Theodore Roosevelt: That Damn Cowboy

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For doing that doesn't stop, download the Home Depot app. This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories. And we tell stories about everything here on this show. And our favorite subject, American history. Though Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president, was a Texan and an absentee rancher with acreage west of Austin. And though Ronald Reagan, the 40th president, acted in westerns and owned a 688 acre ranch in Santa Barbara County. Both were more hat than cow. Theodore Roosevelt, on the other hand, owned two ranches and ran cattle in North Dakota and Montana.

He was just 42 years old when he took office in 1901, the youngest president ever. It was the west that molded Roosevelt into a man. Also, it was where he learned to carry a big stick. Here to tell the story is Roger McGrath and Michael Blake. McGrath is a regular on our show, a regular contributor for the History Channel. Michael Blake is a two-time Emmy award-winning makeup artist and a respected film historian.

Here's McGrath and Blake. Theodore Roosevelt was one of New York's most accomplished, adventurous, self-sacrificing, and patriotic sons. A Harvard graduate, author, cattle rancher, war hero, U.S. president, and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Medal of Honor.

He was a towering American figure, whom sculptor Gutzon Borglum carved into Mount Rushmore alongside Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. Contributing mightily to making Roosevelt into the heroic man he became were his days in the Old West. Unfortunately, most Americans today know little about Theodore Roosevelt and next to nothing about his life on the frontier.

Theodore Roosevelt is born in the heart of New York City in 1858, the second of four children, to a prominent and wealthy family. He's not the sickly child often portrayed, but energetic and adventurous. Although he does suffer from severe asthma attacks, which gives him a reputation for ill health. At 11 years old, he hikes the Alps with his father stride for stride, and later takes up boxing after being pummeled by two older boys.

By the time he's in his late teens, he's a robust physical specimen, and his asthma attacks are less frequent. Roosevelt is homeschooled and proves a bright student and a voracious reader. He doesn't attend one of the proper prep schools, as most young men of his social class do, but is nonetheless admitted to Harvard University at age 18. His father, whom he loved and admired greatly, tells him to take care of his morals first, his health second, and his studies third. He takes his father's advice to heart and is a paragon of moral rectitude.

He's also a top performer on the four city rowing and boxing teams. He excels in the classroom, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and finishes in the top 12% of his class. His achievement is all the more impressive because his father died two years earlier.

From the inheritance Roosevelt received, he could have settled into a life of indulgence and indolence. Instead, he enters Columbia Law School in the fall of 1880. At nearly the same time, he marries the love of his young life, Alice Lee. After a year at Columbia, the political bug bites him, and he's elected to the New York Assembly. He's in his second term when tragedy strikes.

His wife gives birth to a daughter on February 12, 1884. But two days later, his mother dies of typhoid fever and his wife of kidney failure. The double blow leaves Roosevelt devastated. For a time, he throws himself into political work with a vengeance, but soon decides to seek solace in the frontier west. Theodore Roosevelt once said that if he hadn't gone west and hadn't spent time in the Dakota Territory, he never would have been president.

While some may say, oh, that's typical hyperbole of Theodore, it's actually very true. At the time, in 1884, he had lost both his mother and his first wife on the same day, February 14, Valentine's Day, within hours of each other. His first wife, Alice, had just given birth the day prior to their first child, who was also named Alice. So grief-stricken was he that he left the baby daughter in care of his older sister, Bamey. And he went out west to a cabin he had recently bought and cattle ranch in what is now the area of Medora, North Dakota. Theodore went west to mend his broken heart to escape.

It's kind of an interesting trait of Roosevelt. Whenever he lost something very important in his life, he went away, in this case, going west. Roosevelt first experienced the west on a hunting trip to Dakota Territory in 1883. He roughed it on several hunts, enjoying himself immensely. He also bought a ranch, the Maltese Cross, and stocked it with cattle. Now he is returning to the ranch, not for a visit, but to settle. These years in the west contribute mightily to shaping him into the man America will come to admire, a man who is part cattle puncher, which helps make the cowboy a symbol of our country. Without his time and experiences in what was still the old west, Theodore Roosevelt would not have organized the Rough Riders, not have led the charge up San Juan Hill, and not have become president.

