The description, size, and location of the X Bar X ranch are nowhere spelled out in detail, but much can be learned by sifting through many facts provided in the course of the series.

Bardwell Manley owned the X Bar X, a cattle ranch some thirty hours' ride "on the cars" west from Chicago on Rocky Run River, a small stream. This ranch had been in the Manley family since Temple Manley, the boys' grandfather, now several years dead, had settled there in 1868.

(On the Ranch, page 7)

Near the Rocky Run River, about thirty hours' train ride west of Chicago is the X Bar X ranch, devoted to the breeding and raising of fine cattle. It is the largest ranch in that part of the country.

(Copperhead Gulch, page 12)

[The ranch] was one of the finest and largest in that section of the country, and was located in a gently rolling region bounded by woods on the north and mountains on the south.

(With the Secret Rangers, page 2)

The Rocky Run River, "like a streak of dull silver, flows placidly through a border of cottonwoods and willows about half a mile from the ranch house" (On the Ranch, page 9). The river loses itself "a few miles farther on in the broader waters of the Whirlpool River" (With the Secret Rangers, page 2).

Although the location of the X Bar X ranch is revealed only in the most general terms, it is possible to narrow the possibilities down significantly. Each volume tells us that it is located thirty hours west of Chicago by train, but in On Big Bison Trail, we learn that the ranch is also eight days' ride north of "the border"—presumably the Mexican. From Lost in the Rockies, it is evident that the eponymous mountain range is only a couple of days' ride away. This fact is confirmed in Triangle Mine. Haunted Gully tells us that the ranch 'is located several hundred miles west of Chicago in a sparsely settled region' (page 11), and adds the new fact that the western border of the state is about 100 away (pages 34 and 42). However, the writing in this volume is slipshod and inconsistent, so this information is unhelpful.

If we assume that a train could cover about fifty miles an hour in the late 1920's, and figure that a horse could cover thirty miles a day—and more in a pinch (a figure given in On the Ranch, page 44 and Copperhead Gulch, page 218, which seems to be written by someone who knows about horses and ranching), we may conclude that the ranch is located somewhere in the south of Colorado. When we add the knowledge that Barbara Manley came from Denver and during the school year the boys attend the Hopper Academy just outside that city, and that Denver is mentioned in the series more than any other city except the local settlement of Eagles, the southern Colorado conclusion seems increasingly likely.

Just to nail it down tightly, it is reasonable to assume that the X Bar X ranch is not located in states which are named as being elsewhere. These include Montana in On the Ranch (pp. 25, 191), Wyoming in the early volumes, New Mexico in Branding the Wild Herd (page 4), and Nebraska in Hunting the Prize Mustangs (page 56). Since the escaped desperado in Wild Herd has come from New Mexico and is going north when he encounters the X Bar X boys, the identification with Colorado is virtually proven.

However, recent examination of correspondence by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, dated in the later years of the series, reveals that the ranch was located in Montana. Indeed, in The X Bar X Boys With the Border Patrol, the Montana location is vital to the story. Perhaps, like the location of the elusive Bayport, different authors and editors in different times provided information which can never be reconciled.

How large is the ranch? It takes about fifty to seventy-five miles of fencing to surround the spread (At the Round Up, page 155), which (by doing the math) implies that the ranch is very roughly 200,000 acres. If the ranch were a perfect circle, it would be about twenty miles in diameter. On those acres about 3600-3700 head of cattle roam (At the Round Up, page 161), though that figure varies from season to season.

As mentioned above, the nearest outpost of civilization is the town of Eagles, which is twelve miles away from the ranch, accessible by both horse and car. This is where the ranchers go for supplies and to meet the train, ship their cattle, and find such entertainment as there is. In the first volume of the series, we read,

Perhaps "town" would be dignifying Eagles beyond its merits. There was a main street, consisting of two restaurants, a post-office, six stores and the railroad station. A little way down the track was a large corral, used as a temporary retention place for dealers who sent their steers to this point to be shipped.

(On the Ranch, page 13)

Duck Rimor's Place is the name of one of the town's restaurants (in this case, read "saloon"), but the X Bar X ranchers usually go there only to confront bad guys.

A bit more information is given in later volumes:

Eagles, the nearest railroad station to the X Bar X ranch, was a small hamlet on the O. & D. branch of the railway. It was a one-street settlement with eight stores which catered to the needs of the ranches in that vicinity. From Eagles a wagon and auto road ran to the X Bar X, some twelve miles away. Halfway to the ranch it encircled Bitter Cliff and then went through the Big Woods at the northern of the ranch.