Preliminary Study of and Identification of the Elkhorn Ranch Site

The purpose in this study is to determine if presumed lands contain the site of Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch buildings and, if so, authenticate it by historical evidence. In this study, the historian has been compelled to proceed with little tangible evidence as to the exact location of the Elkhorn Ranch buildings. Had Roosevelt owned the land on which his ranches were located, it would have been possible to determine the general location through the county records. Unfortunately, he did not. Very little of the land in this part of North Dakota. Was surveyed at the time Roosevelt operated his Badlands ranches. The writer has been compelled to rely primarily on two types of evidence: photographic evidence; and the testimony of old timers who visited the Elkhorn when Roosevelt operated it or were at the Ranch before the buildings disappeared.