Dakota Datebook: Remembering Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt’s love affair with Dakota Territory began with a North American bison. That infatuation never stopped. His first Badlands sojourn in 1883 was to hunt the disappearing western symbol. Throughout his life he exhibited fealty to habitat, protection, and wildlife, which included what TR called “The Lordly Buffalo.”

In May of 1895, before he emerged on the national stage, Theodore Roosevelt added New York City Police Commissioner to his resume. Using his innate sense of duty, justice and honesty, TR was a bold transformative figure battling to reform a police force awash in corruption and political chicanery.

Theodore Roosevelt created the first National Park in North Dakota. It was just weeks old on this date in 1904 -- one of five national parks added by Roosevelt.

This is National Music Week, and though it wasn’t yet established when Theodore Roosevelt was president, music was prominent during his time in office. Whether in North Dakota or across the nation, he relished leading crowds in singing “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” a favorite of the Roughriders. He was also smitten with America’s traditional patriotic melodies.

As the nation’s trailblazer of the conservation movement during the Industrial Age, Theodore Roosevelt linked and compared the lives of the American people with the health and existence of our American forests. Arbor Day officially began on April 16, 1872. This year’s 147th Arbor Day is a descendent of the original. In North Dakota, it’s the first Friday in May. In 1907, Roosevelt extolled Arbor Day, with a message for the nation’s school children.

Among the many attributes of Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy was his ability to compose insightful and penetrating speeches that, by accounts of his audiences, were impressive in their commanding delivery. His voice was said to modulate in pitches low to high, and his natural charisma was always mesmerizing.

Theodore Roosevelt’s only North Dakota visit while president came in April of 1903. His railroad excursion was a two-day event, packed east-to-west across the state with several stops.

It was early April of 1903 when North Dakota welcomed the second sitting U.S. president to visit the state. The first, Rutherford B. Hayes, famously toured the giant Dalrymple farm, the first of the famous Bonanza Farms of the Red River Valley – the largest wheat operations in the world. Theodore Roosevelt, North Dakota’s adopted son, was the second; and the two-day trip through Dakota’s plains was a homecoming for him.

On this date in 1917, the United States was on the verge of declaring war on Germany – an action that Theodore Roosevelt vigorously supported. He had made his blistering antagonism toward Woodrow Wilson’s former neutrality abundantly public.

On this date in 1886, Theodore Roosevelt was preparing to set out in pursuit of three men who stole his boat on the Little Missouri near his Elkhorn Ranch. His friends Will Dow and Bill Sewall quickly built a pursuit boat, and the following day, the trio of began the chase. It took days of trudging through the rugged and bitter weather of the frigid river valley, but the flinty cattlemen finally caught up with the three boat thieves, and they were soon headed home with the bad guys in tow.