Theodore Roosevelt National Park ⓘ

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was established to memorialize this area's importance in Theodore Roosevelt's life and the key role it played in fostering his conservation ethics. While visiting the badlands for the first time in 1883, Roosevelt fell in love with the rugged landscape and became interested in the new business of cattle ranching. After talking with local ranchers, he decided to invest in a local cattle operation known as the Maltese Cross. His partners in the ranch were Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield .

The next summer, following the death of his wife and mother in February, Roosevelt returned to the badlands. During his stay, he started a second ranching operation called the Elkhorn Ranch . He hired two acquaintances from Maine, Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow , to run the ranch. After its creation, Roosevelt considered Elkhorn to be his "home ranch" and spent most of his time there whenever he was in Dakota.

While Roosevelt was starting his ranching operations in the Dakota Territory, a French nobleman known as the Marquis de Morès was establishing the town of Medora, which he named after his wife. His dream of a meat packing empire proved ill-fated, but the town he founded survived.

Long before the cattle ranching period in the late-19th century, the badlands were utilized by a number of traditional peoples including the Mandan, Hidatsa, Crow, and many others. The Cultural History of the park extends back thousands of years. At the end of the 19th century, conflict between the US Army and the Sioux brought war to the badlands and involved many well-known historical figures: Sully, Custer, Sitting Bull, Inkpaduta, and Gall.

In the 20th century, the Civilian Conservation Corps performed work still visible today in the North and South Units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Medora just as the cattle ranching boom was beginning, and the extermination of bison in the west was coming to an end. At the time, cattle drives were a common sight on the plains as cowboys moved herds of longhorn and other cattle from as far away as Texas to fresh pastures in the Dakota Territory. The Long X Trail, which passed through what is now the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, was one of several routes cowboys used to drive their cattle north. Roosevelt became enamored with the landscape and the cowboy lifestyle and invested in his own cattle ranching operations through the late-1880s. To reflect the living landscape as Roosevelt experienced it, the Park maintains a small demonstration herd of longhorn steers in the North Unit. The original herd of six longhorn steers established in 1967 was supplemented with new steers periodically afterward. An encounter with the longhorn herd offers visitors a window into the enchanting badlands scene Theodore Roosevelt fell in love with in 1883. Longhorn Cattle Home Page

Within a short time after the death of Theodore Roosevelt on January 6, 1919, there were proposals to establish a memorial in his honor. Various studies took place across the country that included ideas for national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, and scenic roads as well as state parks. Sylvane Ferris, a friend and business associate of TR during his cattle ranching days in the Dakota Badlands, appointed a committee to pick a site and Medora was selected. The 1921 North Dakota legislature instructed their representatives in Congress to assist by setting land aside for a park.

The Little Missouri badlands were explored in 1924 by a party of 40 to outline an area for a Roosevelt National Park. This tour resulted in the formation of the Roosevelt Memorial National Park Association (later, the Great North Dakota Association). The following year, a tour of "cowboys and Congressmen," a larger group of federal, state, and regional officials plus interested parties and news media conducted an inspection camping trip through the "Grand Canyon of the Little Missouri," which cemented the park idea. One early plan called for a 2,030 square mile park. This proposal was not without its critics because the land was too valuable for local ranchers and their livestock.

Roger Toll, Superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park , submitted a report on the proposed park to National Park Service Director Stephen T. Mather in 1928 in which he favored the establishment of a small national monument stating, "A national park does not seem to be justified."

Again, various studies, proposals and counter-proposals for a park took place. Some suggested a national forest be established. Then came the "dirty thirties." Drought, overgrazing, and crop failures forced many homesteaders to sell their land to the federal government for as little as $2.00 per acre. In western North Dakota land was acquired mainly for setting up leased grazing and rehabilitation. Today, most of what was purchased under the auspices of the Resettlement Act is now part of the Little Missouri National Grasslands . A portion of these new federal holdings was earmarked for a park. In 1934 a cooperative agreement to start a Roosevelt Regional Park Project was signed by the Resettlement Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), National Park Service, and the State of North Dakota. The federal government wanted the project to become a state park.

The CCC operations began immediately and were administered by National Park Service employees. The North and South Roosevelt Regional Parks had their own camps. By 1935, these sites were designated the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area (RDA). Development by workers from the CCC, as well as Works Projects Administration (WPA) and Emergency Relief Administration (ERA), included construction of roads, trails, picnic areas, campgrounds, and buildings.

All projects ended in 1941. Who would accept management responsibility for this land was still uncertain. When North Dakota’s state government announced that it did not want the land as a state park, approval was obtained in 1942 to retain the RDA for the purpose of study for possible inclusion into the National Park System. North Dakota Representative William Lemke championed the fight to establish a national park, an action which met resistance from NPS officials. The next few years saw further studies and political maneuvering.

In November 1946, the RDA was officially transferred to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge after legislation to establish a park was vetoed because some felt the area did not possess those qualities that merit national park ranking. Undaunted, Congressman Lemke pressed on. Finally, on April 25, 1947, after several compromises, President Truman signed the bill (PL-38) that created Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park. This included lands that roughly make up the South Unit and the Elkhorn Ranch site today. The North Unit was added to the memorial park on June 12, 1948. Additional boundary revisions were made in later years.

As a memorial park, it was the only one of its kind in the National Park System. Eventually, in addition to a connection with a president, the land was recognized for its diverse cultural and natural resources. On November 10, 1978, the area was given national park status when President Carter signed Public Law 95-625 that changed the memorial park to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This same law placed 29,920 acres of the park under the National Wilderness Preservation System.

Today, the 70,448-acre Theodore Roosevelt National Park is home to a variety of plants and animals , and continues to memorialize the 26th president for his enduring contributions to the safekeeping and protection of our nation’s resources.

Administrative History: " At the Open Margin: The NPS's Administration of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. " (Online Book)

In 1901 Theodore Roosevelt became the 26 th President of the United States, and ultimately one of its greatest conservationists. He later said, "I would not have been president had it not been for my experience in North Dakota."

Those experiences began in 1883, when Roosevelt arrived in the Dakota Badlands to hunt bison. Before he left, he purchased the primary interest in the Chimney Butte Ranch (known locally as the Maltese Cross Ranch). Roosevelt thrived on the vigorous outdoor lifestyle, actively participating in the life of a working cowboy . He would write three books about his experiences, which would deepen and broaden his career-defining conservation ethic.

Located seven miles south of Medora, the Chimney Butte Ranch boasted a stockade-style shack when Roosevelt invested $14,000 for cattle and a brand. Ranches were commonly known by their brand, and Chimney Butte used an eight-pointed Maltese Cross.

At Roosevelt's request, ranch managers Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield built a one and one-half story cabin complete with a shingled roof and root cellar. Constructed of durable ponderosa pine logs, the cabin was larger than most frontier homes, with wooden floors and three separate rooms (kitchen, living room and Roosevelt's bedroom). The steeply pitched roof, an oddity on the northern plains, created an upstairs sleeping loft for the ranch hands.

What became known as the Maltese Cross Cabin was only a temporary home for Roosevelt. He would split his time between Dakota and New York for the next several years. After returning to Dakota in 1884, he established a second ranch he named the Elkhorn . By 1887, Roosevelt began to sell his interests in the cattle industry. By 1900 the Maltese Cross Cabin was claimed by other residents.

During Roosevelt's presidency, the cabin was acquired for the World's Fair, hosted in St. Louis, MO. The cabin traveled from Missouri to Portland, OR for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. It would spend time in Fargo, ND before settling on the grounds of the state capital in Bismarck, ND.

The Daughters of the American Revolution eventually took over the care of the cabin, and acquired many of the items you can see today. In 1959, twelve years after the park was established, the Maltese Cross Cabin came to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Restored to its original state, you can walk in Roosevelt's footsteps by touring the cabin behind the South Unit Visitor Center.