And you've been listening to Roger McGrath and Michael Blake tell the story of Teddy Roosevelt, and what a story indeed, when we come back, more of this remarkable story here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture, and faith, are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life, and all the things that are good in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.

Go to hillsdale.edu to learn more. You never know what a project will throw at you. Whether you're in the middle of building a shed, replacing a sink or hanging a ceiling fan, sometimes you get stuck. That's why the Home Depot app is made for doing that doesn't miss a beat. Need help identifying a part?

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Get yours before they sell out at Wal-Mart dot com. And we continue with our American stories and the story of Theodore Roosevelt and his time spent out west healing and mending a broken heart. Let's return to Roger McGrath and Michael Blake. In June 1884, Roosevelt gets off the Northern Pacific Railroad at the town of Medora, founded only the year before by a French nobleman turned rancher, the Marquis de Moray and named for his wife at the western edge of Dakota Territory near the border with Montana Territory. Medora is in the heart of the Badlands, despite the name and its rugged terrain. The Badlands have thousands of acres of grasslands, especially in the valley of the Little Missouri River, where Medora and several cattle ranches develop.

The area is still frontier. Only eight years earlier and 200 miles to the southwest, Custer and 200 men of the 7th Cavalry were massacred at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. When Theodore got to Medora area in 1884, after the passing of his mother and wife, he one of the first things he did within a day was he saddled up his favorite horse Manitou and went out for a ride for three days by himself into the wilderness. He wanted to test himself. He wanted to see if indeed he could be like those who he had read about in earlier days of the party pioneers, and he did quite well. From Medora, TR heads seven miles south to the Maltese Cross to begin his life as a rancher. He is soon dressed in a buckskin suit made for him by one of the first white women to settle in the region, Widow Maddox. He is armed with an ivory grip Colt revolver and a bowie knife. A wide brim hat sits on his head. When in the saddle, he wears spurs on the heels of his high top boots and stovepipe chaps.

He writes his sister. Well, I have been having a glorious time here and will hard now. I have just come in for spending 13 hours in the saddle. First and foremost, the cattle have done well.

And I regard the outlook for making the business a success as being very hopeful. This winter, I lost about 25 head from wolves, cold, et cetera. The others are in admirable shape and I have about one hundred and fifty five calves. I shall put on a thousand more cattle and she'll make it my regular business. I have never been in better health than on this trip.

I'm in the saddle all day long, either taking part in the round up of cattle or hunting antelope. This country is growing on me. It has a curious, fantastic beauty of its own. Before the summer is out, Roosevelt lays claim to a large tract of land, 35 miles to the north of the Maltese Cross. He erects a cabin on it, drives in a herd of cattle and christens his new ranch, Elkhorn. When the Marquis hears about it, he says he has an earlier claim to the same property.

Roosevelt notes the Marquis has not built the cabin on the property or stocked it with cattle and ignores the Frenchman's protestations. Roosevelt understands that not standing fast will expose him to ridicule as a weakling. He desperately wants to be respected as a man who lives by the code of the West.

Unwritten and informal, the code of the West develops during the 19th century in the American West. First and foremost, a man is expected to stand his ground, to have sand in the face of death. Many a man expresses it simply, I'll die before I'll run. A man is also expected to be loyal to his friends. The cowboys call it riding for the brand.

A man is expected to work hard and pull his own weight. A man is never to steal another man's horse. That isn't mere theft, but can mean a death sentence for the man who is left without a horse. Certain forms of outlawry are tolerated. A highwayman can hold up a stagecoach or train and take the express company's treasure box, but he is not to rob the passengers. A man's word is his bond. His word and his handshake are better than a legal contract.

Women are to be treated with difference and respect. Roosevelt embraces the code of the West and is determined to live by it. When he first arrives, many suspect he's not up to it. Will this scion from a prominent family in New York be up to the rigors of life on the frontier?

