47 Fun Facts About Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is in the badlands of which U.S. state?

The park lies in the badlands of western North Dakota and is that state's only national park; its badlands are a good deal greener than South Dakota's.

What distinction does the park hold among all U.S. national parks?

It honours the years the future president spent ranching in Dakota Territory before statehood.

How many geographically separate units make up the park?

The park has three separate units: the North Unit, the South Unit, and the much smaller old ranch site that lies between them.

Which river flows through every unit of the park?

The Little Missouri rises in northeastern Wyoming and runs 560 miles to join the Missouri at Lake Sakakawea, threading all the park's units on the way.

Roosevelt first came to the Dakota badlands in September 1883 to hunt what?

Roosevelt came to shoot a bison and got one after days of hunting; smitten with the 'perfect freedom' of the West, he bought into a cattle ranch before going home.

In what year did Roosevelt's wife and mother die on the same day, sending him back to the badlands?

Alice and Mittie Roosevelt died hours apart on February 14, 1884, Valentine's Day; that summer Roosevelt returned west and started his second ranch.

Roosevelt's first ranch, seven miles south of Medora, was known by what name?

The Maltese Cross Ranch, also called the Chimney Butte Ranch, was already being run by Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield when Roosevelt bought in.

Roosevelt's second, larger and more private ranch, 35 miles north of Medora, was called what?

Only the foundation stones of the Elkhorn Ranch house survive; the site became its own park unit, reached by gravel roads.

Roosevelt hired two woodsmen from which state to run his second ranch?

Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, Roosevelt's guides from Maine, built the 'long, low house of logs' over their first winter in Dakota.

In spring 1886, after thieves stole his boat, what did Roosevelt do?

Roosevelt and two ranch hands built a makeshift craft, chased the thieves downriver, caught them, and he marched them overland to jail in Dickinson for a $50 reward.

Which brutal season wiped out most of Roosevelt's cattle and pushed him toward conservation politics?

The starvation winter of 1886-87 killed roughly 60 percent of Roosevelt's cattle; he gave up active ranching the next year and turned toward politics and conservation.

Which is NOT one of the three major books Roosevelt wrote about his ranching years?

The Winning of the West was his multi-volume history of the frontier, not a memoir of ranching.

Roosevelt stopped ranching actively in 1887 but kept ranching interests in the badlands until what year?

Roosevelt sold off his last badlands cattle interests in 1898, the year he rode to Cuba with the Rough Riders; he later said he would never have been president without his badlands years.

Where has Roosevelt's first ranch cabin been displayed since 1959?

Since 1959 the cabin has stood beside the South Unit Visitor Center in Medora, after touring the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and Portland's 1905 exposition and then sitting on the Bismarck capitol grounds.

Roosevelt's first cabin was unusual for the northern plains for its steeply pitched roof, which created what?

The steep roof created an upstairs sleeping loft; built of ponderosa pine with wooden floors and separate rooms, the cabin counted as a 'mansion' by badlands standards.

Which piece of furniture did Roosevelt call something no 'true American' could fail to enjoy?

Roosevelt wrote that no true American could fail to enjoy a rocking chair; he read in one on the veranda of his second ranch, and one believed to be his sits in his first cabin.

Which president signed the act making this the only 'National Memorial Park' ever?

Harry Truman signed the act creating the park as a National Memorial Park on April 25, 1947; the North Unit was added in 1948.

In what year was the park's designation changed to a full national park?

The National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 made it a full national park and designated 29,920 acres of wilderness, more than a third of the park.

Before it was a park, the area spent 1946-47 under which agency as a national refuge for animals?

In 1946 the area was transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a national wildlife refuge, the step before Congress made it a memorial park the next year.

Roughly how many acres does the park cover?

The park covers about 70,000 acres, roughly 110 square miles, small by western park standards.

Roughly how many recreational visitors did the park receive in 2021?

Most stop at the South Unit off I-94; the North Unit near Watford City is far quieter.

Which trail connects the park's North and South units across the national grassland between them?

The Maah Daah Hey Trail runs 144 miles across the national grassland between the units; cyclists must detour around the park sections, where bikes are banned.

The trail linking the park's units takes its name from which people's language?

The trail's name comes from the Mandan language and means roughly 'an area that has been or will be around for a long time'.

How many bison were first reintroduced to the South Unit in 1956?

29 animals from Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge were released in the South Unit in 1956; surplus animals from the herd go to Native American tribes.