The logs of the Maltese Cross Cabin are the original ponderosa pine used in 1883. The original roof had been removed by 1900, and the ceiling and pitched-style roof were restored when the cabin was transferred to the park. It is thought the window frames and front door are original, although the latter shows evidence of damage and repair. Graffiti adorns much of the door and parts of the exterior, acquired during its many travels across the country. Considering the cabin's use and history, it is remarkable the building has been preserved.

Inside the cabin sits a replica of the small wooden writing desk in the main room once sat at Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch . The replica closely matches the original, which is part of the park's museum collection. Roosevelt considered the Elkhorn, built during the winter of 1884-1885, his home ranch. Although he never accomplished as much writing as he hoped while in the badlands, he wrote several of his books on this desk (including his biography of Senator Thomas Hart Benton).

A trunk in the bedroom is made of wicker and duck skin, emblazoned with the letters "T.R.". This light-weight trunk is the one Roosevelt used on his travels between New York and Dakota. It was said that Mary Sewall, wife of Roosevelt's ranch manager Bill Sewall , had to straighten up the trunk at least once a week while he stayed at the Elkhorn.

The majority of the items in the cabin are antique period furnishings and were not owned by Roosevelt. Some, like the white hutch and simple rocking chair in the main room, are thought to have been owned or used by Roosevelt. A voracious reader, Roosevelt always kept a library (even while traveling). A rocking chair was one of his favorite pieces of furniture; Roosevelt would often rock himself across the room during lively discussions.

For authenticity, a detailed furnishing plan was researched for restoring the cabin. Household items represent the frontier life of early ranching operations.

Theodore Roosevelt came west to hunt bison. His two week hunting trip included many long conversations with local ranchers. Enamored with a lifestyle he knew more from second-hand than direct experience, he invested in his own ranch. He little expected the significance this place would hold for him and the nation.

After losing first his mother and then his wife on a single day in February 1884, Dakota became a place where Roosevelt could heal and move forward with his life. His days were spent riding alone through the wilderness, a spiritual storyline as old as human history. He would exhaust his body physically, riding, hunting, roping and ranching. He would write three books about his experiences in the west. In time, Roosevelt returned to society, resumed his public service career, and established a family.

While Roosevelt ranched in Dakota, he saw widespread land use transform into misuse and abuse of natural resources. He established a regional stockmen's association and helped form the Boone and Crockett Club, one of the first fair-hunting organizations. A stalwart proponent of American resources and the bounty they provided, he feared that unregulated use would deplete those resources forever.

As Governor of New York and President of the United States, Roosevelt made conservation a primary focus . Under his presidency (1901 - 1909), nearly 230 million acres were protected in the form of national forests, parks, monuments and reserves. This conservation legacy established a precedent for the 1900s and beyond. Today there are thousands of protected lands throughout the country.

The National Park Service was created in 1916, three years before Roosevelt's death. The agency took over management of many of the areas set aside by the former president. Theodore Roosevelt National Park was created to honor the legacy he left behind. It is one of the many protected areas established in the first 100 years of the National Park Service. As we look forward to the next 100, we remember the example set by men like Theodore Roosevelt, and the simple places like the Maltese Cross Cabin which helped inspire them.

Designed for elementary and middle school students and teachers, our park-produced video, "Finding Roosevelt," is fun for all ages! See inside of the Maltese Cross Cabin and learn about Theodore Roosevelt's time in the Badlands through this 15-minute film.

"My home ranch lies on both sides of the Little Missouri, the nearest ranch man above me being about twelve, and the nearest below me about ten, miles distant." Theodore Roosevelt 1887

Theodore Roosevelt came to the North Dakota Badlands in September 1883 to hunt buffalo. By the end of his 15-day hunting trip, he had entered the cattle business with the purchase of the Chimney Butte Ranch, also known as the Maltese Cross Ranch.

Five months later his wife, Alice, and his mother died on the same day. Grief stricken, Roosevelt decided to leave the East and increase his interests in the cattle business. In March of 1884 he wrote to Bill Sewall, his hunting guide on an earlier hunting trip in Maine:

"I hope my Western venture turns out well. If it does, and I feel sure that you will do well for yourself by coming out with me, I shall take you and Dow (another Maine woodsman who had served as Roosevelt's guide) out next August. Of course it depends on how well the cattle have gotten through the winter. The weather has been very hard and I am afraid they have suffered somewhat; If the loss has been very heavy I will have to wait a year longer before going into it on a more extended scale. So, as yet, the plan is doubtful."

After attending the 1884 Republican convention in June, where the candidate he was backing lost, Roosevelt left for the Dakota Territories to look for solitude. His cattle had wintered very well so he decided to put in 1,000 more head and "make it my regular business." During that visit, Roosevelt selected the location for a second ranch, naming it the Elkhorn. He purchased the rights to the site, located thirty-five miles north of Medora, from the previous occupant for $400.00.

By mid-October Sewall and Dow had moved onto the site of the Elkhorn Ranch and were cutting and collecting cottonwood logs for the ranch house. Working through the winter, they completed the building by the spring of 1885. The house was 30 feet by 60 feet, with seven foot high walls, and contained eight rooms and a piazza (porch) along the east wall. Several other buildings were constructed on the site: a barn consisting of two 16 x 20 stables with a 12 foot roofed space connecting them; a cattle shed; chicken house; and a blacksmith shop.

In August 1885 Dow visited his home in Maine and returned to the Elkhorn with his wife and Mrs. Sewall, as well as the Sewalls' small daughter. In 1886 both women gave birth to sons at the ranch.

Sewall and Dow operated the ranch for Roosevelt until the fall of 1886 when they returned to Maine, after "squaring accounts" with Roosevelt. Roosevelt then turned the operation of the Elkhorn over to Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield, his managers and partners at the Maltese Cross Ranch.

After the disastrous winter of 1886-87, Roosevelt lost approximately 60% of his cattle. Although now living full time in New York, he continued to maintain both his ranches; the Elkhorn remaining his center of operation. After a late summer visit to the Elkhorn in 1890, Roosevelt apparently abandoned the ranch. On October 20 he wrote Sewall, " ... This is the last year I shall keep the ranch house open; I have just parted with Merrifield. Sylvane will take care of the cattle now."

Roosevelt sold the ranch and buildings to Sylvane Ferris in 1898. Gradually the buildings were stripped of their furnishings and, according to a local stockman, by 1901 "every scrap of the Elkhorn Ranch had disappeared with the exception of a couple of half rotted foundations."

In his writings Theodore Roosevelt often referred to the Elkhorn as his "home ranch." His vivid descriptions of it, and of ranch life, enable his readers to imagine how things must have been.

"My home ranch-house stands on the river brink. From the low, long veranda, shaded by leafy cotton-woods, one looks across sand bars and shallows to a strip of meadowland, behind which rises a line of sheer cliffs and grassy plateaus. This veranda is a pleasant place in the summer evenings when a cool breeze stirs along the river and blows in the faces of the tired men, who loll back in their rocking-chairs (what true American does not enjoy a rocking-chair?), book in hand--though they do not often read the books, but rock gently to and for, gazing sleepily out at the weird-looking buttes opposite, until their sharp outlines grow indistinct and purple in the after-glow of the sunset." From Hunting Trips of a Ranchman by Theodore Roosevelt

The house at Peaceful Valley Ranch is the only original ranch house remaining in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Guided horseback rides were a popular activity there from 1918 to 2014. Like many historic sites, Peaceful Valley Ranch has seen its share of residents and guests coming and going, has undergone changes that reflect the changing needs of its occupants, and stands as a tangible reminder of a bygone era.

In its early days, the land where Peaceful Valley Ranch is today changed hands quickly and ambiguously, for no one in those days legally owned the land and little documentation exists. The earliest Euro-American settler to live in the area that became the Peaceful Valley Ranch was Eldridge “Gerry” Paddock in 1883. Paddock shot wild game and sold it to the railroad, and became a close associate of the Marquis de Morès . Theodore Roosevelt first came to the badlands in September of 1883. In December of that year, Norman Lebo moved in and was the sole occupant of Paddock’s original 14’ x 16’ cabin by 1884.

