By Richard Shank
Shank’s Scoop
A new national tourist attraction opens near Medora, N.D., on July 4, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The opening date is no coincidence as the attraction honors one of America’s greatest leaders in the nation’s history.
In the North Dakota Badlands, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library will be dedicated 107 years following his sudden and unexpected death on Jan. 6, 1919. In perusing the internet for details, I found that everyone said a Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is long overdue.
There seems to be little debate on Roosevelt’s legacy. Pundits on both sides of the aisle agree he is one of America’s five greatest presidents. He was no more than out of office when his historical significance was recognized.
On the side of Mount Rushmore, located 235 miles south of the Roosevelt Library, sculptor Gutzon Borglum started a 15-year-long project in 1927 to carve four 60-foot-tall faces of four presidents, including Roosevelt. The other three presidents carved are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.
Emporia’s famed newspaper editor William Allen White once proclaimed Roosevelt one of America’s greatest presidents.
Affectionately known as TR, the New York City-born Roosevelt fled his East Coast roots in 1884 following the death of his wife, Alice, and mother, Martha, on the same day in adjoining rooms in the same house on Valentine’s Day. His mother succumbed to typhoid fever, a common disease from that era, and Roosevelt’s wife passed following childbirth. His daughter, Alice, survived and would live to age 96 before her death in 1980 and remained active in social and political circles throughout her lifetime.
Roosevelt visited North Dakota in 1883 on a hunting trip and liked what he saw. Following the loss of two family members, he was a broken man and relocated to North Dakota, where he had previously spent $14,000 for a ranch and herd of cattle.
Roosevelt said the “light had gone out in his life and he was going to North Dakota to find a reason to go on living.”
The library will not include many of his presidential papers, since most are preserved in the Library of Congress. Still, there will be plenty to see in the 96,000-square-foot, $450 million facility in the rugged badlands of North Dakota. The library is located adjacent to the Theodore Roosevelt National Forest and near the tiny town of Medora, with a population hovering at approximately 200. Some say Medora may experience a boom in growth as news of the library gets out.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1955 establishing a federal framework for the presidential library system. Presidential libraries are overseen by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Libraries are built with private funds and, after opened, are operated by the National Archives. To date, there are 16 presidential libraries overseen by the National Archives, with the most recent being the President Barack Obama Center, which opened June 19 in Chicago.
Roosevelt’s accomplishments are many and include expanding the powers of the presidency, launching a massive conservation movement, increasing regulation of corrupt business monopolies, and building the Panama Canal. In 1905, Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for successfully negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
What seemed remarkable to some observers is that the library was successful in raising nearly half a billion dollars to build a library for a president who concluded his time in office 117 years ago.
In a recent interview, Edward O’Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library said, “The TR Presidential Library and Museum will not be a box in the Badlands with artifacts under glass,” O’Keefe noted. “The TR Library, like TR’s life will be an experience.”
Most say Teddy Roosevelt would be pleased with the library’s location and provide this quote to justify their opinion. Late in his life, Roosevelt said, “I have always said that I would not have been president had it not been for my experiences in North Dakota.”
Richard Shank is a retired AT&T manager and external representative for Hutchinson Regional Medical Center. He can be reached at shankr@prodigy.net or by calling 620-664-1517.