Hidden Valley Ranch is named after an actual ranch.
Steve Henson worked out the buttermilk-and-herb recipe in Alaska, from 1949 into the early 1950s, as a plumbing contractor making it for his crew. When he and his wife Gayle bought a struggling dude ranch, they renamed it Hidden Valley Ranch and served the dressing to guests, who begged to take packets home. In 1972 the couple sold the whole thing to Clorox for $8 million.
Hidden Valley Ranch on Brandseum