Twenty-two-year-old Benjamin Lamb, whose wealthy Boston family bankrolled his western venture, purchased the rights to the land from Lebo in 1885. Lamb built the original barn, blacksmith shop, and the ranch house on the site, abandoning Paddock's cabin. The original ranch house was a simple 58’ x 22’ two-story structure. The attic space was accessible from the outside by a ladder on the east side of the house.

Lamb sold the property in 1890 to Joe Caughton and Tom Donohue, who sold it between 1896 and 1898 to George Burgess. Despite its many previous residents, Burgess was the first to file a homestead patent for the land. Burgess sold the property in 1915 to Harry W. Olsen. The Olsen family shared ownership of the property within the family for several years, and their ownership is perhaps the most influential for the modern age.

The Olsen ranch was unique for its time in that there were more horses than cattle and, in 1918, the Olsens started one of the first “dude ranches.” They took vacationers on horseback riding trips to scenic places in the area, such as the petrified forest, and day trips to other ranches. Other entertainment for guests included camping among the cottonwood trees adjacent to the ranch house, cookouts, branding, round-ups, and moonlight rides. A popular destination was the Neuen ranch for Mrs. Neuen's good cooking.

Guest facilities, including a cabin, were developed in 1920. In 1922, the ranch formally became known as the Peaceful Valley Ranch . Two years later, Carl Olsen became the sole owner of the property.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Carl Olsen was involved in the movement to create a national park in the badlands, including the land occupied by the Peaceful Valley Ranch. In 1925 and again in 1928, Olsen’s ranch was a major stop during grand promotional tours of the area for politicians and NPS representatives including Stephen Mather. At that time, the ranch property was not selected for inclusion as a national park.

Olsen ran the dude ranch at Peaceful Valley until he sold it to the federal government in 1936. The ranch house was then used as the headquarters of the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area. Between 1934 and 1939, the Peaceful Valley Ranch site also housed Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) staff. When Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park was established in 1947, the Peaceful Valley Ranch site was used as the park headquarters until the present Administration Building and visitor center were built in Medora in 1959. The building continued to house park staff until 1965.

In the 1960s, the National Park Service briefly considered tearing down the buildings on the ranch site in order to establish a new ranching demonstration area called the Longhorn Ranch. The plan never came to fruition and the historic buildings survived. In 1967, the park permitted a concessionaire to use the ranch property as a base of operations for guided horseback tours as the Olsen family had done many years before. The tradition continued with various concessionaires offering trail rides through the summer of 2014.

Peaceful Valley Ranch is an enduring reminder of the open range cattle ranching era of the 1880s and the golden age of dude ranches. Although several structures on the site have come and gone, and the ranch house has been expanded and renovated throughout its life, the ranch property is remarkably intact and a rare reminder of the architecture of the period in which it was built. Three of the surviving buildings, including the ranch house, are included on the National Register of Historic Places. After decades of use as a trail riding facility, the ranch buildings were in need of repair. While the ranch was not in use, the park made the necessary repairs, completed recently, and are thinking creatively about future uses for the site.

Theodore Roosevelt was all of these things and more. His life was one of constant challenge and adventure. Few know that he worked as a rancher during his mid-20s; fewer still know the influence that time had on the future leader of our nation. This section of the website will help you learn more about Roosevelt's time in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory, and how his personal experiences influenced his political accomplishments.

When a young Theodore Roosevelt stepped from his train car in September 1883, he had only a dim idea of what lay before him in the remote settlement of Little Missouri. Roosevelt’s interest in hunting a buffalo, as well as some personal interest in the lifestyle of the West, had led him to this remote outpost.

With his pregnant wife Alice at home 2,400 miles away, Roosevelt stood alone in the dark as the train lurched away toward Montana. He knew no one in the small settlement before him, and was unsure how the locals might receive him. The four-eyed New York dude was immersed in a world he had only read about, a place that bristled with distrust of outsiders, especially Easterners.

Roosevelt could not have imagined how his adventure in this unfamiliar environment would forever alter the course of his life.

William Wingate Sewall and Wilmot Dow first met Theodore Roosevelt in the 1870s, when they served as hunting guides for Roosevelt in Maine. Although they were skilled outdoorsmen, hunters, and woodsmen, that hardly qualified them for work as ranch hands; Sewall was more comfortable riding logs than he was riding horses. Nevertheless, when Roosevelt asked his two trusted companions to manage his new Elkhorn Ranch in 1884, they agreed.

Sewall designed the Elkhorn Ranch House, and he and Dow built up Roosevelt’s home ranch site in 1884-1885. Their contract, similar to that of Roosevelt’s other ranch hands, Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield , allowed them to manage the ranch and sell cattle as they saw fit but not so as to reduce the herd below its size at the inception of the ranch. They were to keep 1/3 of the proceeds of any sales while Roosevelt kept the other 2/3, a slightly worse deal that Roosevelt had previously worked out with Ferris and Merrifield at a 50/50 split. Upon his arrival, Sewall was concerned that the badlands did not seem to be a good place for ranching cattle , but Roosevelt was optimistic.

Sewall and Dow were trustworthy companions for Roosevelt, and Roosevelt spent most of his time in the badlands with them at the Elkhorn Ranch. Their loyalty was undeniable. When it appeared for a brief time that Roosevelt might have to duel the Marquis de Morès , it was Sewall who offered to act as Roosevelt’s second. When thieves stole Roosevelt’s boat from the Elkhorn Ranch in early spring 1886, it was Sewall and Dow who built a new boat and accompanied Roosevelt downriver to capture the desperate men despite the dangers.

In 1885, Sewall and Dow brought their wives to live at the Elkhorn Ranch. Mrs. Sewall was toting a toddler named Kitty, who was about the same age as Roosevelt’s daughter Alice. The women kept up the ranch house and did most of the cooking and cleaning. They also tended gardens in the inhospitable badlands soil. Both Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Dow bore sons in August 1886. As the families grew, Roosevelt began to feel somewhat of a stranger in his own ranch home. He married Edith Kermit Carow later that year. While honeymooning in Europe, Roosevelt was unaware of the toll the deadly combination of overgrazing and a ferocious winter was taking on his cattle. By the time Roosevelt returned to the United States, he had lost over half his herd. He decided to close down the Elkhorn.

After the Elkhorn Ranch closed permanently in 1887, the historical record for Sewall and Dow runs thin. Wilmot Dow died from an unexplained, acute illness at a fairly young age in 1891. Bill Sewall returned to Island Falls, Maine and did not see Roosevelt again for sixteen years though they exchanged letters from time to time. In the interim, Roosevelt had written ten major literary works, fathered five children, fought with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, served as New York Police Commissioner, U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, U.S. Vice President, and was inaugurated the 26th President of the United States following the assassination of William McKinley. Shortly after assuming the Presidency, TR invited Sewall to the White House. On seeing Theodore Roosevelt at the White House for the first time in sixteen remarkable and momentous years, Sewall wrote the following:

"[President Roosevelt] was not there when we arrived, for it was in the afternoon and he was out riding. By and by we heard a door open, then we heard his quick step in the hall, and it was for all the world like the way he used to come down the long hall at Elkhorn Ranch; and when he came into the room in his riding-clothes it seemed as though these sixteen years that lay between had never been and we were all back in the happy ranch days again."

Ranch clothing worn by Bill Sewall and a side saddle used by his wife are on display at the South Unit Visitor Center, as is a model of the Elkhorn Ranch House. The Elkhorn Ranch Site is protected within the park, and is accessible to visitors willing to take the time to travel to the remote location.

Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield were ranch hands at the Maltese Cross Ranch when Theodore Roosevelt first arrived in the badlands in 1883. Originally from New Brunswick, Canada, the two cowboys were tending a herd of 150 head of cattle on shares for investors from Minnesota, a common practice in those days. Merrifield made extra money by providing passenger trains with fresh venison. Both were known for being simple, quiet, and tough men.

