As his train made its way into the Badlands, heading toward Medora, he asked the porter to shut the door behind him and make sure no one would bother him. As the train rolled on, the Badlands stood silently, filling the landscape. Theodore sat on the rear platform, alone with his memories and his thoughts.
A year later, Theodore Roosevelt would become “The Cowboy President.”
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
—THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 1910
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOLLOWING THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S ODYSSEY IN THE AMERICAN WEST wouldn’t have been as fruitful without the help of many people along the way.
A huge thank-you to Sharon Kilzer, project manager, and Pamela Pierce and Marlo Mallery Saxon at the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University in Dickinson, North Dakota. They were a tremendous help to me, as is their digital library, which is a repository of all material relating to Theodore.
Heather Cole, curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Houghton Library, Harvard University, was tremendously helpful and kind in answering my questions. Mary Hargert, at Houghton Library, was aces in guiding me to obtain some outstanding photos of Theodore that help to illustrate this book.
The staff at Theodore Roosevelt National Park were most helpful, especially rangers Michael Irving and Andrew Slotkin, who patiently answered numerous questions.
Doug and Mary Ellison, generous hosts of the Amble Inn in Medora, made me feel right at home. Their Western Edge bookstore provided me with plenty of research material, and Doug was extremely generous with his knowledge about Medora, and its citizens.
When it came to understanding the geology of the Badlands area, no one could have a better teacher than Robin McQuinn. She allowed me to see the land from a completely different perspective, and made it so damned interesting.
The staff and docents at the Marquis de Morès Chateau filled in blank spots about the Marquis and his home in Medora.
Erin Turner at TwoDot Press listened to my pitch for this book, and her interest resulted in the book you now hold. The legacy and history of Theodore Roosevelt, not to mention this author, owes her a huge thank-you.
Lynn Zelem, production editor at TwoDot Books, and copy editor Melissa Hayes were both top-notch in bringing this book to fruition. Thank you, ladies.
Terry Shulman, Kevin Kenney, and David C. Smith were most helpful with their comments, suggestions, and encouragement. They assured me that I was doing justice to TR’s memory with this effort. Deepest thanks to three good friends.
A most grateful thank-you to those who helped and encouraged me along the way: John Allen, Donna J. Anderson, Marie Behar, James Benesh, Johnny D. Boggs, Sue Cabral-Ebert, Abagail Cannon, Judy Carey-Silvera, Tony and Tina Chong, Brian and Jennifer Dame, Kim Dame, Bruce Dettman, John Driscoll, the late Emil Franzi, George Gold, Richard Day Gore, Tamie Groves, Lolita Jerigan, Lisa Kelly, Robert Knott, Robert Kokai, Kathy Krause, Michael Kriegsman, Terry and Nancy Lamfers, Karla LaRive, Sam LaRive, Jenny Lerew, Craig Lindberg, William Malin, Geri Mars, Lydia Milars, Keith Palmer, Carrie Renfro, Dan Richmond, Todd Roberts, Stuart Rosebrook, Celeste Rush, Rosemary Schiano, Robert Semler, Winter Stezaker, Steve Tanner, Mitch Trimboli, and Teresa Vest.
I wouldn’t be anywhere if it weren’t for my wife, Linda. Through the peaks and valleys, she has always been by my side, with the patience of a saint. When I needed to visit TR’s national park several times, she was a willing companion, and listened to endless discussions about TR.
Lastly, I want to thank Theodore Roosevelt. Since the age of eight, he has been my favorite US president, and has long been an inspiration. On those occasional difficult days while working on this book, Theodore’s words and actions were a lighthouse beacon for me. His words are still fresh, vibrant, and meaningful today. By Godfrey, it has been fun writing about you!
NOTES
PREFACE
1. Teddy Roosevelt: An American Lion. Greystone Communications, Inc. / History Channel, 2002.
2. H. Paul Jeffers, The Bully Pulpit: A Teddy Roosevelt Book of Quotations. Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2002, p. 51.
3. “Ride for the brand” meant a cowboy was loyal to the outfit he worked for and that paid his wages. His loyalty could not be bought by another outfit with a higher salary; he only rode for one brand.
A YOUNG MAN IN MOTION
1. Theodore’s digestive problems were described by the family as cholera morbus. Today, it would be diagnosed as Crohn’s disease.
2. Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1996, p. 19.
3. Mayne Reid, an Irish national who had fought in the Mexican-American War, found a niche in writing adventure novels centered in the American West, South Africa, or Mexico. The Boy Hunters, which Reid called his “juvenile scientific travelog[ue],” followed three boys living with their father, who is a collector of natural history specimens. He tells his sons that he would give almost anything for the hide of a white buffalo; the boys decide to launch an expedition to find the rare buffalo, and return with the much-desired hide. Born in Ireland, Reid gave up studying to be a minister and hopped a ship bound for New Orleans in December 1839. He later worked as a journalist in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and then in New York City, where he joined the First New York Volunteer Infantry as a second lieutenant to fight in the Mexican-American War in 1846. Wounded during the Battle of Chapultepec, Reid was discharged and made his way to London, where his first novel, The Rifle Rangers, was published in 1850. A free spender, he went bankrupt in 1866, and lived off a military pension until his death in 1883 at the age of sixty-five.
