Let's start today with a bit of history.  That seems fitting since we will be spending the next few days at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  The park is a memorial to this conservation president so I think it's only fitting to share some knowledge about the man who preserved so much of our country.

Teddy, as many called him, was the police commissioner of New York City, the 33rd governor of New York, the 25th vice-president, and the 26th president.  He was born and raised in New York.  He was sickly as a child with severe asthma but overcame it and led a strenuous lifestyle.  He was gung-ho about life in general.  At 22 years of age he married Alice who he loved fiercely.  However, in 1884 (four years later) she died two days after giving birth to their daughter.  She died of kidney failure.  As if that wasn't enough of a blow, his beloved mother died of typhoid fever on the very same day in the same house.   

Roosevelt had gone to North Dakota the previously year on a hunting trip and had fallen in love with the state. He bought a small ranch there that he named the Maltese Cross.  He wanted to go into the ranching business.  In his grief a year later, he left New York and headed west to North Dakota.  He hoped to bury his sorrows in hard work.  He wanted to lose himself in the vastness of the land.  Once in North Dakota he purchased a second ranch 40 miles from his first one.

He stayed at the Maltese Cross ranch until his home on the new ranch was built.  He called this ranch Elkhorn because he found two sets of elk skulls at the site.  The horns were jammed together.  It was obvious that the pair had been fighting and their horns had become entwined.  Because they couldn't separate, they both died.  Not a cheerful start to a new home.

Roosevelt worked as hard as any of the men he employed on the ranch. He said it "took the snob out of him."  The men he worked with inspired him to start the Rough Riders later because of their ruggedness and integrity..  He hunted to put food on the table, rounded up cattle, branded his herd.  It was a hard and brutal life but he relished it.  He also developed a new appreciate for nature and the land.  Although he had hunted copiously in the past, now he hunted for a purpose, not for a trophy.

Ranching in North Dakota is a difficult thing and Roosevelt found it out the hard way.  He was doing well during 1885 and 1886.  Cattle was a booming business.  However, the winters of 1886 and 1887 brought heavy snows.  The partial thawing and then refreshing created a crust over the prairie grass that the cattle could not break though.  This added to the fact that more cattle were grazing the open range than it could support spelt disaster.  By spring of 1887 when Roosevelt returned from New York where he was in his last term in the State legislature, he had lost over half of his herd.  By early 1890 he had abandoned Elkhorn and returned to his Maltese Cross ranch.  However, he felt that open-range ranching in the Dakota Territory was "doomed, and can hardly outlast the century."  He sold the last of his cattle in 1898.  Although his venture failed and he lost much of a his fortune, he never regretted his time in the Dakota Badlands.

Ultimately, of course, he became vice-president and then president.  He used his time as president to begin the National Forrest Service and created the national parks in order to preserve our country.  We can thank him for many of the national parks and national monuments we have seen on this trip.  He championed conservation efforts for the rest of his life.  

Roosevelt was no saint, however.  Shortly after his last term as president, he made a trip to Africa to bring home animals for the Smithsonian and other museums.  He and his fellow travelers reportedly killed over 11,000 animals from insects to hippos and rhinos.  In fact he killed six rare white rhinos.  He was unrepentant about it when questioned.  He felt if he was being condemned then all of the museums that had taxidermied animals should be condemned as well.  So maybe Roosevelt was more concerned about conserving the land that the creatures on the land.  We'll never know.

Roosevelt died in 1919 in his sleep at the age of 60.  A blood clot had detached from a vein and traveled to his lungs.  When his son Archibald telegraphed his brothers and sisters, he said "The old lion is dead."  Thomas R. Marshall who was Woodrow Wilson's Vice President, stated, "Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight."

Although this brief summary in no way encompasses Roosevelt's entire life (for example, someone shot him in the chest during a campaign speech and he calmly continued to deliver it for the next 90 minutes!), it does touch on why the Theodore Roosevelt National Park was created to honor him.

However, before we reached his park in North Dakota, we had some adventures while we traveled.  On our way we traveled through Sturgis, South Dakota. For anybody who doesn't know, Sturgis is the site of the huge Harley Davidson Motorcycle Rally that is help every year. It is attended by thousands of bikers. The rally actually starts the day after we fly home. People are already starting to arrive for it though. As we drove through we could see all of the preparations. A huge tent hosted T-shirts and memorabilia you could purchase. Bars touted "Bikers Welcome!" Tattoo shops had signs up to appeal to the biker crowd soon to descend. Frankly, I am just as glad to see Sturgis before the bikers get here. It will be way too crowded and crazy after the rally starts!

We also saw the center of the United States!  It was near the town of Belle Fourche, South Dakota.  This honor was bestowed upon them by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Environmental Science Services Administration.  The town has a beautiful compass marker right in downtown.  Leading to it are flags of the fifty states.  There is only one drawback to this beautiful site, it isn't the center.  The real center is around 13 miles out of town on a private ranch!  The town of Belle Fourche felt placement of the memorial in town would make it more accessible to people.