Ferris and Merrifield were understandably skeptical of Roosevelt upon meeting him as he prepared for his initial buffalo hunting trip. Roosevelt wanted to borrow a horse for his hunting excursion. The cowboys knew nothing of the outsider, did not trust anyone who wore spectacles, and certainly did not want to loan a horse to a man they had only just met. For all they knew, the dude would ride off with their valuable horse. They finally agreed to loan the horse, but only after Roosevelt offered to buy the horse instead.

During his hunting expedition, Roosevelt held lengthy conversations about cattle ranching with another newcomer to the badlands, Gregor Lang, before deciding to invest in his own ranch. Roosevelt asked Lang to tend his cattle, but Lang politely refused and suggested Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield would be good ranch hands instead.

Shortly thereafter, Roosevelt, Ferris, and Merrifield met in Lang’s cabin to discuss the proposition. Roosevelt offered to buy the cattle the men were already tending and handed over a check for $14,000. Merrifield later recalled that when he asked Roosevelt if he wanted a receipt, Roosevelt said, “Oh, that’s all right.”

The two cowboys set to work building the Maltese Cross Cabin during the winter of 1883-1884. Following the death of his wife Alice on February 14, 1884, Roosevelt invested in a second ranch, the Elkhorn , and hired two trusted Maine woodsmen to run it, Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow . Roosevelt preferred the Elkhorn, which he called his “home ranch,” which might have come as a disappointment to Ferris and Merrifield. When Roosevelt visited the Maltese Cross Ranch, Ferris and Merrifield would climb up into the attic to sleep at night, giving Roosevelt ample living space and a private bedroom on the main floor.

Ferris and Merrifield were capable ranch hands. In the spring, they were busy with the round-up, as range cattle from all over the area were brought together and sorted out to be counted, branded, and sold. As Roosevelt’s representatives, they were periodically sent to Minnesota to buy more cattle for Roosevelt’s ranches as TR added $82,500 to his original investment of $14,000 between 1884 and 1885. Roosevelt trusted their judgment in all matters of managing the cattle ranch, including selling some of the livestock at their discretion. They were also the ranch hands who stayed on the longest, tending the remainder of Roosevelt’s cattle after the Elkhorn Ranch closed in 1887. The two men worked together until Merrifield quit in 1892. Ferris continued on alone until Roosevelt finally sold out in 1898. Sylvane and his brother Joe Ferris were two of a handful of residents that remained in Medora after the cattle ranching collapse of 1887.

Though the cattle ranching boom is a distant memory, the handiwork of Ferris and Merrifield lives on in the form of the Maltese Cross Cabin. If it had not been for them, Roosevelt might not have procured the horse for his thrilling hunting trip, and Roosevelt might not have found someone to run a cattle ranch for him. No one else showed much trust in Roosevelt. In a way, Ferris and Merrifield’s cooperation with Roosevelt allowed him to have an experience that, in the end, was very influential in the young politician’s life, philosophy, and politics.

A rifle given as a gift to Bill Merrifield from Theodore Roosevelt commemorating an 1884 hunting trip in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming is on display at the South Unit Visitor Center. The Maltese Cross Cabin, which Ferris and Merrifield constructed, is open for public viewing year-round.

Antoine Amédée Marie Vincent Manca de Vallambrosa, more often called by his title, the Marquis de Morès, was an entrepreneurial Frenchman and a key player in the North Dakota badlands in the 1880s, coincident with Theodore Roosevelt’s ranching days. The Marquis was as well known for grandiose moneymaking schemes as for his skill as a rifleman. His wife, Medora Von Hoffman, the daughter of a wealthy Wall Street banker of German descent, was the source of his wealth. Using the wealth of the Von Hoffmans, he founded a meatpacking industry on the Northern Great Plains that he theorized would result in higher quality meat at lower prices for consumers.

On April 1, 1883, the Marquis de Morès claimed a six square mile area of Little Missouri river bottom and founded the town of Medora, which he named after his wife. He founded his town intentionally close to the lawless settlement of Little Missouri as an affront to its unwelcoming residents. He built a slaughterhouse, or abbatoir , where cattle and other livestock could be slaughtered, dressed, and loaded onto refrigerated rail cars and shipped to markets in the east. As his economic theory went, cattle that came straight off the range to slaughter would be of higher quality than those who were shipped live by train to the Chicago stockyards, losing weight while in transit. The business intended to capitalize on the booming cattle ranching industry in the Dakota Territory in the 1880s. For a variety of reasons, including a lack of attention by the Marquis as he continually looked for new investments and his legal troubles stemming from the shooting of Riley Luffsey, the de Morès meatpacking empire never saw its full potential before it closed in 1886.

The Marquis de Morès and Theodore Roosevelt were two men with extraordinarily large personalities, and, although relations between them were generally cordial, they occasionally clashed. Twice, they had disagreements over land rights, and once Roosevelt backed out of the sale of some of his cattle when the Marquis lowered the price per pound from the agreed upon 6¢ to 5.5¢. While the Marquis was in jail during his trial for the killing of Riley Luffsey (he was later acquitted), he shot a letter to Roosevelt on September 3, 1885 that expressed concern that Roosevelt’s employee and friend Joe Ferris had been “very active against me and has been instrumental in getting me indicted,” and asked “Is this done by your order?” The letter closed with the threat, "If you are my enemy I want to know it...between gentlemen it is easy to settle matters of that sort directly."

Roosevelt, in fact, had not acted against the Marquis, but if he could not convince the Marquis of his innocence, the disagreement might very well have been settled in a duel, implied by the word "directly," in the Marquis's letter. Privately, Bill Sewall offered to be Roosevelt's second in the duel TR wanted to avoid. Carefully, TR wrote back to the Marquis, “Most emphatically I am not your enemy; if I were you would know it, for I would be an open one, and would not have asked you to my house nor gone to yours." TR closed that he was "ever ready to hold myself accountable for anything I have said or done." TR's tactful response cooled tensions between the two giants of Medora. The Marquis backed out of any direct confrontation with Roosevelt.

The Marquis's influence on Medora has been lasting, though his attitudes and actions serve to highlight how popular Theodore Roosevelt was with the people by comparison. The Marquis tended to use his wealth to inflict his will on people whether or not they agreed with him. He founded his own town to spite the settlers who did not like him, and was one of the first in the area to put up barbed wire fences, which irked free range cattlemen. Theodore Roosevelt showed more concern for the area and its people, organizing Medora’s first Stockmen’s Association, dealing fairly with the locals, and pursuing justice as deputy sheriff. Despite their differences, the Marquis de Morès’s legacy is not that of an antagonist to Roosevelt, but of a bold dreamer who embodied the spirit of the Wild West.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota operates the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site , located near the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s South Unit in Medora. The site is composed of three separate parts: the Chateau de Mores, De Mores Memorial Park in downtown Medora, and Chimney Park. The Chateau de Mores site includes a visitor center, museum, and guided tours of the Marquis's home. De Mores Memorial Park features a statue of the Marquis. Chimney Park, where a picnic area and ruins of the abbatoir are located, stand as a quiet reminder of the Marquis's unfulfilled dreams.

Note: This article is split into four parts. Click the links at the bottom of each page to continue to the next section.

Among the numerous engagements between American Indians and the U.S. Army in North Dakota, several encounters occurred near modern Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. Two notable campaigns were those of General Alfred Sully in 1864 and General Alfred Terry and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer in 1876, both against the Sioux.

The first wave of hostilities in western Dakota was rooted a year earlier in Minnesota. In 1862 and 1863, members of several bands of Sioux including the Sisseton, Wahpeton, and Santee attacked numerous targets near the Minnesota River in south-central Minnesota. In the fighting, more than 600 Minnesotan civilians and army personnel were killed. Partly in response to these attacks known as the Minnesota Sioux Uprising, and despite the Civil War raging elsewhere in the United States, the U.S. Army retaliated against the Sioux in 1863 and 1864 against many groups of Sioux both responsible and not involved in the hostilities in Minnesota. Brigadier General Alfred Sully led the U.S. Army in its campaign in the western portion of the Dakota Territory in 1864.

