You can find the term "ranche" used throughout Nathaniel P. Langford's "Vigilante Days and Ways" (Boston: JG Cupples, 1890; Helena, MT: Ameircan and World Geographic Publishing, 1996). This book deals with vigilanteism and crime in the areas which were or became Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and Washington; the term may have been indigenous to the northern tier and Canada.