The glasses he wears don't help. However, he throws himself into working his ranches with such determination, energy and stamina that even the most seasoned cowboys are impressed. But when faced with life or death, will he have sand? As a cattle operation, Theodore was the boss. And during roundups, Theodore would take a job just like any other cowboy, and he would do various jobs rounding up the cattle. The only thing he didn't do was rope any of the cattle because of his poor eyesight, but he'd help in the branding and castrating the male cows and things like that. During one of the cattle roundups, Theodore was noticing that some of his men were lagging behind and the cattle were starting to spread out, so he yelled to them and said, You there, hasten forward quickly now. Well, the cowboys simply looked at him for a moment and thought, what the heck was that? Now, most cowboys, when they round up cattle, they'll do the various yahs or yee-hahs or whistles or all sorts of sound effects to get them to move. Well, when the cowboys in Roosevelt's outfit got a little bored, they would yell at the cattle, hasten forward quickly, after that moment.

During his first summer on his ranches, Roosevelt is many miles west of the Elkhorn looking for stray horses. With the sun setting, he decides to ride to Mingusville, a town on the Montana side of the border with a small cluster of buildings, including a railroad station, a livery and a hotel. It's dark by the time he stables his horse and walks towards Nolan's hotel. Two shots suddenly ring out from the bar and dining room of the hotel. Undeterred, Roosevelt walks inside and finds the bartender and several men, as Roosevelt put it, wearing the kind of smile worn by men making believe to like what they don't like. Roosevelt also sees a drunken patron with a revolver in each hand, swearing and strutting back and forth.

A clock on the wall has two bullet holes in its face, evidence of the drunk's prowess with his revolvers. When the drunk sees Roosevelt, he proclaims, four eyes will treat the house to drinks. Roosevelt laughs along with everyone else and takes a seat at a table, hoping that will be the end of it. However, the drunk strides over to the table and repeats the demand. You're going to buy us a drink, Theodore said, tried to ignore it. And again, he's repeated his demand with a few cuss words in it. And Theodore always said, if it's at all possible to avoid a fight, avoid it. He says, but if you can't hit them and hit them hard so they don't get up. Well, Theodore, the man standing in front of his table, Theodore sitting down and he's weaving. Theodore said, well, if I've got to, I've got to. And as he stood up, he pushed the table aside and hit the man with a sharp right to the chin, a sharp left and another right, driving him back.

And you've been listening to Roger McGrath and Michael Blake tell the story of Teddy Roosevelt and his adventures out West, more of Theodore Roosevelt's life story, his life out West and how it shaped him here on Our American Stories. You never know what a project will throw at you, whether you're in the middle of building a shed, replacing a sink or hanging a ceiling fan, sometimes you get stuck. That's why the Home Depot app is made for doing that doesn't miss a beat. Need help identifying a part?

Snap a picture and image search will tell you what it is. Heading to the store? With store mode, you can find everything on your list and navigate to it faster with product locator. Want to pick up your order or get it delivered? Take advantage of convenient delivery options so you can get your shopping done fast and get back to doing. The app gives you easy access to the digital tools you need to take any project from doing to done. For doing that doesn't stop, download the Home Depot app.

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Here's McGrath and Blake. While clapping to the floor, the drunk reflexively fires his guns, hitting no one. Roosevelt is ready to drop on the man with the knee to the ribs but sees he's unconscious. Well, after this fight with the drunken cowboy, all the cowboys in the area of Medora respected Theodore.

They accepted him then as one. He had proved his mettle. Another incident that cements Roosevelt's reputation as a man with sand and not just another Easterner playing cowboy occurs just after the ice breaks up on the Little Missouri River. In fear for their lives from vigilantes in Montana, three men steal Roosevelt's boot that he tied to a tree just above the river's shoreline on his Elkhorn Ranch. When Roosevelt discovers the theft, he's outraged. He and two ranch hands set out in a second boat to capture the miscreants. The thieves have a couple days' head start, but there are still ice floes on the river and the weather turns bitterly cold, forcing them to stop frequently, build fires, and hunt for game. After a week of pursuit, Roosevelt and his hands with a stolen boat moored on the riverbank and smoke coming from a campfire.

