At age twenty-four, Theodore Roosevelt came to North Dakota after his young wife and his mother died within hours of each other at their home in New York. Seeking relief from grief and anguish, he left the bustling East Coast and found warmth, shelter, and solace in the Maltese Cross cabin, his first ranch home. There he recovered, experienced the last of America’s frontier, rode after cattle across the open range, and fell in love with the natural world’s detail, diversity, and wild freshness. He also witnessed the destruction caused by reckless, greedy, and wasteful use of resources and came to value a continent not yet completely subdued by civilized development. These experiences later shaped his reputation as the “Conservationist” president. While in office, he set aside over 230 million acres of federal land for conservation, signed and invoked the Antiquities Act so that he and future presidents could preserve federal lands as National Monuments, and, using this and previous legislation, established 150 National Forests, 23 National Parks and Monuments, 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 4 National Game Preserves, and 24 Reclamation Projects. After his death, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park was set aside to honor him and his conservation legacy, and later its name was changed to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
