The UXU Ranch was founded in 1929 by Bob Rumsey, a Yale graduate with a colorful background. Rumsey had experience in education, cattle ranching, dairy farming, politics, and dude ranching. Rumsey's father, Bronson Rumsey II, was a founding father of Cody, Wyoming.
As local legend has it, Rumsey and his wife, Elizabeth, operated a boys camp four miles up the road from what is now the UXU Ranch. Their marriage turned sour and ended in a biter divorce. Bob moved down the river and started his own ranch. He called it the "U Biich U" Ranch so that each time his ex wife made the trek to Cody she would see the sign. Due to the fact that the ranch is located in the Shoshone National Forest, the rangers would not allow such a sign to be displayed. They came by and painted an "X" over the offensive word and thus the UXU Ranch was born.

Bob Rumsey was a sly businessman. While establishing the UXU, he built a four-footwide swinging bridge across the North Fork River. This was the only access guests had to the ranch. Upon arrival, guests had to ring up the front desk and ask a ranch hand to help them with their luggage. Rumsey and following owners kept this bridge as the
with their luggage. Rumsey only way on or off the ranch well into the 1960s. The theory was that guests would stay longer when they thought about having to cross the precarious bridge again.