They stealthily approach the campfire and see one man warming himself. Roosevelt springs out of the brush and levels a Winchester at the man. He offers no resistance and is taken prisoner. Still out hunting, his two partners return singly and suffer the same fate at the hands of Roosevelt. Now in two boats, Roosevelt, his ranch hands and the prisoners continue downstream until they come upon a ranch and secure a wagon from the ranch. Well, Theodore didn't want to sit with his back to these three men riding alongside the driver in the wagon, so he followed the wagon in ankle-deep mud in the middle of February and he walked the 45 miles to Dickinson to turn them over to the local law authority.

And by the time he got there, his feet were almost frostbitten. He hadn't slept for 36 hours because he stayed awake the whole time to watch these guys so they didn't try to escape. When he turned them in, the next morning when they were arraigned in front of a judge who happened to be somebody Theodore knew from his days at Columbia College when he was studying to be a lawyer, and the judge's name was Western Star, he asked the judge not to charge the German man because he says, I don't think he knows what he's doing. And the German man profusely thanked Theodore for his efforts and Theodore chuckled and said, Well, that's the first time I've ever been thanked for calling someone an idiot. The other two men did get five-year terms and he had the respect of the local cattle owners, but they didn't understand why did you go to all that trouble when you could have just shot them or hung them and that was it. And they didn't understand Theodore. And this was something very key to Theodore's makeup and something that would echo throughout the rest of his life, whether he was New York Police Commissioner or in charge of the Civil Service Board or Assistant Secretary to the Navy or the Governor of New York and then ultimately the President of the United States. Theodore didn't want vengeance. He wanted justice and he saw justice serve.

It was very important to him. Yes, it would have been easier to hang the three men or shoot them, but that was not what Theodore wanted. Obviously, if the men tried to shoot it out with them, they would have returned fire, but Theodore was determined to see these men brought to justice and justice they were. Even out west, the politician in civic duty is in Roosevelt's blood. He is instrumental in organizing the Little Missouri Stockman's Association and at the organization's first meeting in December 1884, he's elected Chairman, or some call it President, and re-elected in 1885 and 1886. Medora's newspaper, The Badlands Cowboy, says, The Association can congratulate itself on again electing Theodore Roosevelt as President.

Under his administration, everything moves quickly forward and there's none of that time-consuming, fruitless talk that so invariably characterizes a deliberative assembly without a good presiding officer. Roosevelt becomes a member of the Montana Stockwell's Association in April 1885 and serves on one of that association's committees. As a member of both Kettleman's associations, Roosevelt is clearly not only accepted as a Westerner, but respected. Victor Stickney, the doctor who treated Roosevelt for blistered and frostbitten feet, invites Roosevelt to give the keynote address at Dickinson's 4th of July celebration. Roosevelt accepts. And a little past noon on the 4th, Roosevelt begins his address to a crowd of hundreds.

It is his first major public speech. He declares that though America shares a present with other nations, the future belongs to America. It's the same with Dakota Territory, he says. We, crangers and cowboys alike, have opened a new land. We are the pioneers.

And as we shape the course of a stream near its head, our efforts have infinitely more effect in bending it in any given direction. Later in his speech, he expounds on a theme that will come to characterize him as a national political figure. Says Roosevelt. Like all Americans, I like big things, big prairies, big forests and mountains, big wheat fields, railroads, and herds of cattle, too. Big factories, steamboats, and everything else.

But we must keep steadily in mind that no people were ever yet benefited by riches if their property corrupted their virtue. It is of more importance that we should show ourselves honest, brave, truthful, and intelligent than that we should own all the railways and grain elevators in the world. Roosevelt concludes his address by saying he is now as much a Westerner as an Easterner and is proud to be considered such.

The crowd applauds loudly and many roar their approval. On the train ride home from Dickinson to Medora, A.T. Packard, the publisher of the Badlands Cowboy, tells Roosevelt that his future is not as a rancher, but as a politician. Packard thinks Roosevelt will be president one day.

Says Roosevelt, if your prophecy comes true, I will do my part to make a good one. Theodore Roosevelt is all of 27 years old. And you've been listening to Roger McGrath and Michael Blake tell the remarkable life story of Teddy Roosevelt and my goodness to earn the respect of a bunch of 19th century cattlemen.

