May 26, 1890

Ted Richmond, who established the Wilderness Library on Mount Sherman in Newton County, was born in Ogallala, Nebraska. His career as a journalist led him to the Arkansas Ozarks. Realizing that people of the area had few resources for reading material, he appealed through letters for donations of books and magazines, which he carried by backpack to his Wildcat Cabin to establish what he called the Wilderness Library. He ran the library for twenty-five years. In 1956, Richmond left his library forever, and seemingly never returned to his beloved Ozark hills again. To this day, stories abound regarding his sudden disappearance. Richmond died in Texarkana, Texas, on December 3, 1975, where he is buried.