Roosevelt in the Bad Lands. Hermann Hagedorn
The Prairie at the Edge of the Bad Lands Photograph by Holmboe, Bismarck, N. D. 32
"Broken Country" Photograph by Holmboe 32
Roosevelt in 1883 48
Medora in the Winter of 1883–84 48
"Dutch Wannigan" and Frank O'Donald 64
Scene of the Killing of Riley Luffsey 64
Antoine de Vallombrosa, Marquis de Mores By courtesy of L. A. Huffman, Miles City, Montana 76
Sylvane Ferris 92
A. W. Merrifield 92
The Maltese Cross Ranch-House as it was when Roosevelt lived in it Photograph by C. R. Greer, Hamilton, Ohio 92
The Ford of the Little Missouri near the Maltese Cross 108
A. T. Packard 130
Office of the "Bad Lands Cowboy" 130
The Little Missouri just above Elkhorn 150
Elkhorn Bottom 164
A Group of Bad Lands Citizens 176
Roosevelt's Brands From the Stockgrowers Journal, Miles City 190
Fantastic Formation at Medicine Buttes 202
Medicine Buttes 202
Poster of the Marquis de Mores's Deadwood Stage-Line By courtesy of the North Dakota Historical Society 212
Theodore Roosevelt (1884) 236
Elkhorn Ranch Buildings from the River Photograph by Theodore Roosevelt 252
Gregor Lang 262
Mrs. Lang 262
The Maltese Cross "Outfit" 276
The Maltese Cross "Chuck-Wagon" 276
The Scene of the Stampede 296
Elkhorn Ranch-House Photograph by Theodore Roosevelt 310
Site of Elkhorn (1919) 310
Hell-Roaring Bill Jones 320
Bill Williams's Saloon (1919) 320
Hotel de Mores 332
The Abattoir of the Marquis de Mores 332
The Bad Lands near Medora 346
Joseph A. Ferris 360
Joe Ferris's Store 360
Wilmot Dow and Theodore Roosevelt (1886) 370
The Piazza at Elkhorn Photograph by Theodore Roosevelt 370
Dow and Sewall in the Boat Photograph by Theodore Roosevelt 384
Medora in 1919 402
Ferris and Merrifield on the Ruins of the Shack at Elkhorn 424
Corrals at Elkhorn Photograph by Theodore Roosevelt 424
George Myers 442
The Little Missouri at Elkhorn 442
Lincoln Lang 456
William T. Dantz 456
Margaret Roberts 456
"Dutch Wannigan" 456
Joe and Sylvane Ferris and Merrifield (1919) 472
Rough Riders Hotel 472
Photographs of Bad Lands scenes, unless otherwise indicated, were made by the author.
The end-paper map is from a drawing made for the book by Lincoln A. Lang. The town of Mingusville is indicated on it under its present name—Wibaux.[Back to Contents]
INTRODUCTION.
The trail-tracer of Theodore Roosevelt's frontier life has given the members of this Advisory Committee of Three of the Roosevelt Memorial Association the opportunity of a first reading of his book. The duty of considering the manuscript and making suggestions has been merged in the pleasure of the revealing account of that young man who forty years ago founded a personal College of the Plains in raw Dakota.
Three are the essentials of the good biographer—historic sense, common sense, and human sense. To the mind of the Committee, Mr. Hagedorn has put into service all three of these senses. Every writer of history must make himself an explorer in the materials out of which he is to build. To the usual outfit of printed matter, public records, and private papers, Mr. Hagedorn has added an unexpected wealth of personal memories from those who were part of Roosevelt's first great adventure in life. The book is a thorough-going historical investigation into both familiar and remote sources.
The common sense of the work is in its choice of the things that counted in the experience of the ranchman, hunter, and citizen of a tumultuous commonwealth. All the essential facts are here, and also the incidents which gave them life. Even apart from the central figure, the book reconstructs one of the most fascinating phases of American history.
That is not all that is expected by the host of Roosevelt's friends. They want the man—the young Harvard graduate and New York clubman who sought the broader horizon of the Far West in making, and from it drew a knowledge of his kind which became the bed-rock of his later career. The writer's personal affection for and understanding of Roosevelt have illuminated the whole story. He paints a true portrait of an extraordinary man in a picturesque setting.
William A. Dunning
Albert Bushnell Hart
John Grier Hibben[Back to Contents]
ROOSEVELT IN THE BAD LANDS.
My friends, I never can sufficiently express the obligations I am under to the territory of Dakota, for it was here that I lived a number of years in a ranch house in the cattle country, and I regard my experience during those years, when I lived and worked with my own fellow ranchmen on what was then the frontier, as the most important educational asset of all my life. It is a mighty good thing to know men, not from looking at them, but from having been one of them. When you have worked with them, when you have lived with them, you do not have to wonder how they feel, because you feel it yourself. Every now and then I am amused when newspapers in the East—perhaps, I may say, not always friendly to me—having prophesied that I was dead wrong on a certain issue, and then finding out that I am right, express acid