No duck walk. And he walked the walk. That bar fight probably sealed his fate, but that he ultimately joined these associations and led them and spent the time doing that. He also showed leadership and not just fortitude and strength. When we come back, more of this remarkable American character and how the West shaped that character.

Teddy Roosevelt's story continues here on Our American Story. You never know what a project will throw at you. Whether you're in the middle of building a shed, replacing a sink, or hanging a ceiling fan, sometimes you get stuck. That's why the Home Depot app is made for doing that doesn't miss a beat. Need help identifying a part?

Snap a picture and image search will tell you what it is. Heading to the store? With store mode, you can find everything on your list and navigate to it faster with product locator. Want to pick up your order or get it delivered? Take advantage of convenient delivery options so you can get your shopping done fast and get back to doing. The app gives you easy access to the digital tools you need to take any project from doing to done. For doing that doesn't stop, download the Home Depot app.

Nissan's electric vehicles run on a special electricity, not the electricity that turns on light bulbs or runs through your outlets. Think about it. What's that rush that gets you excited and creative sparks fly? I'm talking that spine-tingling goosebumps feeling that electrifies your body and soul. It could be the simple win of leaving on time for your morning commute, locking eyes with your crush, or scoring the largest deal of your career. But really it's pushing new ideas forward and being fearless, believing that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Even though it may be uneasy, the journey ahead will produce great results.

And that's the most thrilling ride, empowering yourself to embrace any new adventure that comes your way. And you can get that same electrifying feeling when driving a Nissan. Nissan is ever-evolving and changing the game through electric vehicle innovation, because the electricity their cars generate not only moves engines, but it also moves the emotions of those who drive them.

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Get yours before they sell out at Walmart.com. And we continue here on Our American Stories with the life of Teddy Roosevelt and how his time in the West shaped it. Let's continue with our fabulous storytellers and the now 27-year-old Theodore Roosevelt.

Here's McGrath and Blake. Getting up now and then to pace about and then go back to riding. When Roosevelt is not riding during slow times, he's hunting. He bags all the big game of the West. Alluding him until the end is the mountain goat. The surprisingly tough, weary, and sure-footed critter is found only at higher elevations, most often on steep and rocky mountainsides above the tree line. Roosevelt isn't able to shoot one until a professional hunter, Jack Willis, agrees to take him along on a hunt in Montana. After a couple days of grueling hiking and climbing, Roosevelt misses an easy shot, but the next day he makes, in the words of Willis, an impossible shot and drops a mountain goat at a distance of a quarter of a mile with a shot through the heart. A day later, Roosevelt and Willis are working their way along a narrow ledge when Roosevelt slips and falls head first off the ledge.

When I saw him fall, said Willis, I wouldn't have given two bits for his life. Roosevelt skids and bounces 60 feet down a rocky slope before his fall is stopped by the branch of a pine tree. He comes to rest at the base of the pine, still clutching his rifle, but without his glasses. By the time Willis reaches him, Roosevelt is on his feet saying he's okay, searching for a time he finds his glasses, which miraculously are not broken.

Just back up the slope the two of them climb and continue the day's hunt. Willis loses his last skepticism of the Easterner turned Westerner. There was another fellow in the Medora area named Jerry Packard who was something of a troublemaker and he came out to Theodore's Elkhorn Ranch one day while Theodore was out hunting and he was talking with Bill Sillwall and said, yes, this is a very nice place and word got back to Sillwall. That Packard in town in Medora was saying, you know, he wanted to take the Elkhorn Ranch and he said if Roosevelt wants to pay for it, he can pay for it, even in blood. Well, word got back to Sillwall and as soon as Theodore returned from his hunting trip, Sillwall said, hey, you know, you got to be aware that Packard was making these threats. Theodore said, oh, okay, so he saddles up on the horse, rides over to Packard's cabin, knocks on the door, Packard opens it and he says, I understand you have threatened to kill me.

I'm here to ask when do you want the killing to begin and if you have anything to say against me say it now. And about all Packard could do was stammer and stumble and say something to the effect of, well, it was all a mistake. They remained friendly even years later when Theodore was coming through on his 1903 Great Loop Tour as president and stopped in Dickinson.