Fanny Kelly, a white American, was captured by the Sioux in a raid in the summer of 1864 prior to Sully’s campaign. Her captors were in turn pursued by Sully. Kelly’s account offers an interesting perspective of the Sioux at that time, although she confuses many of the details in her narrative. “The Indians felt that the proximity of the troops and their inroads through their best hunting-grounds would prove disastrous to them and their future hopes of prosperity, and soon again they were making preparations for battle,” she wrote.

In July of 1864, General Sully led two brigades – approximately 2,200 men from Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota – to the Killdeer Mountains, about twenty miles southeast of today’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit. There, a village of several bands of Sioux, about 8,000 people all together, were encamped. Sully dismounted his troops into a parallelogram formation and advanced on the village on the afternoon of July 28, 1864.

Warriors led by Sitting Bull, Gall, and Inkpaduta sparred with Sully’s formation to little effect as the army advanced toward the village of 1,600 lodges. For warriors like Sitting Bull, it was the first battle in which they experienced cannons and a large number of guns. Fanny Kelly, who observed the battle from among the Sioux women and children hurriedly retreating from Sully’s troops, recalled, “General Sully’s soldiers appeared in close proximity, and I could see them charging on the Indians, who, according to their habits of warfare, skulked behind trees, sending their bullets and arrows vigorously forward into the enemy’s ranks.”

Lt. David Kingsbury recorded his perspective of the battle from the other side of the field. “The Indians made repeated charges at the full speed of their ponies, keeping up meanwhile their unearthly yelling. In these charges many of them were killed, while no casualties occurred on our side.”

Once within artillery range, Sully pounded the village with two mountain howitzers until sundown, holding his troops back to avoid hand to hand combat. The village was abandoned.

The next day, Sully’s troops destroyed the large stores of food, tipis, and supplies that had been left behind. Lt. Kingsbury reported “The amount of supplies, including pemmican, jerked buffalo meat, dried berries, and buffalo robes, that was burned could not be estimated.”

“We had left, in our compulsory haste,” Fanny Kelly recalled, “immense quantities of plunder, even lodges standing, which proved immediate help, but in the end a terrible loss. General Sully with his whole troop stopped to destroy the property, thus giving us an opportunity to escape, which saved us from falling into his hands, as otherwise we inevitably would have done.”

The several bands of Sioux split up after the fight. The Sans Arcs, with Fanny Kelly, fled west into the badlands, eluding Sully for the moment but parting with much of their supplies and energy. “On, and still on, we were forced to fly to a place known among them as the Bad Lands... The desolate, ruinous scene might well represent the entrance to the infernal shades… I was startled by the strange and wonderful sights,” recalled Fanny Kelly. “The terrible scarcity of water and grass urged us forward, and General Sully’s army in the rear gave us no rest.”

When Theodore Roosevelt came to the Dakota Territory in 1883, the North Dakota badlands region was still a place where most of the land was not privately owned, the prairie was fenceless, and the game was plentiful. During the few years he spent here, Roosevelt saw the area change dramatically as ranches, homes, businesses, roads, and towns were developed.

Early settlers were not the first to call the badlands their home. Echoes of a more distant past still ring in Theodore Roosevelt National Park: a bison processing camp, an arrowhead placed ceremoniously on a cliff ledge, a ring of rocks, the remnants of a lodge. Who were the people who inhabited this forbidding land long before Roosevelt's time? Why did they come here?

The North Dakota Badlands present many challenges and opportunities, certainly reasons why Roosevelt connected with the land so deeply. The badlands with their ecological diversity and unique geology provided the means for ancient peoples to gather plant materials, procure clays to make paints, find water, and to hunt animals for subsistence. However, the steep terrain and the slick clay soil made travel as exceedingly difficult then as it can be now. The badlands were hardly an inviting place to live, and the archaeological record suggests that long term occupation was impractical.

Modern interpretations of prehistoric cultures by tribal elders tell us that the difficulties surrounding life in the badlands and the inspiring landforms made the site spiritually significant in many ways. People considered the buttes the homes of many animal spirits and came to the badlands on vision quests and for other rituals in addition to hunting and gathering.

Our current knowledge of the badlands' prehistoric past is very limited because only a handful of artifacts have been found. These items indicate that the badlands region has been inhabited for thousands of years. Archaeologists have dated artifacts found elsewhere in North Dakota back to 11,000 BCE, but, so far, no objects of that age have been found in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Ancient artifacts have not been found in the park either because the land was not inhabited or because erosion has altered the landscape and obliterated or obscured these items. Artifacts from the Archaic Tradition (5,500 BCE – 500 CE) have been identified in the park including a spear point made of Knife River flint and several projectile points. Projectile points and cord-roughened pot shards indicate the presence of people of the Plains Woodland Tradition (1 – 1,200 CE). More recently, the pre-Columbian peoples in the Late Prehistoric / Plains Village Tradition also appear in the archaeological record in the form of a wide variety of projectile points, pot shards of several designs, and the remains of a bison processing camp. Presumably, the people who used these tools came to hunt and perhaps gather other materials, but there is no firm evidence of any permanent or long-term occupation.

Several sites from the Historic Period (1742 – 1880s CE), that coincide with oral tradition, have been found in the park including stone rings, a rock cairn, and four conical, timbered lodges. Two of the lodges, presumably used by men engaged in seasonal eagle trapping, are still standing today. These structures are astonishing reminders of how recently traditional societies used this land as their ancestors had done for generations. One archaeological interpretation indicated that the use of the badlands for hunting, gathering, and spiritual pursuits, though undertaken by numerous cultures and groups over millennia, had not significantly changed over that entire time span.

A rich diversity of cultures utilized the badlands region during historic times. The most significant groups were the Mandan and Hidatsa, whose traditional bison hunting grounds included the Little Missouri River basin. West of the badlands, the Hidatsa’s close relatives, the Crow, also utilized the badlands at the eastern edge of their territory. Many other tribes including the Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, Chippewa, Cree, Sioux, and Rocky Boy came to western North Dakota in the early 19th century mainly for hunting and trading, often at Fort Union Trading Post. These groups did not necessarily seek out the badlands in the way the Mandan, Hidatsa, or Crow might. The Assiniboine occupied a large area of the Northern Great Plains north of the Missouri River. The Arikara entered western and central North Dakota and several bands of the Lakota (Sioux) expanded their range into western North Dakota in the 19 th century. Each group has its own history, traditions, spirituality, stories, and uses associated with the badlands. Eagle trapping, bison hunting, and other spiritual purposes were among the traditional uses.

Eagle trapping was important to the Mandan and Hidatsa culture. The process of eagle trapping was intensely spiritual, following certain social, spiritual, and astrological protocols. Even today, many of the specifics of the ritual are known only to those who have the rights to the knowledge within the tribes. Traditionally, only men with rights to perform eagle trapping were allowed to perform the ritual, and then only during specific times of the year as determined by astrology and presumably to coincide with eagle migration. Preparation including fasting and prayer were essential prerequisites to the act of trapping an eagle.

To trap an eagle, a man built a pit in a location of his choosing and covered it with a lattice of brush and grass. On top of the covering he placed a skinned rabbit as bait. The man waited inside the pit for an eagle to come to the rabbit and then sprang up to grab the eagle by its feet. Typically, the man would take select feathers from the wings and/or tail and then release the eagle unharmed. If eagles were abundant, he might kill one to make use of an entire wing or the tail.

Bison were another critically important resource for traditional societies, and the badlands offered opportunities to hunt them effectively. The steep badlands terrain made it possible to hunt bison without firing a shot. All that was required of the hunters was to cause the bison to stampede over a steep drop-off. A few sites within the park are known to have been used for this purpose, including the remains of a bison processing area. Plains peoples had uses for every part of the bison. The most important parts were the meat for food and the hide for clothing, blankets, and tipi coverings. Other parts of the animal were used for tools, medicine, toys, decoration, rituals, and more.

People have come to the badlands for a wide variety of spiritual purposes. The buttes throughout western North Dakota served as waypoints for traveling tribes and these striking points on the landscape were important in their spirituality. For many groups, the buttes were the homes of animal spirits, and a journey to a specific butte might entail medicine-making rituals specific to that bluff’s animal spirit.

