Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-05
ON EXHIBITION.
Log Rouse Occupied by President
When a Ranchman.


st. Louis. Mo-, May 4.-One of the
objects OF interest at the Worlds fail
in st. Louis Is the log house in which
theodore Roosevelt lived two or three
years IN Billings county, N. D., when
he was ranchman and cowboy. This
Old ranch house was bought by the
state and has been brought to ST. Louis
and set up in the space occupied by
that state in the palace of agriculture.
The house is of logs with a sod roof,
and is "a feet long and IA feet wide. 1t
contains three rooms and an attic. One
OF the rooms was occupied by the flu
ture PRESIDENT as bedroom. Another
was used as living room and the third
was the kltchen. In the attic slept the
men employed by Mr.. Roosevelt to as
sist him in handling his range cattle.
In the early fall Of 1888, Roosevelt,
then 20 years of age and already a
member of the New York Legislature,
went to Medora, N. D., in search of big
game. Up to the year before that Sec
ton of country had been practically
wild land. Joe" and Sylvane Ferris
had built Il hunting shack not far from
Medora on land WHICH was soon occu-
pied by cattlemen from Minnesota.
who put herd of stock on the range
land there. Their brand was the NAL
tese cross and that became the name
of the ranch.
When Roosevelt arrived Joe" Ferris
took him south on buffalo hunt. MIR.
Roosevelt realized the value of the
bad lands" as that region is called.
for cattle country, and when he re-
turned to the shack he bought the NAL
tese cross herd and other cattle. en-
gaging Joe" Ferris and A. w. Merri
field to handle them for him.
This isn't much of a shack YOU bows
have got here remarked Mr. Roose-
welt one day. Wed better turn to and
build something better. l expect to be
here quite a while"
The men set to work, Roosevelt lend
ing a hand when needed and built the
i'm the downstairs bedroom, the rest of
the men sleeping in the attic, which
was gained by a ladder poked through
a hole in the kitchen ceiling.
Young Roosevelt went back to New
York to spend most of the winter, re-
turning to Medora in the spring of
1884. He remained through the summer
and fall, living in the log house, ex-
cept while absent on hunting trip in
the Big Horn mountains and in New
York when he went home to vote. Syl-
vane Ferris says Mr.. Roosevelt re-
manned on the ranch until after Christ
mas that year.
1.-The next May" says Ferris, "Roose-
welt came back and accompanied me to
the roundup as n common cowboy. He
insisted that we show him no favors be-
cause he was a cattle owner, but he
took pot luck with the boys, sharing all
our hardships. After helping us with
the roundup he stayed two months at
the Maltese Cross ranch"
I'D like more quiet" Mr.. Roosevelt
remarked one day to the Ferris broth
ers, and soon thereafter he had built on
the Elkhorn ranch, So miles north of
Medora, a more pretentious house
which he occupied during the rest of
his stay in North Dakota. This larger
house is down. 1t was built by hunting
Dow and Sewall.
While living in the Maltese Cross
ranch Mr.. Roosevelt was appointed a
uCPuty lOI county, anu
did good service in that capacity.
Near the house was tall butte called
Chimney butte from it's resemblance to
a chimney. Mr.. Roosevelt named his
place Chimney Butte ranch, but the
name did not stick owing to the fact
that the cowboys insisted on calling it
by the name of the cattle brand-the
Maltese Cross. Mr.. Roosevelt dated his
book entitled Hunting of a Ranch
man" from Chimney Butte ranch.
The Ferris and others who knew Mr.
Roosevelt intimately in those early
days have many tales to tell of his
deeds during his Dakota life. The old
cabin itself tells one tale with a NAL
tesc cross formed by empty cartridge
shells which Mr.. Roosevelt drove into
the end of one of the logs just outside
his bedroom. This cross still remains
and is an object of interest to Worlds
fair visitors.
Il am here simply rs a visitor and not
in any official capacity. but / desire to
say that the Louisiana purchase expos-
ton surpasses my greatest expectation"
said Ferdinand E. Peck. tonight. to Tho
Associated Press as he stood in the adj
ministration building and gazed over the
grounds. Mr.. Peck was the first vice
president of the Columbian exposition in
Chicago in 1893. and in 1900 was commits
sioner general for the United States to the
Paris exposition.
AT the opening of this exposition 1t
was far in advance of the Paris EXPOSE
ton on its opening day." Mr.. Peck con-
tinued THE state buildings are far be-
yond my expectations. They are more
colossal in structure and more substan-
tial in appearance than l had expected,
and all are marvels of beauty. The same
thing may be said of the national build
ings."