50 Fun Facts About Theodore Roosevelt National Park

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

It is the state's only national park, and 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 North and South units are about 80 miles apart, with the old ranch site in between.

Which river flows through all three units of the park?

It rises in Wyoming near Devils Tower and empties into the Missouri at Lake Sakakawea after 560 miles.

Medora, the town at the South Unit gate, had roughly how many residents in 2024?

It is the only incorporated place in Billings County and still its county seat, with plank sidewalks and buggy rides for the summer crowds.

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

He got his animal, fell for the 'perfect freedom' of the West and sank $14,000 into a ranch before going home.

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

They died hours apart on Valentine's Day; that summer he started his second ranch.

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

It was also called the Chimney Butte Ranch and was already being run by Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield.

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

Only the foundations survive; the site is now 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 built the 'long, low house of logs' over the winter of 1884-85.

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

He guarded the three men with a shotgun on the way to Dickinson and collected a $50 reward.

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

He lost about 60 percent of his stock, quit active ranching in 1887 and kept a small share of cattle only until 1898.

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?

That was the year he rode off 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?

It toured the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and Portland's 1905 exposition, then sat at the Bismarck capitol until 1959.

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

Built of ponderosa pine with wooden floors and three rooms, it counted as a 'mansion' by badlands standards.

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

One believed to be his sits in the cabin, and he loved to read in one on the veranda of his second ranch in the shade of the cottonwoods.

Which president created the park's South Unit in 1947, the only 'National Memorial Park' ever?

Congressman William Lemke had campaigned for five years; the North Unit followed in 1948.

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

The same act created 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?

Before that it had been the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area, developed by CCC camps from 1934 to 1941.

Roughly how many acres does the park cover?

That is about 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?

At 144 miles it is the longest continuous singletrack mountain-bike trail in America, though bikes must bypass the park units.

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

Nine fenced campgrounds with hitching rails line the route for horse riders and hikers.

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

Surplus animals are given to Native American tribes to build up and diversify their own herds.

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

For years the Park Service tried to remove them all; a 1978 plan set a goal of 35 to 60 head.

How many longhorn cattle roam the North Unit as a nod to the open-range era?

They commemorate the trail-drive days that Roosevelt himself lived through.

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

Their towns dot the South Unit's loop road, and they 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?

Other wildlife pass 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?

The brown dormant grass explodes into green each early summer with hundreds of flowering plants.

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

Medora von Hoffman was the daughter of a New York banker; the couple's 26-room Chateau de Mores is now a museum.

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

He planned to ship refrigerated beef east by rail; the scheme failed and he later blamed a 'Jewish plot'.

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

Roosevelt wrote back that he was 'most emphatically' not his enemy; the Frenchman had already been tried and acquitted of murder more than once.

Which president stopped in Medora on April 7, 1903, recalling that 'the entire population of the Badlands' turned out?

A local hotel promptly renamed itself the Rough Riders Hotel.

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

It runs from early June to early September and is one of the state's biggest tourist draws.

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

The area became the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area in 1935.

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

Golden eagles, sharp-tailed grouse and wild turkeys are among them, and the dark skies bring occasional northern lights.

Which two U.S. highways serve the park's two main units?

The North Unit lies just south of Watford City in the heart of the Bakken oil patch.

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

Only the ranch-house foundations remain; the cabin's timbers were carted off and reused after TR left.

Which three developed campgrounds does the park have?

Roughly 100 miles of foot and horse trails fan out from the scenic drives in both main units.

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 southern county 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?

Siltstone, claystone, sandstone and lignite coal were laid down on a coastal plain as the Rockies rose to the west.

How much did Roosevelt invest in the Maltese Cross Ranch after his first 1883 hunting trip?

The ranch was already run by Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield, who built its cabin that winter.

Which North Dakota congressman campaigned for five years before Truman created the park in 1947?

The North Unit followed by act of Congress in June 1948.

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

The Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area was built up by CCC camps working in both future units.

The park's North Unit sits on US Route 85 just south of which town?

It lies about 80 miles north of the South Unit near Medora, with the Elkhorn Ranch in between.

How many branded horses were removed in the 1954 round-up after the park was fenced?

A few unclaimed bands slipped away and became the free-roaming herd the park now 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.