Empire Ranch Foundation

Laura (Dusty) Vail Ingram

Dusty Vail, 1925

Laura (“Dusty”) Vail Ingram is granddaughter of Walter and Margaret Vail and daughter of Laura Perry and William Banning Vail, manager of the Empire Ranch from 1913-1928. The Empire Ranch was Dusty’s childhood home, from 1914 to 1928. This interview focuses on room and building uses at the ranch headquarters when she lived there.

Date of Interview: September 29, 1989
Interviewer: William Gibson, James Huff, Gordon Warren

Laura “Dusty” Vail Ingram was born on December 2, 1914 in Tucson, Arizona at her maternal grandmother’s home. She lived mostly on the Empire Ranch until she reached school age, but moved back and forth between quarters that were set up for her family at her grandmother’s in Tucson and the Empire Ranch. A typical day at the Empire Ranch involved riding and playing. When riding with men that were working cattle no playing was allowed—it was strictly business. She describes her role in helping to break horses; the technique that her father, Banning Vail used in breaking and training a horse was exactly the way his father, Walter Vail, did it. Most of her activities took place in the environs of the Ranch House—the only time she went further afield was when she rode with her father and his dog Bo.

Full transcript available upon request: .

Date of Interview: February 28, 1993
Interviewer: Laura Soulliere Harrison

Laura (“Dusty”) Vail Ingram is granddaughter of Walter and Margaret Vail and daughter of Laura Perry and William Banning Vail, manager of the Empire Ranch from 1913-1928. The Empire Ranch was Dusty’s childhood home, from 1914 to 1928. This interview focuses on Dusty’s life growing up on the Empire and also her life after leaving the ranch in 1928.

Date of Interview: September 14, 1997
Interviewer: Will Woolley

Laura (“Dusty”) Vail Ingram is granddaughter of Walter and Margaret Vail and daughter of Laura Perry and William Banning Vail, manager of the Empire Ranch from 1913-1928. The Empire Ranch was Dusty’s childhood home, from 1914 to 1928. Part of “The Women of Empire Ranch Project” this interview focuses on Dusty’s memories of her life as a girl on the Empire and of the other family members and people in her life there, particularly her mother Laura Perry Vail, a native Tucson city girl who moved to live on the Empire after marrying William Banning Vail.

Full transcript available upon request: .

Date of Interview: October 29; November 5, 12, 19, 2001
Interviewer: Glenda Bonin

Video of a tour of Empire Ranch House conducted by Dusty Ingram, with commentary on how rooms were used and memories of her life on the Empire (1914-1928).

Date of Interview: 1995
Interviewer: Max Witkind