Manifest Destiny

Roosevelt actually had two Dakota ranches—the Maltese Cross seven miles south of Medora and the Elkhorn thirty-four miles north of town. The cabin that stands today at the headquarters of the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (just at the edge of Medora town) was Roosevelt’s original Maltese Cross ranch house. No buildings from the Elkhorn have survived, although the site of the ranch is still accessible by foot trail from a nearby park road, once the traveler obtains permission from the rancher whose land provides access to it.

*    *    *

It has been suggested, not without justification, that the image of the Wild West that prevailed during a good part of the twentieth century was to a surprising extent due to the activities of three men: Frederic Remington, who painted it; Owen Wister, who wrote about it (The Virginian); and Theodore Roosevelt, the American Winston Churchill, who not only wrote about the West in its heyday of adventure but created a good part of The Myth by living it in the Bad Lands.

The three men—all Ivy Leaguers (Harvard and Yale), all contemporaries—were close friends. The portrait of the West in the works of Remington and Wister was based in part on the experiences of their friend Roosevelt. Therefore it may not be too surprising that some of the set-piece conventions that became familiar in pulp fictions and “B” movies are to be found unabashedly in the real life of that astonishing unique American hero, Theodore Roosevelt.

Medora von Hoffman Vallombrosa, Marquise De Morès

Theodore Roosevelt in the Bad Lands, 1884

A.C. Huidekoper

Marquis De Morès in the Bad Lands, 1884

Theodore Roosevelt in his new buckskin coat

Arthur T. “Pack” Packard

Joe Ferris

Theodore Roosevelt on his horse Manitou

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Marquis De Morès

LEFT TO RIGHT:

Wilmot Dow, Theodore Roosevelt, Bill Sewall

Theodore Roosevelt captures boat thievs

(PHOTO BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT)

Theodore Roosevelt, ranchman

Acknowledgments

It gives me pleasure to acknowledge, with great gratitude, the invaluable assistance provided by Todd Strand and the other archivists who keep track of the Roosevelt and De Morès collections at the State Historical Society of North Dakota, North Dakota Heritage Center, Bismarck; by the people of Medora, North Dakota; by the staff of the De Morès château; by the Rangers of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, including Denise Heidecker of the National Park Service who indulged my foolishness by agreeing to take a picture of me in front of Theodore Roosevelt’s cabin; all the memoirists, acquaintances, reporters, historians and biographers (see Bibliography) who made my work possible by writing in such extensive detail about Theodore Roosevelt and his days in Dakota Territory; and—indispensibly and most generously—by Dr. John Gable, director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York.

For help in preparing the manuscript I am happy to thank Bina Garfield, Jane Cushman, Sara A

Bibliography

All photographs are courtesy of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, North Dakota Heritage Center, Bismarck

PUBLICATIONS:

Bartz, David C, Editor, The Bad Lands Cow Boy. (Historical articles in newspaper form.) Various issues. Beach, North Dakota,1985. (See also Packard, Arthur T.)

Brooks, Chester L., and Ray H. Mattison, Theodore Roosevelt and the Dakota Badlands. Washington: National Park Service, 1958 and 1962; Reprinted, with revisions, at Medora, North Dakota, by the Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Association, 1983.

Burdick, Usher L., Marquis De Morès at War in the Badlands. Fargo, N.D.: publisher unidentified; circa 1929.

Deming, William Chapin, Roosevelt in the Bunk House: Visits of the Great Rough Rider to Wyoming in 1903 and 1910. Laramie, Wyoming: Press of the Wyoming Tribune-Leader, c. 1920.

Dresdan, Donald, The Marquis De Morès, Emperor of the Bad Lands.Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.

Easterwood, Thomas Jefferson, The Lights and Shadows of the Rocky Mountains. New York: Appleton, 1888.

Goplen, Arnold O., The Career of Marquis De Morès in the Bad Lands of North Dakota. Bismarck: State Historical Society of North Dakota. Written 1938; first published as a journal article in 1946; pamphlet version published 1960.

Hagedorn, Herman, Roosevelt in the Badlands. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1921.

Johnston, William Davison, 77?: Champion of the Strenuous Life. New York: Theodore Roosevelt Association, 1958.

Kingsbury, George W., History of Dakota Territory. Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1915. Three volumes.

Lang, Lincoln A., Ranching with Roosevelt. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1926.

Mattison, Ray H., “Life at Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch—The Letters of William W. and Mary Sewall.” North Dakota History, Vol. 27, Nos. 3 and 4 (Summer and Fall, 1960).

——, “Ranching in the Dakota Badlands.” North Dakota History, Vol. 19, Nos. 2 and 3 (April and July 1952).

——, “Roosevelt and the Stockmen’s Association.” North Dakota History, Vol. 17, Nos. 2 and 3 (April and July 1950). Reprinted as a pamphlet at Medora, North Dakota, by Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Association, 1969.

McCullough, David, Mornings on Horseback. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1981.

Morison, Elting, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951. Volumes I and II (covering years 1868-1900).

Morris, Edmund, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Coward, McCa

Packard, Arthur T., The Bad Lands Cow Boy. (Newspaper.) Medora, Dakota Territory; various issues, 1884—1885.

Petty, Warren James, “History of Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park.” North Dakota History, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Spring,1968).

Pringle, Henry F., Theodore Roosevelt, A Biography. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1931.

Putnam, Carleton, Theodore Roosevelt: Vol. I: The Formative Years, 1858-1886. New York: Scribner’s, 1958.

Riis, Jacob A., Theodore Roosevelt the Citizen. New York: The Outlook Co., 1903.