The badlands were also spiritually significant. Isolated, steep-sloped bluffs were excellent vision quest sites. Vision quests took many forms, but generally involved isolation, prayer, and abstinence from food and water while expecting a vision from the spirit world.

Springs were the preferred place to collect colored clays used to make paints for a warrior's face, horse, and home. Paint was considered a powerful medicine. Some springs were used for very specific purposes: for drinking, to collect a certain material, or to perform a specific ritual or ceremony. Evidence from these activities is scarce and largely based on oral tradition kept alive by today’s tribal members.

Today, Theodore Roosevelt National Park remains a significant place for many Native Americans whose association with the land is rooted deeply in the past. A modern visitor experiencing the park might look upon the landscape with the same sense of fascination, wonderment, and reverence that these traditional peoples did, even though their spiritual beliefs and values may vary. On a visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, you enter more than a landscape of unique scenery and abundant wildlife – you enter an ancient home filled with legends, lore, and sacred places.

Source: Zedeño, M. N. Cultural Affiliation Statement and Ethnographic Resource Assessment Study for Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. The University of Arizona, Tucson. 2006.

Suggested Websites: Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site – An extraordinarily important trading post for Northern Great Plains tribes at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site – The center of Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara cultures near the confluence of the Heart and Knife Rivers.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), established by Congress on March 31, 1933, provided jobs for young, unemployed men during the Great Depression. Over its 9-year lifespan, the CCC employed about 3 million men nationwide. The CCC made valuable contributions to forest management, flood control, conservation projects, and the development of state and national parks, forests, and historic sites. In return, the men received the benefits of education and training, a small paycheck, and the dignity of honest work. Three CCC companies operated in the North Dakota badlands between 1934 and 1941, contributing to projects that today’s visitors can still appreciate.

The North Dakota State Historical Society sponsored the three CCC companies that worked in the badlands from 1934 to 1941. All three CCC companies in the badlands arrived in 1934. About 200 men were assigned to each company.

When CCC Companies 2767, 2771, and 2772 arrived, the men lived in tents until buildings could be erected at their camps. When completed, each camp included a full complement of buildings: barracks, mess hall, recreational hall, bath house, latrine, supply, garage, and headquarters. The camp complex also included its own classrooms, hospital, barber shop, post office, canteen, and sometimes a theater. The buildings were frame structures heated by wood and coal burning pot-belly stoves.

Company 2767’s camp was located on the west bank of the Little Missouri River in what is now the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park from July, 1934 to 1937. Companies 2771 and 2772 established camps adjacent to one another in 1934 on the north bank of the Little Missouri River near what is now the entrance to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Company 2771 moved out in 1935, but Company 2772 remained until the fall of 1939. In 1939, Company 2771 moved to a site on the east bank of the Little Missouri River just south of Jones Creek, which they occupied until November, 1941.

The CCC sought to provide the maximum opportunity for labor at a minimum cost for materials and equipment. With little more than strong backs, shovels, and picks, the CCC built roads, trails, culverts, and structures. When building structures, the CCC utilized native materials, such as the local sandstone, which they quarried themselves with star drills, sledge hammers, muscle, and sweat.

In the badlands, the CCC, along with the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), worked on numerous projects. Even as the men were working on these construction projects, it was unclear who would ultimately be responsible for managing these recreation areas; Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park was not established until 1947.

In the North Unit of the park, the CCC built the two picnic shelters in the Juniper campground area and the River Bend Overlook shelter. In the South Unit, the CCC built the now-abandoned East Entrance Station, the entrance pylons, and portions of the park's roads and trails. The CCC also built structures at the nearby Chateau de Mores State Historic Site.

The CCC was open to unemployed men ages 17 to 23.5 who were U.S. citizens. Enrollees served 6-month terms, and were allowed to re-enroll at the end of each term up to a maximum of two years. A CCC worker’s salary was $30 a month, most of which the men sent home to their families. Meals, lodging, clothing, medical, and dental care were all free for enrollees. The men generally spent $5 to $8 of their monthly salary on toiletries, postage, haircuts, and occasional entertainment. The few enrollees promoted to Assistant Leader and Leader positions earned a bit more, $36 and $45 per month, respectively.

While the CCC men lived and worked on a regimented schedule, there was time for continuing their education through evening classes and for leisure activities on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. Living and working together, the men learned to get along. Some formed life-long friendships.

As the generation who participated in the CCC passes, the legacy of their work lives on. When you visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park and drive the roads, stop at the River Bend Overlook, or hike out to the old East Entrance Station. Take a few moments to reflect on the CCC, the men who labored on these projects, and the investment America made during its most desperate economic period. The Civilian Conservation Corps' hard work all those years ago still continues to pay off today.

Though it may seem like a typical tall tale of the Old West, Theodore Roosevelt once found himself in a bar fight in Mingusville, MT (now Wibaux, MT), 35 miles west of Medora. Roosevelt never specified the exact date of the event, but the incident likely occurred in the summer of 1884. That year, Roosevelt was still relatively unknown in the area and grieving the loss of his wife and mother earlier that year.

Roosevelt had been riding for his own enjoyment through the badlands and the prairies of western Dakota Territory and eastern Montana Territory for many days when he arrived at the Nolan’s Hotel in Mingusville. There, he encountered a bully who, like others had done who did not know Roosevelt well, teased him about his glasses. Roosevelt described the incident in his own words in his autobiography:

“It was late in the evening when I reached the place. I heard one or two shots in the bar-room as I came up, and I disliked going in. But there was nowhere else to go, and it was a cold night. Inside the room were several men, who, including the bartender, were wearing the kind of smile worn by men who are making believe to like what they don’t like. A shabby individual in a broad hat with a cocked gun in each hand was walking up and down the floor talking with strident profanity. He had evidently been shooting at the clock, which had two or three holes in its face.

…As soon as he saw me he hailed me as ‘Four Eyes,’ in reference to my spectacles, and said, ‘Four Eyes is going to treat.’ I joined in the laugh and got behind the stove and sat down, thinking to escape notice. He followed me, however, and though I tried to pass it off as a jest this merely made him more offensive, and he stood leaning over me, a gun in each hand, using very foul language… In response to his reiterated command that I should set up the drinks, I said, ‘Well, if I’ve got to, I’ve got to,’ and rose, looking past him.

As I rose, I struck quick and hard with my right just to one side of the point of his jaw, hitting with my left as I straightened out, and then again with my right. He fired the guns, but I do not know whether this was merely a convulsive action of his hands, or whether he was trying to shoot at me. When he went down he struck the corner of the bar with his head… if he had moved I was about to drop on my knees; but he was senseless. I took away his guns, and the other people in the room, who were now loud in their denunciation of him, hustled him out and put him in the shed.”

Before coming to Dakota, Roosevelt was a successful boxer at Harvard. Roosevelt maintained an interest in various martial arts throughout his life, including judo, kendo, jiu-jitsu, boxing, and wrestling, practicing many of them at the White House.

Theodore Roosevelt was particularly fond of retelling the story of his pursuit and capture of the boat thieves in the badlands. He put the story on paper in his 1888 book Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail . In early spring of 1886, just as the ice was beginning to break up on the Little Missouri River, three thieves cut Roosevelt’s boat from its mooring at the Elkhorn Ranch and took it downriver. Roosevelt, out of personal pride and duty as a Billings County Deputy Sheriff, chased after them with his ranch hands Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow .

As you read the story, imagine the thrill of the entire event for Roosevelt. A spring flood is no trivial matter, and navigating a river jammed with ice and powerful currents is treacherous work. The weather was viciously cold. The men he was chasing were armed and dangerous. How might you have reacted to the theft of a replaceable boat when capturing the thieves was so time-consuming and dangerous? The story begins with the ice breaking up on the Little Missouri River at the Elkhorn Ranch in March, 1886:

“It moved slowly, its front forming a high, crumbling wall, and creaming over like an immense breaker on the seashore; we could hear the dull roaring and crunching as it ploughed down the river-bed long before it came in sight round the bend above us. The ice kept piling and tossing up in the middle, and not only heaped itself above the level of the banks, but also in many places spread out on each side beyond them, grinding against the cottonwood-trees in front of the ranch veranda…."

