Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and Center for Stewardship and Dialogue
“Medora, North Dakota, wasn’t a village to Roosevelt anymore, but an entire world unto itself, a time and place of magic. Memory is selective, and Roosevelt’s seemed to fasten on the pleasant shade, tranquil skies, and meadowlarks of summer, and to excise the long, cold Dakota winters. In fact, Roosevelt was arguably as proud of his exploits at Elkhorn Ranch as he was of any other chapter in his biography. After killing a buffalo in Montana, he had rushed home to New York City to co-found the Boone and Crockett Club along with his friend George Bird Grinnell. According to Forest and Stream, that was the opening salvo of the conservation movement.”
Douglas Brinkley, The Wilderness Warrior
Theodore Roosevelt is a much venerated figure in U.S. history, but he has many facets. He was a vanguard of progressive and reformist politics for his time, taking on corporate monopolies and civic corruption. He championed the rights of workers and women along with the protection of wildlife and wilderness. He was a bookish bespectacled author of over 40 books who managed to cast himself as a manly outdoorsman and our first cowboy president. He was also an ardent advocate of western expansion and imperialism abroad, often at the expense of native peoples. Medora, North Dakota—a place where Roosevelt owned a ranch and spent time at a crucial point in his life—is a fitting crucible for understanding this complex and sometimes thorny legacy.
The anchor of our site will be a Presidential Library for Roosevelt in Medora. Since Roosevelt’s papers are digitized, the library would serve primarily as a point to access the collection and give it a context where an understanding of his legacy could emerge in a place of critical importance to his development. Libraries are not necessarily places of veneration, honoring ultimately study and reflection on a subject.
We aim to extend the mission of the library in two directions. First, it will become home to an outpost of the Stewardship Institute, a think tank within the National Park service that promotes dialog and education, befitting Roosevelt’s deep interest in the environment and his seminal role in founding the National Park system as we know it.
In addition, we aspire to host even broader discussions by housing a center for civil discourse. In our current state of polarization, the opportunity to exchange ideas and listen to each other is hard to find. This would be a forum that invites people to present their ideas and to foster discussion.
This will comprise a building of approximately 20,000 square feet. Students will also be asked to design outdoor spaces and consider the center’s relationship to the town, existing historical sites, and the surrounding Badlands landscape.
As with Roosevelt, Medora might become again a place for restoration, reflection and renewal. From its vantage point, Americans from many backgrounds can come together and forge a new vision of the land and its people in a shared and interdependent future.