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Father traces TR's trip to the Badlands to 'toughen up' son. It kinda worked

Contributed
Sam Graham-Felson

If novelist and essayist Sam Graham-Felson thought that following the example of Theodore Roosevelt's "strenuous life" in the North Dakota badlands would rub off on his 8-year-old son Saul, well, he was half right.

The Conservation President's flight from tragedy and his experiences as a bullied child served as early inspiration, but in the end, so did an unlikely bow-tied hero.