Theodore Roosevelt National Park Established (1947)

When Teddy Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, died on January 6, 1919, it wasn’t long before conservationists began advocating for a park in his name.  Roosevelt was, after all, our “conservation president,” a leader who established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks and 18 national monuments encompassing 230 million acres in all.  But it did not prove easy to get a park named for him.

Teddy Roosevelt National Park lies in the badlands region of North Dakota (photo by Larry Nielsen)

            As a young man, Roosevelt traveled to the Dakota Territory for a hunting trip in 1883.  He fell in love with the land and with the idea of being a rancher.  That year, he bought one ranch and a second one the next year.  For the next several years, he visited the area often to manage his ranches and enjoy the western lifestyle.  The work toughened him and convinced him that he could do anything. “I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota,” Roosevelt said later.

            It seemed logical, then, that a park dedicated to Roosevelt’s conservation heritage be created in North Dakota.  In 1921, North Dakota asked Congress to create such a park, and by 1924 a park association formed in the state to promote the idea.  The National Park Service didn’t think the area deserved a national park, but agreed, in 1928, to propose a small national monument as a tribute to Roosevelt.  Some action began in the 1930s, when the same extended drought that created the Dust Bowl (learn more about the Dust Bowl here) caused North Dakota farmers and ranchers to abandon their lands.  The U.S. government bought back millions of acres and created the Little Missouri National Grasslands on the North Dakota-Montana border. 

Teddy Roosevelt ‘s cabin at his national Park (photo by Larry Nielsen)

            A portion of the grasslands was put into a cooperative park venture among several federal and state agencies, and, by 1935, a Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area was established.  But when a permanent home for a park was sought, neither the State of Nork Dakota nor the National Park Service wanted to take responsibility.  After World War 2 ended, the National Park Service again declined to take on the property, declaring that it was not worthy of national park status.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended up with the land, designating it a national wildlife refuge.  But with the aggressive and persistent lobbying of North Dakota Congressman William Lemke, Congress passed and President Truman signed, on April 25, 1947, a law creating Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park.  Thirty-one years later, on November 10, 1978, President Carter signed the law that dropped “memorial” from the name and finally made it official—Teddy Roosevelt finally had his national park, nearly 60 years after his death.

American bison, Teddy Roosevelt National Park (photo by Larry Nielsen)

            Three separate units comprise the park.  The majority of the park’s 70,447 acres are in the South Unit (about 46,000 acres) and North Unit (about 24,000 acres).  Between these units is the Elkhorn Ranch Unit of 218 acres, one of the two original ranches owned by Teddy Roosevelt.  No area of the park is highly developed, with only primitive campsites, hiking trails and scenic drives, but the Elkhorn unit is kept purposely undeveloped to represent the rugged wildness of Roosevelt’s time.  Visitation to the park is relatively low, averaging about 500,000 per year for several decades but recently reaching about 750,000.

            The park, therefore, retains the character that Roosevelt loved about the West.  It is about nature—rugged, beautiful, an island of solitude.  And it reminds us that taking care of such places is a solemn duty.  As Roosevelt said in 1910,

“There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm. The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.”

References:

It took a long time before Teddy Roosevelt got his own national park (photo by Larry Nielsen)

National Park Service.  Park History, Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  Available at:  https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/park-history.htm.  Accessed April 8, 2019.

U.S. Department of the Interior.  2016.  The Conservation Legacy of Theodore Roosevelt.  USDOI blog, 10/27/2016.  Available at:  https://www.doi.gov/blog/conservation-legacy-theodore-roosevelt.  Accessed April 8, 2019. 

This Month in Conservation

September 1
Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon, Died (1914)
September 2
President Roosevelt Dedicated Great Smoky National Park (1940)
September 3
Wilderness Act passed (1964)
September 4
Fort Bragg, Home of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Established (1918)
September 5
UNESCO Established First World Heritage Sites (1978)
September 6
Alcide d’Orbigny, French Naturalist, Born (1802)
September 7
Edward Birge, Father of Limnology, born (1851)
September 8
UN Millennium Declaration ratified (2000)
September 9
First “Bug” Found in Computer (1945)
September 10
Henry Hardtner, Father of Southern Forestry, Born (1870)
September 11
World Wildlife Fund Began Operations (1961)
September 12
Canyonlands National Park Established (1964)
September 13
Walter Reed born (1851)
September 14
Marc Reisner, Author of Cadillac Desert (1948)
September 15
Darwin reaches the Galapagos Islands (1835)
September 16
Ed Begley Jr., Environmental Advocate, born (1949)
September 17
Edgar Wayburn, Wilderness Advocate, Born (1906)
September 18
Grey Owl, Pioneering Conservationist in Canada, Born (1888)
September 19
Urmas Tartes, Estonian Nature Photographer, born (1963)
September 20
AAAS Founded (1848)
September 21
Assateague Island National Seashore Created (1965)
September 22
Peace Corps becomes law (1961)
September 23
Rose Selected as U.S. National Flower (1986)
September 24
President Kennedy Dedicated Pinchot Institute (1963)
September 25
Pope Francis Addressed the UN on the Environment (2015)
September 26
Johnny Appleseed Born (1774)
September 27
“Silent Spring” Published (1962)
September 28
National Public Lands Day
September 29
Steinhart Aquarium opens (1923)
September 30
Hoover Dam Dedicated (1935)
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