Theodore Roosevelt’s time in the Dakota Badlands was some of the most pivotal experiences in his life.
Why The Badlands?
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was a New York patrician born with many advantages: wealth, a loving family, huge intellect, even huger curiosity, almost limitless opportunities, but unfortunately, poor health. As an asthmatic child, those limitless opportunities were curtailed for several years, and redirected his interest in natural science – a more sedentary pastime. Fortunately, a combination of puberty and physical exercise helped abate much of his condition. In his mid-teens and more robust, he spent a summer in Maine, under the tutelage of bona fide lumbermen, who were amazed by the greenhorn kid, grew to respect his character and aptitude, and became his lifelong friends.
TR senior died when Theodore had just finished his freshman year in college. He was slated for a large inheritance at his majority. He decided to hunting in the Wild West of North Dakota, where reputations had to be earned. He was happy to earn it, and loved it.
When his young wife died in childbirth, TR was only twenty-five. His grief was devastating, all the more because his beloved mother died of typhoid the same day – in the same house. Needing to heal his wounds in private, he went back to the Dakotas. By that time, everyone within a large radius knew – or at least knew about “the four-eyed greenhorn from New York.” But they liked him and respected him. And he loved it.
The Bad Winter of 1886
Winter wreaked havoc in the prairies of the north in 1886, but by early spring, TR decided to return to the cattle ranches he had previously purchased, and enjoy a little hunting with Bill Sewall and Wilmer Dow, his companions from Maine who he had engaged to help run one of the ranches. The winter weather had been especially brutal, and the spring rains made it even worse. Creeks and rivers that usually contained the runoffs were now flooded – and treacherous.
On top of that, a cougar had been threatening his cattle, and TR decided that the hunt was on – for the mountain lion first, and then for enough game to keep them fed for a while. He told Bill and Wilmer to provision their small scow, and they would stalk their dangerous prey who likely hugged the shores of the nearby river. Problem was …the boat was missing. It had been stolen.
This was strange. The scow was practically worthless. Ten or twenty dollars at most. Who would steal it? Turns out, there was only one other known ranch-with-a-boat for miles around, and that one was rotted and falling apart. They suspected the boat-thieves to be from that ranch however, led by a nasty fellow named Finnegan, with a reputation for regular mayhem. Arguing with his ranch hand pals, Theodore Roosevelt insisted that theft is theft, period. If they had stolen horses, or rustled cattle, they would have been summarily hung! But to condone the theft would only invite more theft. It was TR’s character, pure and simple.
The three men built another boat and in a couple of days the chase was on!
Sewall and Dow maneuvered the boat with long poles, and occasionally hunted some game to keep themselves adequately provisioned. Sure enough, a few days later, they saw their old scow tied up along the still-swollen river bank. It was easy for them to take the miscreants by surprise. Especially since the bad guys were surrounded by Roosevelt, Sewall and Dow – with guns.
Justice Prevails
TR borrowed a horse to haul provisions, and he and his companions took the “perpetrators” on foot to the nearest town, to be turned over to the proper authorities. It took four days! It was still freezing cold in March, especially at night. Snow and ice was still on the ground. The upright and humane Roosevelt had no wish to tie them up, thus inviting frostbite or worse. He simply made them remove their boots. No sane person would try to run away in sub-freezing temperatures – barefoot. And where cactus was prevalent.
And the three “good guys” shared their meager rations with the three “bad guys.” When Sewell and Dow foraged successfully for a couple of guinea fowl, everyone ate. At night, the three bootless “bad guys” shared a buffalo blanket.
Frontier justice was quick and unforgiving in the 1880s. Trials were immediate, legal assistance was rare, and sentences (usually harsh) were proclaimed, administered and effected pronto!
Theodore would have none of that. He had visions of Dakota’s soon-to-be statehood filled with families and farms and towns. Law-abiding citizens who would build schools and churches and town halls. Justice, to him, must be just. It was his character.
When they reached Dickinson, the nearest town-with-a-sheriff, he turned his prisoners over to the law, where they were sentenced to two years in prison. It is said that when their imprisonment had been completed, Finnegan actually wanted to meet Roosevelt. He had treated him fairly.
Theodore Roosevelt’s reputation was now nearly legendary in the Badlands, and according to lore, there were some who wanted to elect him as North Dakota’s first congressman once they received statehood. But by then, TR was planning his remarriage, and Edith Carow, his bride-to-be, was not inclined to be a frontier wife. And Roosevelt himself knew his future lay in the East. In New York.
Nevertheless, when he formed the volunteer cavalry unit for the War with Spain, cowboys were the first to enlist in the Rough Riders. And TR always believed he would never have become president if he had not gone out west.
Sources:
Dalton,, Kathlen – Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life – 2004, Vintage
Roosevelt, Theodore – Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail – Dover Publications (reprint) 2009.
Presidential History Blog 