TR’s Shadow in Montana’s Big Sky

Bob Brown | Former Montana Secretary of State

Theodore Roosevelt disliked the nickname Teddy, however he loved Montana, and is deeply connected to our state.

He is considered by most historians to be the first modern president. He was the first president to be commonly referred to by his initials. TR was the first president to drive a car and fly in an airplane. He still holds the Guinness Record for shaking the most hands in a single day: 8,150. He was the first and only president to box and engage in the martial art of jujitsu in the presidential mansion, which he incidentally named the White House. He was also a great scholar, the author of 33 books and numerous research articles ranging from history and political science to forestry and zoology. He is also the only president to win both the Nobel Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor.

He was severely criticized for having the first African American as his dinner guest in the White House, incredible as that seems to us now in light of the current president. Theodore Roosevelt was remarkably unbigoted, as he also demonstrated by being the first president to have a Jewish member in his cabinet, and as the leader of an overwhelmingly Protestant country, to personally meet the pope. TR was the youngest person to ever serve as President of the United States. His youth, energy, courage, and progressive open mindedness toward diversity and technology set him apart from all those who preceded him in our nation’s highest office.

TR was a committed big game hunter—he had mounted the head of a buffalo bull he killed as a young man while hunting in Montana, on the wall in the White House after he became president. Deeply concerned about the uncontrolled slaughter of the buffalo, TR used his power as president to establish the National Bison Range in Moiese, Montana, which probably rescued the buffalo from extinction. His avid interest as a hunter caused TR to found the Boone and Crocket Club, which now has its national headquarters in Missoula, Montana.

While hunting in Montana before becoming president, TR once killed two deer with a single bullet. Hunting in the Bighorn Mountains near the border between Montana and Wyoming, he shot a twelve–hundred-pound grizzly so that in a quote from him, “The bullet having gone into his brain, striking as fairly between the eyes as if the distance had been measured by a carpenter’s rule.”

While he was an easterner by birth, TR was a Westerner in spirit.

He came West as a result of a deep personal tragedy. His beautiful 22-year-old bride to whom he’d been married for only a year, died giving birth to their first child on the same day that TR’s mother died. Overwhelmed with grief, young Theodore Roosevelt headed West to try and sort out his shattered life. He purchased ranch property near the Montana border in Western North Dakota. As a rancher there for several years he became an officer in what eventually became the Montana Stockgrowers Association, and his brand was registered both in North Dakota and Montana.

But Theodore Roosevelt’s characterization as the first modern president has deeper meaning than the symbolism to be the first to do many new things or to go where no American leader had ever led before. Most importantly, TR was the first modern president because he courageously used the power of his great office and projected his vision of what he intended to do, through the news media, directly to the people.

Of great present day significance to Montana, TR directly used his power to protect our natural resources. When he became president in 1901, the United States contained 43 million acres of land which were reserved for the public. When he left office in 1909 he had expanded that number to 194 million acres. Because of TR, Montana has the Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest, the Kootenai National Forest, the Custer National Forest, the Lolo National Forest, the Helena National Forest, and the Kaniksu National Forest. Only Alaska, California, and Idaho have more forestland than Montana.

This great and far-sighted accomplishment did not come without great controversy. When TR created the U.S. Forest Service in 1905 to oversee the management of the forest reserves, the new agency and the forests it supervised was denounced by many high level politicians including Montana Governor Edwin L. Norris and Montana United States Senator William A. Clark. Montanan’s don’t need any more federal land grabs, protested Governor Norris. Senator Clark angrily stated in regard to the conservation of natural resources that, it was up to this generation to take care of itself, and for future generations to take care of themselves.

In carrying the conservation battle over the heads of such politicians and directly to the people, TR first introduced into the public discourse the concepts we understand today as renewable resources and sustainability. In a widely publicized speech, President Roosevelt wrested control of the conservation issue and won over most of the American people when he said, “We’ve become a great nation in a material sense because of the lavish use of our natural resources. And we have reason to be proud of our growth. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, iron, oil, and gas are exhausted, when the soil has been further impoverished and washed into the streams polluting our rivers. Our distinguishing characteristic is foresight. We have to, as a nation, exercise foresight into the future. If we do not behave with foresight, dark will be our future.”

When you travel through Montana and through a Montana National Forest, think of America’s greatest conservation president. Think of Theodore Roosevelt. Our national forests are a living monument to him. He foresaw their timeless value and had the courage to fight to preserve them.

The faces of perhaps our four greatest presidents are sculpted into the rock of a western mountain, Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. They are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Washington was the great founder of our country. Jefferson was our great philosopher. Lincoln held the nation together at the time of our greatest crisis. And Theodore Roosevelt, the first modern president, foresaw the future and courageously and colorfully led America into modern times. He was the president most connected to Montana.

Be inspired by his example of standing strong for truth, equality, and justice.

Be reminded of him when you enjoy Montana’s natural splendors.