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Photo: David Francis Barry, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
In 1884 Roosevelt selected the location for a second ranch, naming it the Elkhorn. He purchased the rights to the site 35 miles (56 km) north of Medora from the previous occupant for $400. Roosevelt's last known visit to the Elkhorn was in 1892. He sold the ranch and buildings to Sylvane Ferris in 1898. Gradually the buildings were stripped of their furnishings and, according to a local stockman, by 1901 "every scrap of the Elkhorn Ranch had disappeared with the exception of a couple of half rotted foundations." In his writings, Roosevelt often referred to the Elkhorn as his "home ranch". His vivid descriptions of it, and of ranch life, enable his readers to imagine how things must have been.
The Elkhorn Ranch was established by Theodore Roosevelt on the banks of the Little Missouri River 35 miles north of Medora, North Dakota in the summer of 1884. Roosevelt hired Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, two Maine woodsmen, to run the ranch. Sewall and Dow built the ranch house, "a long, low house of logs," in the winter of 1884–1885.
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10.4 mi loop to one of the largest petrified forests in the U.S., with extensive paleontological deposits from the Paleocene era. Fossils of several plants, freshwater snail species, and vertebrates including crocodile-like creatures called champsosaurs, crocodiles and alligators, turtles and fish.
A short but steep 0.3 mi loop to along the cliffs of the Little Missouri River to a hilltop overlook.
A short walk to an overlook of the Little Missouri River, Medora, and the surrounding badlands.
The South Unit's most expansive view of the badlands landscape.
A particularly large and active prairie dog town.
It was here in the North Dakota badlands in 1883 that Roosevelt first arrived to hunt bison. Before he left, he had acquired primary interests in the Maltese Cross or Chimney Butte Ranch. Roosevelt thrived on the vigorous outdoor lifestyle, and at the Maltese Cross, actively participated in the life of a working cowboy. The Maltese Cross Ranch cabin was about seven miles (11 km) south of Medora in the wooded bottom-lands of the Little Missouri River. At Roosevelt's request ranch managers Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield built a 1½-story cabin complete with a shingle roof and cellar. Constructed of durable ponderosa pine logs that had been cut and floated down the Little Missouri River, the cabin was considered somewhat of a "mansion" in its day, with wooden floors and three separate rooms (kitchen, living room and Roosevelt's bedroom). The steeply pitched roof, an oddity on the northern plains, created an upstairs sleeping loft for the ranch hands.
A number of items in the cabin today belonged to Theodore Roosevelt. Those that did not are from the same time period and would be typical furnishings of the day.
During Roosevelt's presidency, the Maltese Cross cabin was exhibited in Portland, Oregon and St. Louis. It was then moved to the state capitol grounds in Bismarck. In 1959, the cabin was relocated to its present site and renovated. Further preservation work was undertaken in 2000.