the area. Inside, separate galleries highlight key periods in Roosevelt’s life including as a rancher in the surrounding Badlands, his military career, his dedication to the outdoors and conservation, and of course his time in the White House. Exhibits explore his role in building the Panama Canal, leading the “Rough Riders” during the Spanish American War, his dangerous Africa and Amazon expeditions, and his 1903 Yosemite camping trip with naturalist John Muir that led to the creation of the National Park System. “The experience will draw out a lot of different types of emotions as people weave in and out of Roosevelt’s life,” notes McCann. Medora is home to the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame which showcases the horse culture, history and lifestyle of ranchers, rodeo cowboys and Native Americans who have lived on the northern plains. The Medora Musical variety show runs nightly in the summer with country music acts, horses, and fireworks. The town is also the gateway to the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, encompassing a wide stretch of stunning buttes weathered through the millennia. In fact, some
Roosevelt’s Maltese Cross Cabin was moved to the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Parks visitor centers
Roosevelt, in fact, has special focus during this year’s 250th anniversary. A four-hour drive north from Mount Rushmore through mostly uninhabited vast plains leads to North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and a new tribute to the 26th president—the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. Scheduled to open on July 4th, the museum highlights Roosevelt’s life, presidency, and conservation legacy with narrative galleries, small pavilions, and outside walking paths. It will have digital access to his presidential archives now housed in the Library of Congress, Harvard University, and North Dakota’s Dickinson State University. And why is it opening in the Badlands in far southwest North Dakota? To highlight Roosevelt’s time there, starting in 1883 when he came to hunt buffalo and where he built two ranches. He returned just a year later to grieve when he lost both his mother and wife tragically on Valentine’s Day, 1884. “He goes into this deep depression, so he comes out to the Badlands and throws himself into the type of work that’s kind of dangerous because it’s the frontier,” says Amy McCann, the Library’s Group Experience Manager. “He goes hunting and learns the cowboy way, and the little pleasures that are rejuvenating. He found that grit he was made of,” she adds. “He may have lived in New York and was buried there, but his spirit is definitely here. Roosevelt once said he never would have been president if it wasn’t for his time here.” Located in the touristy Western-themed town of Medora, the Presidential Library is housed in a unique structure with a curving earthen roof starting at the ground and topped with grasses and plants from
A statue of the Rough Rider stands before the Old Town Hall Theater
THE DAKOTAS CELEBRATE JULY 4
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2026 | 14
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