July 27, 2025 - Driving from Alaska to Maryland
Big Plateau Trail - Teddy Roosevelt NP
Today we check out Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It's one you don't hear that much about. There are two separate portions of the park -- a north and south unit -- in an area known as the Little Missouri Badlands. They are far enough apart you can't really do both in one day. We'll be doing only the South Unit on this trip.
This park pays homage to the time that Theodore Roosevelt spent in the surrounding area and in the Dakota Territories before they were states. Roosevelt lived in the area after his mother and wife died hours apart on February 14, 1884.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the only American national park named after a single person.
Roosevelt first came to the North Dakota badlands to hunt bison in September 1883. During that first short trip, he got his bison and fell in love with the rugged lifestyle and the "perfect freedom" of the West.
He invested $14,000 in the Maltese Cross Ranch, which was already being managed by Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield, seven miles south of Medora. That winter, Ferris and Merrifield built the Maltese Cross Cabin.
After the death of both his wife and his mother on February 14, 1884, Roosevelt returned to his North Dakota ranch seeking solitude and time to heal. That summer, he started his second ranch, the Elkhorn Ranch, 35 miles north of Medora, which he hired two Maine woodsmen, Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, to operate.
Roosevelt took great interest in his ranches and in hunting in the West, detailing his experiences in pieces published in eastern newspapers and magazines. He wrote three major works on his life in the West: Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman and The Wilderness Hunter. His adventures in "the strenuous life" outdoors and the loss of his cattle in the starvation winter in 1886–1887 were influential in his pursuit of conservation policies as President of the United States (1901–1909).
"I do not believe there ever was any life more attractive to a vigorous young fellow than life on a cattle ranch in those days. It was a fine, healthy life, too; it taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision...I enjoyed the life to the full." ... Theodore Roosevelt.
