The Elkhorn Ranch was established by Theodore Roosevelt on the banks of the Little Missouri River 35 miles north of Medora, North Dakota in the summer of 1884. Roosevelt hired Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, two Maine woodsmen, to run the ranch. Sewall and Dow built the ranch house, "a long, low house of logs," in the winter of 1884–1885.
The Elkhorn Ranch was Theodore Roosevelt's "main ranch", and his preferred ranch house because it was larger and more private than his Maltese Cross Ranch cabin, established in 1883. Roosevelt particularly enjoyed sitting in the veranda in a rocking chair, reading in the shade of the cottonwood trees. His enjoyment is evident in his books, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, and The Wilderness Hunter.
In the spring of 1886, thieves stole Roosevelt's boat from the Elkhorn Ranch. Hastily, Sewall and Dow built a raft and all three set off downriver to catch the thieves. When they did, Roosevelt kept watch over the three thieves with a shotgun and marched them overland to Dickinson, North Dakota, where he collected a $50 reward.