“At night the snowy, glittering masses, tossed up and heaped into fantastic forms, shone like crystal in the moonlight; but they soon lost their beauty, becoming fouled and blackened, and at the same time melted and settled down until it was possible to clamber out across the slippery hummocks."

"We had brought out a clinker-built boat especially to ferry ourselves over the river when it was high, and were keeping our ponies on the opposite side…. This boat had already proved very useful and now came in handier than ever, as without it we could take no care of our horses. We kept it on the bank, tied to a tree, and every day would carry it or slide it across the hither ice bank, usually with not a little tumbling and scrambling on our part, lower it gently into the swift current, pole it across to the ice on the farther bank, and then drag it over that…”

On the other side, Roosevelt discovered evidence of mountain lions hunting deer among the bluffs. He followed the trail, but, after losing the trail, he headed back, determined to hunt the mountain lions the next day.

“But we never carried out our intentions, for next morning one of my men, who was out before breakfast, came back to the house with the startling news that our boat was gone – stolen, for he brought with him the end of the rope with which it had been tied, evidently cut off with a sharp knife; and also a red woollen mitten with a leather palm, which he had picked up on the ice. "

"We had no doubt as to who had stolen it; for whoever had done so had certainly gone down the river in it, and the only other thing in the shape of a boat on the Little Missouri was a small flat-bottomed scow in the possession of three hard characters who lived in a shack, or hut, some twenty miles above us, and whom we had shrewdly suspected for some time of wishing to get out of the country, as certain of the cattlemen had begun openly to threaten to lynch them. They belonged to a class that always holds sway during the raw youth of a frontier community, and the putting down of which is the first step toward decent government…."

"The three men we suspected had long been accused – justly or unjustly – of being implicated both in cattle-killing and in that worst of frontier crimes, horse-stealing; it was only by an accident that they had escaped the clutches of the vigilantes the preceding fall. Their leader was a well-built fellow named Finnigan, who had long red hair reaching to his shoulders, and always wore a broad hat and a fringed buckskin shirt. He was rather a hard case, and had been chief actor in a number of shooting scrapes. The other two were a half-breed, a stout, muscular man, and an old German, whose viciousness was of the weak and shiftless type….We had little doubt that it was they who had taken our boat…”

"Accordingly we at once set to work in our turn to build a flat-bottomed scow wherein to follow them….In any wild country where the power of law is little felt or heeded, and where every one has to rely upon himself for protection, men soon get to feel that it is in the highest degree unwise to submit to any wrong…no matter what cost of risk or trouble. To submit tamely and meekly to theft or to any other injury is to invite almost certain repetition of the offense, in a place where self-reliant hardihood and the ability to hold one’s own under all circumstances rank as the first of virtues.”

"The next eight days were as irksome and monotonous as any I ever spent: there is very little amusement in combining the functions of a sheriff with those of an arctic explorer. The weather kept as cold as ever."

"We had to be additionally cautious on account of being in the Indian country, having worked down past Killdeer Mountains, where some of my cowboys had run across a band of Sioux – said to be Tetons – the year before. Very probably the Indians would not have harmed us anyhow, but as we were hampered by the prisoners, we preferred not meeting them; nor did we, though we saw plenty of fresh signs, and found, to our sorrow, that they had just made a grand hunt all down the river, and had killed or driven off almost every head of game in the country through which we were passing."

"…If the time was tedious to us, it must have seemed never-ending to our prisoners, who had nothing to do but to lie still and read, or chew the bitter cud of their reflections…. They had quite a stock of books, some of a rather unexpected kind. Dime novels and the inevitable ‘History of the James Brothers’… As for me, I had brought with me ‘Anna Karénina,’ and my surroundings were quite grey enough to harmonize well with Tolstoï."

Low on supplies by the time they reached the C Diamond ranch, Roosevelt, Sewall and Dow decided to split up; Sewall and Dow would continue downriver and Roosevelt would march the prisoners overland to Dickinson. Before Sewall and Dow proceeded downriver, Roosevelt borrowed a pony and rode to the nearest ranch, where he hired the settler to drive his prairie schooner with “two bronco mares.” The settler “could hardly understand why I took so much bother with the thieves instead of hanging them offhand.” Roosevelt “soon found the safest plan was to put the prisoners in the wagon and myself walk behind with the inevitable Winchester."

"Accordingly I trudged steadily the whole time behind the wagon through the ankle-deep mud. It was a gloomy walk. Hour after hour went by always the same, while I plodded along through the dreary landscape – hunger, cold, and fatigue struggling with a sense of dogged, weary resolution…."

“So, after thirty-six hours’ sleeplessness, I was most heartily glad when we at last jolted into the long, straggling main street of Dickinson, and I was able to give my unwilling companions into the hands of the sheriff. Under the laws of Dakota I received my fees as a deputy sheriff for making the three arrests, and also mileage for the three hundred odd miles gone over – a total of some fifty dollars.”

That Roosevelt went to such lengths to bring these three criminals to justice was uncommon in his time and place. Such magnanimity was not overlooked by the captives. Writing to Roosevelt from prison some time later, Mike Finnigan closed a letter, “P.S. Should you stop over at Bismarck this fall make a call to the Prison. I should be glad to meet you.”

Theodore Roosevelt National Park's habitat diversity provides homes and food sources for abundant bird life. More than 185 different bird species may be seen in the park at different times of the year. Most of the park's birds are migratory, meaning they move around from one season to the next in search of food, nesting sites, and the right kind of climate. Some birds are adapted to the cold North Dakota winter and may be found year-round in the park.

Some notable year-round residents include golden eagles, wild turkeys, black-capped chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, and great-horned owls. A great variety of migratory birds pass through the park in spring and fall, including white-throated sparrows and huge flocks of sandhill cranes. Summer migrants include insect-eating birds such as flycatchers, warblers, and swallows. Some birds migrate south to winter in the park including juncos and redpolls.

Grab your binoculars, your favorite field guide, and see what Theodore Roosevelt National Park's birds are up to! A bird list is availabe in the Visitor Center.

The topography of the badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park provides for a surprising diversity in plant life. From the sunny and drier south faces of buttes to their forested and cooler north slopes, from floodplains to grasslands , and in prairie dog towns, over 400 species of plants have been identified within the park. As many as 500 species of plants may inhabit the park. What will you discover?

The broad palette of plant life sustains a bountiful wildlife population in the park. Large grazing mammals including bison , pronghorn, and wild horses can often be found eating grasses. Deer and elk graze in the grasslands and browse on woodier plants. Smaller mammals like cottontail rabbits, least chipmunks, voles, and mice feed on the plants and the berries and seeds the plants produce. Prairie dogs have a noticeable effect on the plants near their towns, fostering the growth of fast-growing forbs over other plants because of the rodent's continuous grazing.

A wide variety of birds benefit from plants, their berries and seeds, and the insects the plants support. Warblers eat insects attracted to the flowering plants, a wide variety of sparrows and other birds eat the seeds, and birds including cedar waxwings and Townsend's solitaires eat berries.

The plants that provide food for many of the park's animals must be protected from overgrazing and from being overrun by non-native plants. To do so, park officials study the effects of animals on the plant communities and initiate wildlife management actions when necessary. Park officials also track and combat non-native plant threats in order to protect the native ecosystem.

Please practice Leave No Trace principles. Picking flowers or collecting plants are prohibited within the park.

Resource management is a fundamental function of the National Park Service. Theodore Roosevelt National Park uses a science-based approach to protect the park's resources. Resource management extends to a number of interrelated areas of interest including:

Park service management philosophy allows for self-regulation of ecosystems within the the park whenever possible. With the absence of many natural predators, species such as bison and elk must be actively managed by the park. Roundups and culling methods are all utilized to manage animal populations.

