Years In The Bad Lands
Roosevelt’s Bad Land years were from 1883 to 1886. He was trying to cash in on the “Beef Bonanza.” Using refrigerated railroad cars ranchers could slaughter their herd and send them east by rail eliminating the middlemen in the Chicago Stockyards.
The problem facing TR was the Bad Lands were no country for cattle. Custer passed through on his way to the Little Big Horn and called the country “worthless.” Wister said it was a land perfect for intrigue and murder with only the cold blue sky as a witness.
During those years he wasn’t away from New York for more than a couple of months at a time. Pullman porters on the Northern Pacific began to know him by his name.
All and all TR’s real time out west didn’t amount to more than about 12 months and according to Wister while there his literary accomplishments didn’t amount to a hill of beans. He did finish his book on Benton but as Owen Wister observed his greatest work was done while he was in New York. His accounts of the Dakota blizzards and the spring round ups were best done in Oyster Bay at Sagamore Hill.
It could be said it was the same for Wister and Remington. Wister wrote The Virginian in Charleston, South Carolina and Remington did his best work in the suburbs of New Rochelle. It was Roosevelt, Wister and Remington who gave the country the heroic cowboy. Three Ivy Leaguers; one from Yale and two from Harvard. Before those three cowboy was spelled with two words.
Although TR learned to rope a steer with the best of them, he never saw himself as a cowboy, he always identified with being a ranchman and not a cowboy making sure to separate himself as an owner instead of a cowhand. In truth he was mostly an “absentee ranchman.”
On cattle drives he’d stand night duty. There was nothing more dangerous or deadly than a night stampede.
It was about 40 miles between the Elkhorn and the Maltese Cross (Chimney Butte) ranches. Following the river you’d have to cross back and forth about 20 times.
TR held a romantic view of the west and spent a fortune to dress the part. He wore buckskin and chaps with a Tiffany Bowie knife and a Tiffany bear headed belt buckle. Alligator boots with Tiffany spurs engraved with his initials.
His colt had engraved ivory handles with his initials on one side and the head of a buffalo on the other. His Winchester was engraved with a Buffalo inlay.
When TR was in the Bad Lands it was during the final days of the Wild West that was about to vanish forever. Eastern and European money was investing in the cattle businesses.
Badlands Years 1884 - 1886 TR is only in the Badlands seasonally. He’s only out west for 18 months and looses $710,000 of his inheritance in today’s money. That’s nearly $10,000 every month. He breaks his collar bone and cracks ribs breaking horses, thieves will steal his boat, he’s invoked in a bar room fight, he comes close to a dual with the Marguis de Mores and loses his entire herd of cattle.
Time in Medora: June 9th, 1884 he arrived in Medora and returns to NY on December 19th to get away from the frigid Badlands winter.
(6 months)
April 1885 he returned to Medora. In June he returns to NY to see Alice, Anna and see how the construction of Sagamore Hill was going. He is back in NY in November and begins dating Edith.(6 months)
March 1886 he returned to Medora. He’s back in NY in the fall to campaign for NYC mayor loses to Abram Hewett. In December he marries Edith in England. (6 months)
1887 Takes up residence at Sagamore Hill with Edith and begins to sell off interests in his cattle ranchers, ensuring his managers do not suffer a loss.
Financial loss
Out of a total investment of about $82,500 for the Maltese Cross and Elkhorn ranches, He suffered a loss of $23,500.
He made a $3,250 profit from a separate investment in the Elkhorn Stock Company. This reduced his out-of-pocket net loss to $20,250.
The Elkhorn Stock Company was a cattle ranching corporation established in March 1892 by Theodore Roosevelt along with Archibald D. Russell and Corrine’s husband Douglas Robinson to manage his Dakota Territory cattle holdings after his early ranching ventures suffered heavy losses.
Roosevelt transferred his equity in his famous Elkhorn Ranch to the new corporate entity, which was then managed by Sylvane Ferris. Though the broader Dakota Badlands endeavor ultimately resulted in an overall financial loss for Roosevelt, the Elkhorn Stock Company itself yielded a modest profit of $3,250 when he eventually sold out his last holdings in 1898.
$20,000 in 1886 is $710,000 in today’s money.