4. Jack Willis with Horace Smith, Roosevelt in the Rough. New York: Ives Washburn, 1931, p. 55.
5. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, p. 22.
6. Caffeine, a prime component found in the coffee plant, is considered as something of a weak bronchodilator, a substance that can dilate the airways, allowing air to flow freely. Another supposed cure of the time was to rub chloroform liniment on the person’s chest.
7. As the financier of covert Confederate operations in England, James received a letter from Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory in late 1864 to send a check to Patrick Martin, a blockade runner operating out of Canada. Martin, who was working on a plan to kidnap President Lincoln, died in December 1864 when the ship he was taking to Maryland (to meet with John Wilkes Booth) was lost at sea.
8. During the Civil War, this action of paying another to serve in their place was quite common among rich Northerners. The usual fee was $300, which would amount to what an average laborer made in one year. Some enterprising fellows agreed to the bounty, taking the money and then skipping town. One man was finally caught and forced to serve, after pocketing seven bounties. By 1863, the resentment felt by the poor (mainly the Irish) began to build. Claiming they were forced to fight a “rich man’s war,” along with the freeing of blacks and a Federal draft, sparked the New York City draft riots in July 1863.
9. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, p. 17.
10. Ibid., p. 33.
11. H. W. Brands, T. R.: The Last Romantic. New York: Basic Books, 1997, p. 33.
12. Letter dated January 26, 1876. H. W. Brands, The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001, p. 6.
13. Letter dated February 9, 1876. Ibid.
14. Theodore Roosevelt, The Wilderness Hunter. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893, p. xv.
15. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, p. 29.
16. Ibid., pp. 29–30.
17. Brands, T. R.: The Last Romantic. pp. 61–62.
18. Brands, The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 6.
19. Theodore Sr. experienced a brief reprieve during Christmas, but the tumor grew so quickly that it was literally strangling his intestines. The pain was so intense that his dark hair went gray, and his children had to hold him down as he thrashed in unimaginable pain. Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Random House, 1979, pp. 69–70.
20. Ibid., p. 70.
21. Ibid., p. 5.
22. Interestingly, like Theodore, Sewall was also sickly as a child. He developed a cold after falling into a snowbank, which led to suffering chronic ear trouble. Diphtheria nearly took his life. Sewall took up logging when he was sixteen to help the family coffers. It also proved to be his cure.
23. Carleton Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt: The Formative Years, 1858–1886. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958, p. 157.
24. Theodore Roosevelt private diary, assorted papers, Library of Congress.
25. Letter dated October 10, 1880. Brands, The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 16.
26. Interestingly, both Choate and Root would later serve in Roosevelt’s presidential administration. Choate was ambassador to England (appointed by McKinley in 1899) until 1905, and later served as one of the US representatives at the 1907 Hague Peace Conference. Root was secretary of war (also appointed by McKinley in 1899), and he was named secretary of state by Theodore in 1905. Like Theodore, Root won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1912 for his efforts in bringing nations together through arbitration and collaboration.
27. Letter dated November 1, 1881. Brands, The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, p.
28. Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt: The Formative Years, 1858–1886, p. 247.
29. Letter dated November 12, 1882. Brands, The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 27.
30. Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt: The Formative Years, 1858–1886, p. 251.
31. Brands, T. R.: The Last Romantic, pp. 130–31.
32. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, p. 80.
33. Brands, T. R.: The Last Romantic, pp. 134–35.
34. While it was called Cleopatra’s Needle, the obelisk was 1,500 years older than its namesake. It was erected on January 21, 1881, in Central Park.
THE BADLANDS
1. Alfred Sully’s 1864 campaign was in response to the 1862–63 Sioux uprisings in Minnesota, where they attacked and killed 600 civilians and military personnel in the south-central area of the state. In September 1862, over 480 Sioux were captured and given military trials; while 300 were found guilty of murder and rape, President Lincoln commuted the death sentences of 264. The remaining 36 Sioux were hanged in what was the largest mass execution in the United States, on December 26, 1862. The Sioux were expelled from the Minnesota area and relocated in the southern Dakota Territory, and later in Nebraska.
Some warriors linked up with the other tribes of the Sioux Nation and continued to attack settlers and the US Army. Sully, leading two brigades (approximately 2,200 men) routed the Sioux in the Killdeer Mountains (twenty miles south of Theodore Roosevelt National Park) on July 28, 1864. On August 5, Sully and his men engaged in small-scale combat with the Sioux in the Badlands, near Square Butte (between present-day Medora and Sentinel Butte, North Dakota). This fighting continued for three days, until Sully left the Badlands and reached the Yellowstone River on August 10.
2. In the 1800s the name “Bad Lands” served as a moniker for any area that was desolate, offering little shelter, water, or land to survive. Other locations of Badland formations include Toadstool Geologic Park in the Oglala National Grassland of northwestern Nebraska, Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado, Hell’s Half-Acre in Natrona County, Wyoming, El Malpais National Monument in western New Mexico, Big Muddy Badlands in Saskatchewan, Canada, as well as one in Alberta, Canada. Badland formations can also be found in New Zealand, Spain, and mid-western Argentina. Southern Taiwan has the only Badlands area in a tropical climate.
