The Origins of the OTO

The gregarious Mr. Randall charmed many visitors in his early years in Yellowstone country, including Dora Roseborough. They both loved horses and made “a dashing couple.” They married in 1892 and two children soon followed, Lesley “Gay” and Helen “Bess.” In 1898, the Randalls purchased “squatters rights” to a cabin on Cedar Creek just 10 miles north of Yellowstone National Park in the Absaroka Mountains, and moved the family to this remote, wild homestead.

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The Cedar Creek homestead came with what was barely a home for a growing family – a one-room log cabin with dirt floor and sod roof. Not discouraged, Dick and Dora soon added a kitchen and two bedrooms. A natural guide and outfitter, Dick Randall began to invite clients he met in the park to join him for fall hunting trips where his knowledge of the land and the wildlife led them on many adventures.

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Life on Cedar Creek with its "good grass and meadow land, seclusion, a crystal-clear mountain stream, the whole setting surrounded by picturesque Mountains," was a perfect setting for Dick Randall’s growing business. With bear hunting in spring, pack trips in summer, and big game hunting in fall, there were soon far too many guests for the Randall’s to lodge in their cabin.

After a decade of packing hunters into the wild backcountry, the Randalls tired of “giving up their beds” in the summer. They put up a bunkhouse and wall tents on wood platforms to accommodate paying guests looking to experience life on a working cattle ranch.

As Dick Randall later remembered, "there were so darn many guests, we began building cabins to take care of them and charging for our protection.