Legacy
Although the ranching venture had spelled financial disaster for TR, the physically and psychologically transformative experience proved priceless. Roosevelt had sought to test his mettle and his manhood in an exceptionally rough part of the West, and had excelled in every degree possible. Always strong of mind and spirit, Roosevelt proved he was strong of body and soul. The skinny New York tenderfoot showed that he could work and live in the rough conditions of the frontier lifestyle.
Largely sneered at upon his arrival in 1883, Roosevelt had grown to prominence, respect, and even admiration in the eyes of local people for his manner and conduct. Roosevelt carried with him an enthusiasm and genuineness that common people connected with, and this rapport was the foundation of Roosevelt’s later political success. His enthusiasm for cowboy life spurred him to form the Rough Riders, the notable cavalry unit that brought Roosevelt national recognition during the Spanish-American War.
Theodore Roosevelt originally came to Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt bison. The locals showed little interest in helping this eastern tenderfoot. The promise of quick cash, however, convinced Joe Ferris - a 25-year-old Canadian living in the Badlands - to act as Roosevelt's hunting guide.
Through terrible weather and awful luck, Roosevelt showed a determination which surprised his exasperated hunting guide. Finding a bison proved difficult; most of the herds had been slaughtered in recent years by commercial hunters. When they were not sleeping outdoors, Roosevelt and Ferris used the small ranch cabin of Gregor Lang as a base camp. Evenings at Lang's ranch saw an exhausted Ferris falling asleep to conversations between Roosevelt and their host. Spirited debates on politics gave way to discussions about ranching, and Roosevelt became interested in raising cattle in the Badlands.
Cattle ranching in Dakota was a boom business in the 1880s. With the northern plains recently devoid of bison, cattle were being driven north from Texas to feed on the nutritious grasses. The Northern Pacific Railroad offered a quick route to eastern markets without long drives that reduced the quality of the meat. Entrepreneurs like the Marquis de Mores were bringing money and infrastructure to the region. The opportunity struck Roosevelt as a sound business opportunity and he entered into business with his guide's brother Sylvan Ferris and Billy Merrifield another Dakota cattleman.
Roosevelt put down an initial investment of $14,000 - significantly more than his annual salary. Roosevelt returned to New York with instructions for Ferris and Merrifield to build the Maltese Cross Ranch. His investment was not purely for business; Roosevelt saw it as a chance to immerse himself in a western lifestyle he had long romanticized.
As biographer Edmund Morris noted, “Fourteen thousand dollars was a small price to pay for so much freedom.”
Back to NY
Roosevelt's book, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, prophesized that the cattle industry of the Badlands was unsustainable. Ranchmen flooded the plains with cattle, and with no regulation the region became overgrazed. Weather conditions throughout 1886 created a foreboding scenario. A late thaw and scorching summer meant a short growing season. Wildfires took their toll on certain areas, and by winter the cattle were underfed and ranchers had little feed to supply their livestock.
The winter of 1886-87 was extraordinarily harsh. One blizzard after another quickly buried what was left of the grazing land, and cattle were found “frozen to death where they stood” in temperatures as low as -41° F. Hardier cattle survived long enough to eat the tar-paper off the houses in Medora before succumbing to the elements. Others were found dead in trees after the snow melted, having climbed massive snowdrifts to reach the edible twigs before expiring amid the branches.
The winter of 1886-1887 resulted in the death of nearly 80% of all cattle in the Badlands. Roosevelt lost over half of his herd.
Tens of thousands of cattle died in the Badlands in the winter of 1886-1887, around 80% of the total population. In the spring, the Little Missouri swelled onto its floodplain, surging with melt water and ice. The carcasses of innumerable cattle bobbed down the icy river.
Roosevelt had been abroad during the devastating winter with his new wife, Edith, and was unaware of the horrors until he returned to the U.S. in late March of 1887. Upon his return to Medora, Roosevelt found he had lost over half his herd. Where he once thought to see a return on his many investments, Roosevelt now sought to minimize his losses. He wrote his sister Bamie, "I am planning to get out of the ranching business.”
Roosevelt 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."
He’d sell his entire interests in the Maltese Cross to his partners, and gradually divest himself of the Elkhorn. Although his ranch was used for numerous excursions and hunting trips, Roosevelt focused his energies on writing and politics. He finished selling off his Elkhorn interests by 1898.