3. Albert Bushnell Hart and Herbert Ronald Feleger, eds., Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia. Westport, CT: Theodore Roosevelt Association and Meckler Corporation, 1989, p. 33.
4. Letter dated August 24, 1884. Ibid., p. 34.
5. In the Pliocene Epoch, the Little Missouri River flowed northward, merging with the Yellowstone River (near present-day Williston, North Dakota), eventually connecting with the Missouri River. That river flowed northeast, through Saskatchewan and Manitoba, to Hudson Bay. Looking at a current map that shows the flow of the Little Missouri River, one can see it takes on a switchback formation. This is caused by anastomosis, where one side of the riverbank is carved away by the flow of the water, which takes the sediment downriver, often depositing it on the opposite side. Robin McQuinn, interview with author, Medora, North Dakota, September 16, 2014.
6. These rocks are called erratics, because they are out of place for the area (i.e., nonindigenous).
7. The rate of erosion at Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a half-inch per one hundred years. Erosion in the park is 99 percent caused by water. Robin McQuinn, interview with author.
8. A coal vein close enough to the surface could be ignited by a lightning strike, but such incidents were infrequent. Theodore Roosevelt National Park had one coal vein that burned from 1951 to roughly 1970. Robin McQuinn, interview with author.
9. Hoodoos can also be found in Taiwan, Turkey, New Zealand, France, Spain, Serbia, Alberta, Canada, and Bryce Canyon in Utah. They can range in height from that of an average human to a ten-story building.
10. The Hell Creek Formation includes portions of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Numerous dinosaur remains have been found in this region. The discovery of “Dakota” was near the Badlands.
11. Most of the tribes mentioned passed through the Badlands on their way to Fort Union, where they would trade for various goods. Fort Union was built by John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company in 1828, at the juncture of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. It is now a national park.
12. The Bering land bridge was an ancient land bridge that was roughly six hundred miles wide, connecting Asia with North America during the Pleistocene ice ages. Dale F. Lott, American Bison: A Natural History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002, p. 62.
13. The correct term for the animal that populated the North American continent is bison. Predominantly located in North America, bison are recognized by their large head, short horns, and a dense hairy coat that they shed in the late spring and summer seasons. Buffalo, found mainly in Africa and Asia, have long horns and a coat that never sheds, and its head size is considered average. Bison comes from a Greek word meaning “ox-like.” French fur trappers called them boeufs, which translates to ox or bullock. The first use of buffalo in North America dates back to 1625, while the first record for bison dates to 1774. Ibid., p. 69.
14. Tom McHugh, The Time of the Buffalo. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1972, pp. 71–72.
15. Today, malignant catarrhal fever and brucellosis are deadly diseases to buffalo herds. As of now, no vaccination has been developed for catarrhal fever, but there is one for brucellosis. Ibid., p. 318.
16. Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. Birmingham, AL: Palladium Press (reprint), 1999, p. 259.
17. Lincoln A. Lang, Ranching with Roosevelt. Philadelphia, PA: J. D. Lippincott, 1926.
18. Douglas Brinkley, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America. New York: Touchstone / Simon and Schuster, 1994, pp. 150–51.
19. Ibid., pp. 154–55.
20. Gregorio de Villalobos brought over six heifers and a bull by way of Spain to Vera Cruz. They soon grew into a larger herd, mixing with other cattle brought ov
er from Spain. Dee Brown, The American West. New York: Touchstone / Simon & Schuster, 1994, p. 42.
21. Howard Lamar, ed., The New Encyclopedia of the American West. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998, p. 175.
22. Brown, The American West, p. 43.
23. Between 1866 and 1885, it is estimated that 5,700,000 cattle were driven north. Ray H. Mattison, “Roosevelt’s Contemporaries Along the Little Missouri River,” Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library, Dickinson State University, 1950.
24. This same trail was originally used by a Delaware scout named Black Beaver when escorting exploration parties in the 1840s. Brown, The American West, p. 51.
25. Three other well-known cattle trails were the Shawnee Trail (1840–66), Western Trail (1876–84), and the Goodnight-Loving Trail (1866–82). The Shawnee Trail (also known as the Texas Trail) was used as far back as 1840 to move cattle, going through Austin, Dallas, and crossing the Red River at Preston, before entering the eastern half of Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) to Baxter Springs in Kansas, before moving east into Missouri and then north to the towns of Sedalia, Kansas City, and St. Joseph. The Western Trail began north of the Nueces River, passing through Fort Griffin, then Indian Country, and eventually, to Dodge City, Kansas. It later was continued north to Ogallala, Nebraska. The Goodnight-Loving Trail left from Fort Belknap, Texas, heading south along the old Butterfield Stagecoach route that ran through central Texas. It then moved north along the Pecos River into New Mexico Territory, ultimately arriving in Denver, Colorado. It was later extended into Wyoming Territory.
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