Proactive and research-based approaches to wildlife management help establish and maintain the wildlife visitors enjoy in the park today. Native animals including pronghorn, elk, bighorn sheep, and bison have all been successfully reintroduced in the park since its establishment in 1947. A team of scientists, geographic information systems technicians, and resource management professionals work together to better understand the park's wildlife and the issues affecting them. These issues include:

The park has active management programs for its several large mammal populations. You can learn specifics of these programs by clicking on the links below:

Under North Dakota state law, livestock animals are not permitted to "run at large." Livestock animals include bison, cattle and horses. The South and North Units of the park are fenced to prohibit the movement of these animals across park boundaries. Incursions by these animals onto private lands should be reported to the park . Other animals including deer, elk, and pronghorn are able to pass over, under, or through the fence.

NPS / Jeff Van Hooser The park has two campgrounds (both have one group site and many standard sites) and one group site for camping with horses. All campgrounds are primitive (no hookups, no showers).

Reservations The park cannot accept reservations directly. All reservations must be made through recreation.gov. The following links will direct you to the appropriate recreation.gov pages, or you can call recreation.gov at 1 (877) 444-6777. Cottonwood Campground Cottonwood Campground - Standard Campsites Sites may be reserved up to 6 months in advance. Cottonwood Campground - Group Site Group site reservations open each year on the first business day in March at 8:00 am MST. Juniper Campground IMPORTANT: Beginning May 1, 2026 all sites are by reservation at recreation.gov Juniper Campground - Group Site Group site reservations open each year on the first business day in March at 8:00 am MST. Roundup Group Horse Camp Reservations for Roundup Group Horse Camp Group site reservations open each year on the first business day in March 8:00 am MST.

Backpack Camping Hikers and horseback riders who choose to spend the night in the park's backcountry can do so by filling out a free Backcountry Permit in the North or South Unit Visitor Centers. There are no developed backcountry campsites or facilities. For more information, see backcountry permit for backpack camping .

The park has two campgrounds (both have one group site and many standard sites) and one group site for camping with horses. All campgrounds are primitive (no hookups, no showers). All sites are by reservation at recreation.gov. More information about reservations below.

When choosing a campground, first consider which park unit(s) you plan to visit. It may be helpful to look at a map .

Hiking Trail Round-Trip Time and Distance Trail Description Easy Skyline Vista South Unit 10 minutes 0.1 mi / 0.16 km Feel the wind in your hair high atop Johnson's Plateau. This flat, paved nature trail is perfect for those who want to step out for just a moment. Boicourt Overlook Trail South Unit 15 minutes 0.2 mi / 0.3 km One of the most beautiful South Unit overlooks is accessible by this easy nature trail with slight grade. This overlook is a ranger favorite for sunsets over the badlands! Little Mo Trail North Unit 30 - 45 minutes 0.7 mi / 1.1 km (paved inner loop) 1.1 mi / 1.8 km (unpaved outer loop) Explore the river bottom habitat along a paved nature trailwith slight grades. Take along a trail brochure, available at the trailhead, to learn as you adventure. Buck Hill South Unit 15 minutes 0.2 mi / 0.3 km You'll be on top of the world when you climb to the highest accessible point in the park. This is a short, but steep trail. The view from the top is worth every step. Wind Canyon Trail South Unit 20 minutes 0.4 mi / 0.6 km Enjoy hiking this nature trail alongside a wind-sculpted canyon as you climb to the best view of the Little Missouri River the South Unit has to offer. Another ranger favorite for sunsets!

Easy to Moderate Ridgeline Trail South Unit 30 minutes 0.6 mi / 1 km Explore the badlands environment along a nature trail with moderate to steep grades. Take along a trail brochure, available at the trailhead, to learn as you adventure. This trail has stairs. Download the Ridgeline Trail brochure Coal Vein Trail South Unit 30 - 45 minutes 0.6 mi / 1 km (inner loop) 0.8 mi / 1.3 km (outer loop) Although the coal vein is no longer burning, this nature trail is an excellent place to learn about badlands geology and ecology. Take along a trail brochure, available at the trailhead. This trail has stairs. Download the Coal Vein Trail Brochure Painted Canyon Nature Trail South Unit 45 minutes 0.9 mi / 1.4 km The canyon looks amazing from the rim, but wait until you experience a hike down into it! Get up close and personal with the rock layers, junipers, and wildlife. Remember, every step down means a step back up on the return. Caprock Coulee Nature Trail North Unit 1 hour 1.5 mi / 2.4 km Hike through badlands terrain and dry washes as you experience a variety of habitats. Take along a trail brochure, available at the trailhead, to learn as you adventure. View the Caprock Coulee Nature Trail Guide. Prairie Dog Town via the Buckhorn Trail North Unit 1 hour 1.5 mi / 2.4 km Start at the Caprock Coulee Trailhead and follow the Buckhorn Trail to a prairie dog town. Be sure to plan some extra time for wildlife viewing; where there are prairie dogs, there are often lots of other animals, too! Sperati Point via the Achenbach Trail North Unit 1 hour 1.5 mi / 2.4 km Begin at Oxbow Overlook. A gently rolling walk leads to an overlook of the Little Missouri River. Along the way, pay attention to the wide variety of forbs and grasses. The prairie ecosystem is one of the most diverse on the planet!

Moderate to Strenuous Caprock Coulee North Unit 2 - 3 hours 4.3 mi / 6.9 km The first 0.75 miles of this trail consists of the Caprock Coulee Nature Trail. The trail becomes more strenuous as it climbs to the top of a grassy butte, follows a ridgeline with incredible views, and descends back down. Maah Daah Hey South Unit 3 - 4 hours (one way) 7.1 mi / 11.4 km (one way) The Maah Daah Hey Trail stretches 96 miles across the National Grassland connecting all three units of the park. This portion of the trail runs through the South Unit. Lone Tree Loop South Unit 5 - 6 hours 9.6 mi / 15.4 km You can begin this trail at Peaceful Valley Ranch by following the Ekblom Trail. To avoid a river crossing, access the loop via the Maah Daah Hey Trail. Thiswill add 3.2 miles round trip. Be aware of difficult stream crossings. Petrified Forest Loop South Unit 5 - 6 hours 10.3 mi / 16.6 km Located in the remote northwest corner of the South Unit, this hike takes you through ancient petrified forests and badlands wilderness. The loop includes the North and South Petrified Forest Trails as well as the Maah Daah Hey. Buckhorn North Unit 6 - 8 hours 11.4 mi / 18.3 km Hike through prairie dog towns, sagebrush terraces, deep canyons, and high open prairies. Experience the diversity of plant and animal life in these distinct habitats. Jones/Lower Talkington/ Lower Paddock Loop South Unit 6 - 8 hours 11.4 mi / 18.3 km This loop combines the Jones Creek Trail, the Lower Talkington Trail, and the Lower Paddock Creek Trail. Add it to the Upper Paddock/Talkington Loop for an epic adventure of 23.4 miles. Upper Paddock/ Talkington Loop South Unit 8 - 10 hours 15.4 mi / 24.8 km 19.4 mi / 31.2 km (Painted Canyon) This trail combines part of the Lower Talkington Trail with the Upper Talkington and Upper Paddock Creek Trails. Accessing the loop from Painted Canyon will add 4 miles round trip to your hike. Achenbach North Unit 10 - 12 hours 18 mi / 30 km Steep climbs and descents and two river crossings await you on a trail that leads deep into the heart of the Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness. Cross the Little Missouri River at daybreak and climb the buttes to greet the rising sun.

All plants, wildlife, and natural and cultural features are protected. This includes animal bones, rocks, flowers, cultural items, and anything else you may discover while hiking. Do not disturb or remove these things. Watch wildlife from a safe distance of 25 yards or more. Pets, bicycles and motorized equipment are prohibited on all trails and in the backcountry. Backcountry camping requires a free permit. All trash and other materials, including toilet paper, must be packed out. Human waste should be buried in a hole 6-8 inches deep and at least 200 feet from any water source. Hikers should yield the right-of-way to horseback riders. Respect wildlife and other visitors by keeping noise low while on trail.