Adding up all his hunting and ranching visits, Theodore Roosevelt spent about a year in Dakota Territory. He visited Medora in 1883 to hunt bison, then returned to try ranching. He had two ranches: Chimney Butte south of Medora, and the Elkhorn, deep in the Badlands north of town.
On this date in 1886, Roosevelt arrived in Medora for his longest visit to the Territory. Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, who managed the Elkhorn Ranch, met Roosevelt at the train station. The next morning, they set out in a horse-drawn wagon for the ranch. The party had to cross the Little Missouri River eleven times, and arrived after sunset. As Roosevelt said in a letter to his sister, “the full moon flooding the landscape with light.”
Roosevelt planned to stay for five months during which he would write and hunt, but he would also have two of his most storied moments in Dakota. He would engage in his famous pursuit of boat thieves down the Little Missouri River. His party faced river ice, bitter cold and dwindling supplies, but they captured the thieves, whom Roosevelt marched into Dickinson.
This period also saw one of Roosevelt’s great early speeches—on the Fourth of July in Dickinson. The 27-year-old New York lawmaker was the keynote speaker for the celebration. After a morning parade and other community events he spoke at what is now the lawn of the Stark County Courthouse. One observer described Roosevelt’s high voice as “between a squeak and a shriek,” but Roosevelt made his point, saying:
“Like all Americans, I like big things; big prairies, big forests and mountains, big wheat fields, railroads—and herds of cattle, too; big factories, steamboats and everything else. But we must keep in mind that no people were ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtue. It is of more importance that we should show ourselves honest, brave, truthful and intelligent than that we should own all the railways and grain elevators in the world.”
He stayed after his speech to watch horse races, then returned by train to Medora with newspaper editor A.T. Packard, who suggested that Roosevelt could someday be president. Roosevelt said, “If your prophecy comes true, I will do my part to make a good one.”
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
DiSilvestro, R.L. (2011). Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A young politician’s quest for recovery in the American West. Bloomsbury USA: New York, NY
Hagedorn, H. (1921). Roosevelt in the Badlands. Theodore Roosevelt Nature & History Association: Medora, ND
Stark County Courthouse (Dickinson) courtyard historical display
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/TR-Encyclopedia/Dakota-and-Ranching/Arthur-Packard
