September 14-15, 2019
I have a love-hate relationship with Teddy Roosevelt. I love his break-the-mold, swashbucklin' style, his bold approach to life, his can-do attitude. But there is part of me that doesn't care for his certitude, his belief that he was always right.
Teddy was a bit of a chimera, a beast made up of many different body parts. Among those parts are the politician part, the Rough Rider part, the cattle rancher part, the conservationist part, and the husband and father part. I've already included David McCullough's insightful biography of TR, Mornings on Horseback, in my post about Oyster Bay, which covers Teddy's childhood and young adult years. That book (and another book I review in my next post) covers Teddy's loss of his first wife and his mother on a single day--February 14, 1884--and his subsequent flight from New York to North Dakota, where he would work through his grief. (Apparently he rarely if ever mentioned his first wife again, even to their daughter, one part of him I am not impressed by.)
Teddy had been to North Dakota the previous year to hunt bison (a very TR-esque activity), and during that time he had purchased the Maltese Cross ranch for $14,000, substantially more than his annual salary. When Teddy returned to North Dakota in 1884, he purchased a second property, Elkhorn Ranch, and built a home on it. He maintained both ranches, which were near the just barely established town of Medora, until 1898.
Never very large, in 2010 Medora had a population of 112, and yet these days they manage to run a few hotels and several restaurants, and their website claims they are "North Dakota's #1 Vacation Destination."
However, it's not the town people come to see. Rather, it is the national park that is right down the road: Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
But first, Medora.
When Teddy came through Medora on a presidential tour of the Western United States in 1903 (not surprisingly, he was the first president to visit Medora), he made such a good impression that a local hotel changed its name to the Rough Riders Hotel to honor his role in the Spanish-American War. The hotel was renovated in the early 1960s, and since 1986 it has been operated by the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, a non-profit organization. Another remodel in 2008 added 68 guest rooms.
We stopped for dinner at the hotel, the nicest place to eat in town. It has a beautiful lobby.
There are several pieces of Roosevelt-themed art in the lobby.
