Restored —  100+ years of history

The $5.5 million Peaceful Valley Ranch restoration project is finished. Crews restored windows, siding and repaired floors on the house and updated the outbuildings. They are much like they were originally — and that is a great reason to visit the site in the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  

Jack Dura of the Bismarck Tribune wrote about the finished project here.

and took an impressive photo, here.

Have you visited the TRNP Peaceful Valley Ranch? 

What’s next for this historic ranch?  It’s hosted trail rides and visitors for decades. 

Once a working ranch, now it takes on a new role at the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  The architecture revealed that one addition after another was added to the ranch house before it became part of the Park. Now it is remodeled and repaired under the National Park Service’s direction.

Gerry Paddock, a contemporary of the Marquis de Mores and Theodore Roosevelt may have been the first rancher here.

Benjamin Lamb in 1885 built the house and then added a log cabin lean-to as a kitchen.

Until 2014, guided trail rides were launched from here. Three of the original ranch buildings still stand, and the site is listed on the National Historic Registry.

 

 

You’ll find a fascinating historical pamphlet about Peaceful Valley Ranch, from the Theodore Roosevelt at Dickinson State University, here:  History of Peaceful Valley Ranch

Read about the ranch on the official Theodore Roosevelt National Park website here:  The Peaceful Valley Ranch of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota 

Read more here about the three units of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. 

Road Repair

It’s going to be a while before the scenic loop in the park is open again.  It appears a 5-mile section of the most slippery section of the road will cost nearly $40 million to repair — and it will not be finished until 2024.