Ranch is a common name used to describe a brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

, especially in western areas of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Origin

This usage dates back to the original Chicken Ranch

Chicken Ranch (Texas)

The Chicken Ranch was as an illegal but tolerated brothel in the U.S. state of Texas that operated from 1905 until 1973. It was located in Fayette County about 2.5 miles east of downtown La Grange...

near the town of LaGrange, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, an old brothel that is no longer open which accepted chickens as payment during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. Over time the place became overrun with chickens.

Best-known Examples

• There is currently a legal brothel also called the Chicken Ranch
  Chicken Ranch (Nevada)
  The Chicken Ranch is a legal, licensed brothel located about west of Las Vegas near the town of Pahrump, in Nye County, at 10511 Homestead Road. The 17 bed brothel sits on of land...
  
   just outside the town of Pahrump
  Pahrump, Nevada
  -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 24,631 people, 10,153 households, and 7,127 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 82.7 people per square mile . There were 11,651 housing units at an average density of 39.1 per square mile...
  
  , Nevada
  Nevada
  Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
  
  .
• The Mustang Ranch
  Mustang Ranch
  The Mustang Ranch, originally known as the Mustang Bridge Ranch, is a brothel in Storey County, Nevada, about fifteen miles east of Reno. It is currently located at 1011 Wild Horse Canyon Dr Sparks, NV 89434....
  
   was formerly a legal brothel near Reno
  Reno, Nevada
  Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
  
   (closed 1999; rights to reuse the name are now tied up in court)
• The Moonlite BunnyRanch is a legal brothel near Carson City
  Carson City, Nevada
  The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...
  
  .

Many of Nevada's other legal brothels also incorporate the term "ranch" into their names.

See also

• Prostitution in Nevada
  Prostitution in Nevada
  Nevada is the only U.S. state to allow some legal prostitution, in the form of regulated brothels. Prostitution outside these licensed brothels is illegal....
  
  
• List of brothels in Nevada