Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1901-10-31
IN THE BAD LANDS.
An Interesting Account of President
ROOSeveIt'S Experience at
MedOrd.
Speedily Made Friends Among the
Cowboys and Invested in
Cattle
Chimney Butte Ranch, Located in q
Picturesque Spot, was His
Property.

ACIlUdl UIdl1l VI CIlC NO1 UACAA Al L oSAAO
road at Medora, a village nestled
among the shadows of the Bad Lands
hills. 1t was remarkable town, in
the eyes of the young man of the east.
About, on all sides, rose fantastic,
bare clay buttes, almost perpendi-
cularly, to height of several hundred
feet, forming a great, circular wall
about the settlement. The clay cliffs
we're destitute of vegetation save &C.
casional gnarled cedars which eked
out an existence from the clayey soil.
Where Little Missouri river dragged
its sluggish and tortuous length along
there was a slight fringe of scrub
and patches of "buck brush"
The young man was Theodore Roose-
velt, president of the United States
to be. He was at that time 25 years
of age, only a few years out of college,
of square build, medium height,
modest in demeanor, quiet, resolute
and with keen ENJOYMENT of life in
the open. His principal object in
coming to Medora at that time was
for the recreation that hunting affords
to those who enjoy the chase OF big
game. He was not and has never been
since, the Theodore Roosevelt who has
been pictured as a wild cowboy and
dare devil plainsman. He was courag-,
eous without recklessness, firm with
out being stubborn, resolute without
being obstinate, a keen admirer of
nature, with healthy taste for sport.
There was no element of the specta-
cular in his makeup, but an honest
that won his friends in
stantly among the rough frontiersmen,
who do not ordinarily strike up warm
with ''tenderfeet." TO
quote the impression of Mr.. Ferris,
who still lives at Medora, and has
been a warm personal friend of Roose-
velt from the time he first met him on
that buffalo hunting expedition
eighteen years ago: "He was slender
young fellow, and 1 had my doubts
whether he could stand the long trip.
To be honest about it, I expected to
have to take care Of him on the trip
saddle his horse, show him the Gus
tom Of the plains, see that he got
his grub regularly and the other
little things that come up on hunt
ing trip Of the kind. l soon found
that was mistaken in my man. He
was able to do for himself at every
turn. Where he learned to ride horse
back don't know, but l do know that
he rode as well or better than I did
and could stand more knocking about
than could. What he didn't know
of the ways of the west he learned by
observation-andh he padded his own
canoe from the start. On the first
night out, our horses took fright at
wolves and ran off. We had them
picketed with ropes fastened to the
horns of our saddles. When the
wolves frightened them they ran,
dragging the saddles, which we used
as pillows, from under our heads, and
when we got up we could hear only
the faint hoof beats as they tore
across the country. Mr.. Roosevelt
needed no urging to start after them.
He sprang up and was off in an in
slant. We followed the horses for
some distance and finally recaptured
them. After that we fastened the
saddles together with the picket ropes
between them, lay down on the ropes
and slept till morning. We contin-
ued our journey to the buffalo grounds
and hunted them over for several days
before he got his first shot alta buffalo.
While riding along our horses snorted
and pricked up their ears, and l knew
there was big game in the near vicin-
ity. Dismounting we looked over the
edge Of deep "washout," and there
was a big buffalo bull feeding, and all
unconscious Of US. l pointed to
patch of red that shows plainly on the
side of buffalo. Hit that, l said to
Roosevelt, and you've got him. AL
though it was his first shot at a buf-
falo, he was cool and sighted carefully
where directed him. AS the shot
sounded the bull started and came
straight up out Of the washout