Which free-roaming animals, recognised as 'historical setting' in 1970, descend from bands that eluded a 1954 round-up?

The wild horses descend from bands that escaped the 1954 round-up; the Park Service long tried to remove them, and a later management plan set a herd goal of 35 to 60 head.

Which overlook marks the end of the North Unit's scenic drive?

Oxbow Overlook ends the 14-mile North Unit scenic drive, looking down on a sweeping bend of the river far below.

Which burrowing rodent is the park's keystone species, mixing soils and feeding predators?

Prairie dog towns dot the South Unit's loop road; the rodents mix the soil as they dig and feed everything from coyotes to golden eagles.

How tall is the woven-wire fence around the entire park that keeps bison in and livestock out?

The woven-wire fence ringing the park stands 7 feet tall; other wildlife cross over, under or through it at spots built for the purpose, and elk use the park as a refuge from hunters.

Roosevelt called the snowbound winter badlands 'an abode of' what?

'An abode of iron desolation' is how Roosevelt described the snowbound northern plains in his ranching memoirs, when the nights seemed never-ending.

Which French nobleman founded Medora in 1883 and named it after his wife?

The Marquis de Morès named the town for his wife Medora von Hoffman, a New York banker's daughter; their 26-room Chateau de Mores survives as a museum.

What business did Medora's French founder build there to bypass the Chicago stockyards?

Medora's founder built a meat-packing plant to slaughter cattle on the range and ship refrigerated beef east by rail; the scheme soon failed.

Medora's French founder once sent Roosevelt a letter the future president read as what?

Roosevelt took the 1885 letter as a challenge to a duel and replied that he was 'most emphatically' not the Frenchman's enemy, but would meet him if challenged.

Which production plays nightly each summer at the Burning Hills Amphitheatre outside the park?

The Medora Musical, a western-themed variety show, runs nightly from early June to early September at the Burning Hills Amphitheatre.

Which federal programme's camps built roads in both future park units from 1934 to 1941?

Civilian Conservation Corps crews, housed in camps in both units from 1934 to 1941, built the first roads and facilities of the future park.

Roughly how many bird species have been recorded in the park?

At least 186 bird species have been recorded in the park, among them golden eagles, sharp-tailed grouse and wild turkeys.

Which threat to the remote ranch-site unit does the park single out?

The park singles out oil development on adjacent lands, since drilling rigs and truck traffic on the land around the ranch site threaten its solitude.

Which developed campgrounds does the park have?

The developed campgrounds are Juniper in the North Unit and Cottonwood and the Roundup Group Horse Campground in the South Unit.

How much trail lets hikers reach the most remote parts of the park's wilderness?

Camping needs a permit, and gathering wood for fires is banned, so bring a stove.

Which counties hold the park's two wilderness sections?

The North Unit's wilderness lies in McKenzie County and the South Unit's in Billings County, whose seat is the little tourist town at the park gate.

Most of the rock layers along the park's river belong to formations laid down during which epoch?

The Bullion Creek and Sentinel Butte formations are Paleocene, roughly 60 million years old; their siltstone, claystone, sandstone and lignite were laid down on lowlands as the Rockies rose.

How much did Roosevelt invest in his first ranch after the 1883 hunting trip?

Roosevelt handed two local ranchers a cheque for $14,000 to buy cattle before he went home; the ranch cabin went up that winter.

Which congressman campaigned for five years for the park's creation in 1947?

William Lemke, who served in the House through the 1930s and 1940s, pushed the park bill through; the North Unit followed by act of Congress in 1948.

What federal label did the badlands receive in 1935, before refuge and park status?

The Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area, one of dozens of New Deal recreation demonstration areas carved from submarginal farmland, was the badlands' label before the refuge and park years.

The park's North Unit lies just south of which town?

Watford City lies about 15 miles north of the North Unit entrance and boomed during the Bakken oil play of the 2010s.

How many branded animals did the 1954 round-up remove after the park was fenced?

About 200 branded animals were removed in 1954; a few unclaimed bands slipped away and became the free-roaming herd the park manages.

To roughly what number is the South Unit bison herd routinely culled?

The North Unit herd, seeded with 20 animals in 1962, is kept far smaller; surplus bison go to tribal herds.

From which refuge did the park receive six yearling female bison in 2020?

The transfer supported the Interior Department's 2020 Bison Conservation Initiative and its genetic-diversity goals.