Roosevelts Returns to the Badlands

Theodore Roosevelt Hunting Suit

Quick Facts

Location:

Elkhorn Ranch Trail

Roosevelt learned a great deal from the local ranchers during his first visit, and truly fell in love with the cowboy way of life before he returned to New York City. He decided to buy into the Chimney Butte or Maltese Cross Ranch, located seven miles south of Medora. He had two partners, Sylvain Ferris and William Merrifield. Back in New York City during the winter of 1884, Roosevelt had to cope with the loss of two beloved people in his life. 

Listen to Theodore Roosevelt. Scholar Clay Jenkinson described Roosevelt's personal tragedy. 

“after the simultaneous death of Roosevelt's wife Alice and his mother Mittie, on Valentine's Day 1884. He was a broken man, and he really didn't know how he was going to recover. If he could recover, and the scenes of his grief were so depressing to him that he decided to take advantage of his connection to the badlands of North Dakota and come out here. 

He started to scout around for a place where he could really disappear from the world, and he had heard from a rancher by the name of Howard Eaton that there was some really good land downstream on the Little Missouri that would be north of Medora by about 35 miles. And Roosevelt rode out there alone, and he found this spot, and he chose it and called it the Elkhorn Ranch site, not because he wanted to get rich running cattle. 

This was not chosen primarily as an economic decision. He chose it because it was really in the middle of nowhere, and if he built a small cabin there, he could guarantee that he would be left alone. And that's what he needed at that point in his life.”