Ranger Hotel Expanding to Meet Community Needs

A good hotel means much to a community, and under the ownership of Mr.and Mrs. Roy Chamberlain the Ranger Hotel has become well known for its fine rooms and excellent service. More than that, the Ranger is growing with the community.

The Chamberlains purchased the hotel in 1936 from the Castle-Wood Investment Co. It had had a sad history. Construction was started in 1920 and shortly afterward the oil boom subsided and it stood unfinished and unoccupied. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Runge partly finished and opened the hotel in 1928.

When the Chamberlains purchased it, the building was completed only through the second floor. Now the third floor has been completed to include two apartments, and as soon as possible the fourth floor will be finished and put into use. Mr. Chamberlain is now installing an automatic elevator.

Mr. Chamberlain is a native of Nebraska, reared on a farm, went to college, taught school, but finally went into oil work at Lance Creek. Later he and Jim Hoblit decided to quit oil field work and they established the C & H Refinery in the spring of 1933. He sold out to his partner in 1937. Though the hotel has become his major interest, Roy has never lost his interest in oil. President of the Highway 20 Association, past president of the Wyoming Hotel Association, State Senator from Niobrara County, county Red Cross chairman, a vice president of the Central Wyoming Council of Boy Scouts, Mr. Chamberlain is a man of many community interests.

Mrs. Chamberlain, the former Gertrude Ord, comes from the pioneer ranch family of Robert C. Ord, and after completing college also taught school. She has worked alongside her husband in the operation of the Ranger, and though war years meant the doing of all kinds of work to keep the hotel in service, she always came up with a smile.

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