The memoirs of Dick Randall, the turn-of-the-century Yellowstone-area dude rancher whose guests included President Theodore Roosevelt and the King of Prussia, have been donated to the Yellowstone National Park archives in Gardiner by friends of the family.

Randall owned the OTO Ranch, which still exists just north of Gardiner; it's now owned by U.S Forest Service. While he didn't launch the ranch -- he bought it from "two train-robbing squatters" -- he built it into a major dude operation and was involved in Yellowstone in many ways. For many visitors, a stop at the OTO Ranch was a major part of the early Yellowstone experience.

Along the way Randall met many of the dignitaries to visit Yellowstone National Park in the early days, including President Theodore Roosevelt when he made his famous speech dedicating the Yellowstone Arch, the King of Prussia and German Gen. Paul von Hindenburg.

He set down his experiences with these famous folks in unpublished memoirs; these were passed along to his daughter and then to family friends before being donated to Park historian Lee Whittlesey.

Photo of OTO Lodge by Edward Mayer, licensed under the Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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