Medora, ND - Teddy

Well, here we are in Medora, ND, where Teddy Roosevelt rebuilt his life after 2 tragic deaths and returned to the American political stage a much stronger, more focused man.

        ‘I would not have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota.’

Well, he came out here to bag a bison. He was a prissy New Yorker nicknamed Teedy, a weakly asthmatic who wore glasses. Not what you’d think of as a cowboy. He had lots of strikes against him and then he bought his ‘cowboy outfit.’ ‘Cowboy’ outfits as only a New Yorker could see them.

He must have thought fringes were the cat’s pajamas. Was he laughed at? Was he ridiculed? You betcha. Then one night he walked in to a local bar and someone called him ‘Four Eyes’. Fed up, he walked up to the guy, popped him in the kisser and - was never called Four Eyes again. What a lesson that was. From now on he was Teddy, a North Dakota cowboy for real.

He was never the best shot, he was never the best roper but he could work hard and learn fast and get his hands dirty with the rest of the cowboys with whom he worked and soon gained the respect of all.

He bought a ranch and named it the Maltese Cross.

When his wife,, Alice, was in childbirth, he returned to New York leaving his two friends $14,000 to build a cabin and buy a herd for him for when he returned.

Then tragedy: both his wife and mother died in the same house and on the same day. All he could write in his journal that night was a large ‘X’ and the words: ‘The light has gone out of my life.’

Stricken, he returned to his new cabin and his ranch in North Dakota to assuage his grief. But, he wanted something better that a plain old cabin so he added wooden floors, windows and lamps. A tough man but he was still a New Yorker.

His cabin is now at the Theodore Roosevelt NP in Medora, ND. It was originally a few miles south but was brought here to the park. Most of the furnishings are not original, however, this desk is the one on which he wrote all his letters and compiled all the ranch accounts. You can also see the wooden floor and the painted boards which lined the rooms rather than the rough logs.

He also scratched a Maltese Cross in one of the ends of the cabin logs.

Because his cabin was on a busy carriage road and thus couldn’t give him the solitude he wanted, he built a new home further north called Elkhorn Ranch. Unfortunately, he didn’t survive long as a cattle man. Nearly 60% of his cattle froze or starved to death during the winter of 1885 - 1886 (this was better than most in the area who had an 80% death rate.)

Within 2 years, the small ranching, meat-packing town of Medora closed down and became a ghost town. Roosevelt sold his remaining cattle and his ranch and returned to the East Coast. He was much stronger, had overcome his grief and was ready to start life anew. But his experiences in North Dakota had awakened in him a love of wilderness and a desire to preserve it for the ages. He is often referred to as America’s Conservation President and during his Presidency, preserved and protected an estimated 230 million acres of land in America. These include 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 4 National Game Reserves, 150 National Forests, 5 National Parks and 18 National Monuments. Whew, that’s a lot for one man.

And, that’s why we are at Theodore Roosevelt National Park today. We started late since we had some things to do in the RV. (I noticed that one camera battery was low and put it into the charger along with a second battery that was waiting to be charged. No problem, we still have 2 camera batteries with us. Gary forgot his phone in the RV but we decided not to go back to get it.) We started in the Visitor Center where we watched a film about the National Park. Then we drove the 36-mile Scenic Drive around the South Unit (the park has a North Unit, a South Unit and a small section where he had his Elkhorn Ranch.

I found it extremely hard to take a bad picture of the parklands, called Badlands for the geologic features. The colors, the geology, the terrain all are strikingly beautiful. A feast for the eyes. Look at these - is there a bad view? No, I’m not saying I take great pictures, I’m saying that even I could take good pictures here.





We first came to a prairie dog village and we could hear the ‘barking’ as soon as we got out of the car.

There were hundreds scurrying around, eating, chirping at us and ducking in and out of their holes.

Looks like they get enough to eat.

We took many the hikes and trails off of the scenic drive and the views were stunning from all of them.

At one pull-out, we took a trail to the old Eastern entrance to the park. The building is still remarkably intact and gleams in the afternoon sun.

We got to Buck Hill and were taking pictures when Gary noted that the camera battery had run down.

Hmmm. These are the last 2 pictures he took - maybe these caused the battery to give up and die.
He went to switch the batteries and the second battery was done. 2 batteries at home and 2 dead here. Well, let’s just use the phone for our camera now. Oh, yeah, it’s still in the RV. There you’ve got it - 1/2 way through the park and no camera. Well, let’s just enjoy the ride and the views.

Towards the end of the ride we saw a prairie dog village jam and stopped. Oh, shoot, there’s a fox running through the village. And another one on the ridge watching. Get out the camera. Nope, get out the phone. Oh, shucks. Foxes in the prairie dog village and we can only watch it. We can’t take a picture at all. Well, that’s OK - everyone else here had 3’ long lenses - we’d look pretty silly with our baby camera.

We all watched the fox. Then he laid down, must be trying to lull them all to make careless mistakes. 5 minutes he lay there. They he got up, ran towards us, jumped on a hole but got nothing. He must have felt like he was in the grocery store with no credit card.

Back in Medora, we found the ice cream store. Now, mind you, this is 6:30 and we’ve had cereal and fruit for breakfast, then an apple, a piece of string cheese and a protein bar for lunch. Ah, dinner is a dish of huckleberry ice cream. Perfect.

Let’s get the camera batteries all charged for tomorrow. And, yeah, let’s bring the phone, too.