Theodore Roosevelt National Park
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Where Wildlife & Buffalo Still Roam
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Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. President, fell in love with
the North Dakota badlands during his first visit there in 1883 while he
was hunting bison. Roosevelt believed the ‘Wild West’ had a rugged
lifestyle and ‘perfect freedom.’ The establishment of Theodore
Roosevelt National Park was to memorialize Roosevelt’s life, and the
influence the landscape had on him and his conservation ethics. The 110
square miles park is divided into three sections packed with wildlife
including bison, feral horses, elk, bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer and
mule deer, prairie dogs, and 186 species of birds such as golden
eagles, sharp-tailed grouse, and wild turkeys. The largest, South Unit,
and the North Unit have about 100 miles of foot and horse trails,
wildlife viewing, and opportunities for back country hiking and camping.
The Elkhorn Ranch Unit which has Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch is located
in-between the two larger units. Besides wonderful wildlife, the
National Park Service calls the bizarre geologic rock formations the
“grim fairyland” of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Roosevelt said the
badlands were “so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color
as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth.” Here’s a look at
the wildlife at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, one of
the few places where the buffalo still roam.