Packard was there, who at that time was serving as a law officer and they greeted each other heartily and that, but no mention of that incident. Another time when Theodore was riding along and he was riding with Lincoln Lang going to a cabin where this lady made these beautiful buckskin shirts, they're riding along and they hear this chirping noise and squealing noise and they stop and they notice that a bull snake has wrapped its coils around a jackrabbit and is strangling to death. Theodore jumps off his horse and with his quirt, which was a leather whip, small whip that cowboys would use and wear around their wrists to whip their horse, he proceeds to whip the daylights out of the snake and kill it and he uncoiled the jackrabbit out of the snake's tightness and he's holding it in his arms, cradling it in his arms and holding it while, you know, the rabbit is kind of gaining its senses back and he's sitting there, there in the middle of nowhere and just gently stroking the rabbit on the head and on the back and then puts him down and the rabbit scurries off and he said, there goes a sore but wiser rabbit. Roosevelt's many hunting trips make him aware of the need to preserve the natural habitat of the big game of the West. As a consequence, he founds the Boon and Crockett Club.

Named for two of his heroes, the club is dedicated to conserving the wilderness and to what he terms fair chase hunting. Roosevelt loves his new life in the West but Mother Nature is about to turn against him and all other ranchers on the high plains. The summer of 1886 is unusually hot and dry and the normally abundant grass disappears. Ranchers purchase hay from farmers but the demand soon exceeds the supply.

Cattle begin losing weight and some die. Cooler weather comes in October but then a blizzard hits in mid-November. Day after day, snow piles up and temperatures drop until they dip well below zero.

Then in early December, a Chinook wind drives temperatures up as much as 50 degrees in one day. The snow begins to melt. Then suddenly the temperature drops again to 10, 20, 30 degrees below zero. One morning, a temperature of 41 degrees below zero is recorded. The melting snow is turned to an ice sheet. A cattle can't paw through it to get to the feed.

More snow storms arrive driven by powerful winds from Canada. Cattle starve, cattle freeze to death and cattle suffocate when buried alive in snow drifts. The era of the open range cattle industry dies in the winter of 1886 to 1887. Roosevelt loses more than 60% of his cattle and he was one of the lucky ranchers. A way of life for the cattlemen of the high plains that has prevailed for the preceding 20 years is over, never to return.

Cowboys have an old saying that somebody's all hat and no cattle, which means they're all talk and no action. Theodore definitely was all action and the people understood that. Maybe not the people in Washington, but the American public understood it and embraced it. And while he was president, he set aside 230 million acres for the American public to see, established 51 bird sanctuaries, 8 national parks, 18 national monuments. He and William Halliday started a breeding program at the Bronx Zoo for the American buffalo. It's rather ironic that the man goes to hunt buffalo and he becomes known as the great conservation president.

Late in 1887, Roosevelt leaves for New York. He will come back to his ranch, but only for visits. However, it is his years as a rancher in Dakota territory that helped make Theodore Roosevelt the man he becomes, the man who organizes the Rough Riders and leads the charge up San Juan Hill. And the man political boss Mark Hanna calls that damn cowboy. And you've been listening to Roger McGrath and Michael Blake tell one heck of a story. And by the way, McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier. He's a former U.S. Marine, a former history professor at UCLA, and he's appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. And we are lucky to have him as a regular contributor here at Our American Stories and Michael Blake.

Well, he's a two time Emmy winning makeup artist and respected film historian. He's the author of the informative and easy to read biography, The Cowboy President, The American West and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt. That time in the Dakota territories. What a mark it left on Roosevelt's life. And what a mark it left in American life. Two hundred million acres preserved, eight national parks, perhaps the first American conservationist and certainly the first American president who thought about our land in this way.

Again, the story of Theodore Roosevelt, that damn cowboy here on Our American Stories. For each person living with myasthenia gravis or M.G., their journey with this rare condition is unique. That's why Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis, a new podcast from I Heart Radio in partnership with Argenics, is exploring the extraordinary challenges and personal triumphs of underserved communities living with M.G. Host Martine Hackett will share these powerful perspectives from real people with M.G. so their experiences can help inspire the M.G. community and educate others about this rare condition. Listen to find strength and community on the M.G.

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