Peaceful Valley Ranch at Theodore Roosevelt National Park

I wrote the following article for the park website.  This is my original draft of the article.

The ranch house at Peaceful Valley Ranch is the only original ranch house remaining in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Today’s visitors might drop in to Peaceful Valley for a guided horseback ride, which has been a popular activity there since the activity was first offered in 1918. The Peaceful Valley Ranch site has seen countless guests and many of residents in its lifetime. Like any historic site, the Peaceful Valley Ranch has seen its share of residents and guests coming and going, has undergone changes that reflect the changing needs of its occupants, and stands as a tangible reminder of a bygone era.

In its early days, the land where Peaceful Valley Ranch is today changed hands quickly and ambiguously, for no one in those days legally owned the land and little documentation of the transfers exists. The earliest Euro-American settler to live in the area that became the Peaceful Valley Ranch was Eldridge “Gerry” Paddock in 1883. Paddock shot wild game and sold it to the railroad, and became a close associate of the Marquis de Morès, his “right-hand man,” according to sources. 1883 was the same year that Theodore Roosevelt first came to the badlands. In December of 1883, Norman Lebo moved in; he became the sole occupant of Paddock’s 14’ x 16’ cabin by 1884.

22-year-old Benjamin Lamb, whose wealthy Boston family bankrolled his western venture, purchased the rights to the land from Lebo in 1885 and built the original buildings of the modern Peaceful Valley Ranch around that time, though accounts vary on precisely the year they were built. Lamb built the original barn, blacksmith shop, and house on the site. The original ranch house was a simple 58’ x 22’ two-story structure. The attic space was accessible from the outside by a ladder on the east side of the house.

Lamb sold the property in 1890 to Joe Caughton and Tom Donohue, who sold it between 1896 and 1898 to George Burgess. Despite its many previous residents, Burgess was the first to file a homestead patent for the land. Burgess sold the property in 1915 to Harry W. Olsen. The Olsen family shared ownership of the property within the family for several years, and their ownership is perhaps the most influential for the modern age.

The Olsens had a unique ranch at the time in that they had more horses than cattle. In 1918, the Olsens began running a “dude ranch,” taking vacationers on horseback riding trips to scenic places in the area, such as the petrified forest, and day trips to other ranches. Other entertainment for the Olsens’ guests provided included camping among the cottonwood trees adjacent to the ranch house, cookouts, branding, round-ups and moonlight rides. A popular destination was the Neuens ranch, where Mrs. Neuen was known for her good cooking. Guest facilities including a cabin were developed in 1920. In 1922, the ranch formally became the Peaceful Valley Ranch. Two years later, Carl Olsen became the sole owner of the property.

Carl Olsen was involved in the movement to create a national park, including the very land the Peaceful Valley Ranch was situated, in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1925 and again in 1928, Olsen’s ranch was a major stop during grand promotional tours of the area for politicians and NPS representatives including Stephen Mather, though the property was not selected at that time for inclusion as a national park. Olsen ran the dude ranch at Peaceful valley until he sold it to the federal government in 1936. The ranch was then converted to the headquarters of the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area. Between 1934 and 1939, the Peaceful Valley Ranch site also housed Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) staff. When Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park was established in 1947, the Peaceful Valley Ranch site was the park headquarters until the present headquarters and visitor center were built in Medora in 1959. The building continued to house park staff until 1965.

In the 1960s, after the ranch’s function as park headquarters ended, the National Park Service briefly considered tearing down the buildings on the ranch site in order to establish a new ranching demonstration area called the Longhorn Ranch. The plan never came to fruition and the historic buildings survived. In 1967, the park allowed a concessioner to use the ranch property to give guided horseback tours as the Olsen family had many years before. Though the concessioners have changed over the years, this tradition is ongoing in the park.

Peaceful Valley Ranch is an enduring reminder of the open range cattle ranching era in the 1880s and of the golden age of dude ranching. Though other structures on the site have come and gone, and the ranch house has been expanded and renovated at times in its life, the ranch property is remarkably intact and a rare reminder of the architecture of the period in which it was built. Three of the buildings, including the ranch house, are included in the National Register of Historic Places.

More Information:
Peaceful Valley Ranch model in Google Earth
Peaceful Valley Ranch Extended Narrative History