Theodore Roosevelt National Park Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
47 free Theodore Roosevelt National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Theodore Roosevelt National Park trivia quiz covers the badlands of western North Dakota where a grieving young New Yorker went to ranch in the 1880s and came back a conservationist. It is the only U.S. national park named for a single person, split into a North Unit, a South Unit and the remote Elkhorn Ranch site, all threaded by the Little Missouri River and the Maah Daah Hey Trail. Questions cover the bison, wild horses, prairie dogs and elk, the scenic drives and wilderness, and the little cowboy town of Medora at the gate. There is plenty of history too: TR's 1883 buffalo hunt, the death of his wife and mother on the same day, the Maltese Cross Cabin and the Elkhorn Ranch, the boat thieves he marched to Dickinson, the starvation winter of 1886-87, the French Marquis de Morès and his meat-packing scheme, the CCC camps, and the park's odd path from wildlife refuge to 'national memorial park' to national park in 1978. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, so it works for an I-94 road-trip game or a serious park-nerd challenge. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Badlands, Yellowstone and US National Parks quizzes next.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Theodore Roosevelt National Park is in the badlands of which U.S. state?
North Dakota
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.
Q 02What distinction does the park hold among all U.S. national parks?
Only one named after a single person
It honours the years the future president spent ranching in Dakota Territory before statehood.
Q 03How many geographically separate units make up the park?
Three
The park has three separate units: the North Unit, the South Unit, and the much smaller old ranch site that lies between them.
Q 04Which river flows through every unit of the park?
Little Missouri
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.
Q 05Roosevelt first came to the Dakota badlands in September 1883 to hunt what?
Bison
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.
Q 06In what year did Roosevelt's wife and mother die on the same day, sending him back to the badlands?
1884
Alice and Mittie Roosevelt died hours apart on February 14, 1884, Valentine's Day; that summer Roosevelt returned west and started his second ranch.
Q 07Roosevelt's first ranch, seven miles south of Medora, was known by what name?
Maltese Cross
The Maltese Cross Ranch, also called the Chimney Butte Ranch, was already being run by Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield when Roosevelt bought in.
Q 08Roosevelt's second, larger and more private ranch, 35 miles north of Medora, was called what?
Elkhorn
Only the foundation stones of the Elkhorn Ranch house survive; the site became its own park unit, reached by gravel roads.
Q 09Roosevelt hired two woodsmen from which state to run his second ranch?
Maine
Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, Roosevelt's guides from Maine, built the 'long, low house of logs' over their first winter in Dakota.
Q 10In spring 1886, after thieves stole his boat, what did Roosevelt do?
Chased them downriver on a raft and marched them to jail
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.
Q 11Which brutal season wiped out most of Roosevelt's cattle and pushed him toward conservation politics?
The starvation winter of 1886-87
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.
Q 12Which is NOT one of the three major books Roosevelt wrote about his ranching years?
The Winning of the West
The Winning of the West was his multi-volume history of the frontier, not a memoir of ranching.
Q 13Roosevelt stopped ranching actively in 1887 but kept ranching interests in the badlands until what year?
1898
Q 21Roughly how many recreational visitors did the park receive in 2021?
850,000
Most stop at the South Unit off I-94; the North Unit near Watford City is far quieter.
Q 22Which trail connects the park's North and South units across the national grassland between them?
Maah Daah Hey
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.
Q 23The trail linking the park's units takes its name from which people's language?
Mandan
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'.
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.
Q 14Where has Roosevelt's first ranch cabin been displayed since 1959?
At the South Unit Visitor Center
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.
Q 15Roosevelt's first cabin was unusual for the northern plains for its steeply pitched roof, which created what?
An upstairs sleeping loft
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.
Q 16Which piece of furniture did Roosevelt call something no 'true American' could fail to enjoy?
A rocking chair
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.
Q 17Which president signed the act making this the only 'National Memorial Park' ever?
Harry Truman
Harry Truman signed the act creating the park as a National Memorial Park on April 25, 1947; the North Unit was added in 1948.
Q 18In what year was the park's designation changed to a full national park?
1978
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.
Q 19Before it was a park, the area spent 1946-47 under which agency as a national refuge for animals?
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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.
Q 20Roughly how many acres does the park cover?
About 70,000
The park covers about 70,000 acres, roughly 110 square miles, small by western park standards.
Q 24How many bison were first reintroduced to the South Unit in 1956?
29
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.
Q 25Which free-roaming animals, recognised as 'historical setting' in 1970, descend from bands that eluded a 1954 round-up?
Wild horses
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.
Q 26Which overlook marks the end of the North Unit's scenic drive?
Oxbow Overlook
Oxbow Overlook ends the 14-mile North Unit scenic drive, looking down on a sweeping bend of the river far below.
Q 27Which burrowing rodent is the park's keystone species, mixing soils and feeding predators?
Prairie dog
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.
Q 28How tall is the woven-wire fence around the entire park that keeps bison in and livestock out?
7 feet
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.
Q 29Roosevelt called the snowbound winter badlands 'an abode of' what?
Iron desolation
'An abode of iron desolation' is how Roosevelt described the snowbound northern plains in his ranching memoirs, when the nights seemed never-ending.
Q 30Which French nobleman founded Medora in 1883 and named it after his wife?
Marquis de Morès
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.