We did enjoy the marker in town.  They also had memorials honoring WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam veterans.  I thought that was nice.  They also had a tiny cabin built by Buckskin Johnny in 1876.  It had been restored to as near the original as possible.  It was definitely cozy with a big wood stove and a treadle sewing machine.  The docent sitting inside said that she had learned to cook on a wood stove her grandmother had.

The Information Center for the town had a nice museum in it as well.  I enjoyed looking through the displays as they covered most of life in the small town from the doctors to the churches to daily life.  Of course my favorite part was the life-size cut-out of John Wayne.  I made Doug take my picture with it 🙂

Being purest we were not content with the pretend center of the U.S.  We had driving instructions and set out to find the true center.  It took some doing but we did it.  We never did see the barn that was suppose to be on the left side across the road from the geo marker.  We did, however, spot the American flag.  We all took our pictures with it and that of the geological marker.  It was then that we noticed another marker a few feet away.  Turns out the flag wasn't the center, the marker by itself marked the center of the U.S.  The other marker pointed towards it.  Such craziness, I tell you!  So we all had our pictures taken with the true marker.

Then it was back on the road to North Dakota.  It was a new state for both Mabel and I which was exciting.  Usually I'm the only one that hasn't been some place.  This time I'm not alone 🙂

The drive itself was pretty amazing.  Once we were in North Dakota we began seeing tremendous commercial fields.  As far as the eye could see were corn fields and sunflowers fields.  I also learned how appropriate the line "amber waves of grain" was in "America the Beautiful."  We SAW those amber waves of grain.  It was mind blowing.  Field after huge field of crops rolled by us as we traveled down the road.  I was in awe.

We did see animals as we traveled as well.  Of course there were cattle.  We also saw horses.  The only wild things we saw was a small herd of pronghorn antelope.  I'm always happy to see them.

It was after 1 PM when we rolled into Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  We were immediate greeted by a small herd of bison who were by the Visitors' Center at Painted Canyon.  We had pulled in there to have our picnic for the day.  The herd was moving out so I barely snagged a couple of shots before they were gone.

We had considered doing the Painted Canyon hike but today smoke from the fires in Canada blotted the canyon out.  For whatever reason, today the smoke was bad.  Visibility was limited.  We decided to leave the canyon for another day in the hopes that the smoke would clear away.

Instead of Painted Canyon we decided to tackle the third unit of the park—the Elkhorn Unit.  This was Roosevelt's ranch.  Getting to it was interesting.  We had to drive down dirt roads for miles and miles.  We had one little sheet of instructions guiding us as the GPS on the car was giving us absolutely nothing.  I do have to say that the roads were in great shape.  I've been on paved roads that were bumpier.

Eventually after driving for what seemed to be hours, we made it to the site of the ranch.  Now the site itself wasn't much.  The ranch house no longer stands.  It's only remnants are foundations stones marking the outline of the house.  I could get a sense of why he loved it there though.  It was beautiful countryside with mountains, the Little Missouri River close by, peace and tranquility.  It was a lovely spot, just lonely.  But then that's what he wanted.

Once we had our fill of Elkhorn, we turned around and headed back the way we had come.  Our goal now was the small town of Medora where we wanted to find a place to eat.

Although Medora has a population of 134 (as of 2019), it was a happening place.  We were shocked when we found out how few people actually lived there.  It seemed much larger.  I had checked online for places to eat and we had several options.  Our first choice was Boots Bar and Grill where real cowboys were known to eat.  We couldn't find parking in the lot so Doug dropped off Mabel and I to find a table.  That proved impossible.  There were probably more people in Boots than live in the entire town!  It was packed and you were suppose to seat yourself.  Both Mabel and I decided that this wasn't the place for us.  It was too loud.

We were heading across the street when Lee called and told Mabel that he and Doug had a table for us at Medora Uncork'd.  It was a new wine place in town.  There had been good reviews for it so we turned around and headed that way.

It was a nice place.  The owner waited on us himself.  At first we were about the only people in there but by the time we left, it was full.  The menu was small but the food was good.  We shared a cheese and meat plate (they used some fancy word—charcuterie).  We also shared a flatbread with BBQ shrimp.  The cheese and meat served on the slate was very good.  I didn't really care for the flatbread.  It just didn't trip my trigger.

After dinner and a failed attempt to get ice cream (the line was too long), we headed back to Dickinson.  On the way to the Hampton Inn we stopped at the local grocery store which had a Starbucks.  While I got my latte, the rest did the grocery shopping they needed to do.  It was a win-win stop.  They got stuff for lunch and I got my latte 🙂

Tomorrow will begin our real tour of the South Unit of the park.  We have a mix of hiking and driving planned.  We've heard that the park has wild horses so I am keeping my fingers crossed.  I would love to see some!