Loping Along the Guest Ranch Trail, Dude

The 4x4 pickup slides in the mud as Patricia Chesser and I head toward the branding corrals on the Burnt Well Guest Ranch outside of Roswell, New Mexico. She has spent most of her life on this ranch, bringing up two children with husband Kim, who was born at Burnt Well. Kim’s daddy came here in the 1950s, later selling the ranch to his son. Burnt Well is a working ranch, but about four years ago, the Chessers decided to start taking in paying customers. “We wanted some sort of income,”