying horseback riding, socializing, dining, and desert leisure. The property was more than a simple guest ranch. It included bungalows, a clubhouse, Western-themed restaurant, gaming, horseback riding, and reportedly a rodeo stadium. It also had its own airfield, with an unpaved runway that helped serve fly-in visitors. A private dirt access road connected the ranch to the Strip area and later became part of the route associated with Spring Mountain Road. Gibson’s direct association with D4C lasted from late 1946 through 1950, but the ranch continued operating under the name into the late 1950s. Though it never became a major resort, it captured a fascinating moment in Las Vegas history, when the city was still experimenting with Western fantasy, celebrity branding, gambling, aviation, and divorce tourism. Today, Hoot Gibson’s D4C Ranch is remembered as a rare Old Vegas oddity: part dude ranch, part casino, part Hollywood dream, and part desert escape.