Theodore Roosevelt's Dakota Ranches: The Maltese Cross, the Elkhorn and a Hard Winter

How Did Theodore Roosevelt Become a Dakota Rancher?

In 1883 Roosevelt traveled to Dakota Territory to hunt bison. He hired Joe Ferris as his guide, and during evenings at Gregor Lang's cabin he grew interested in cattle ranching. By the end of that trip he had put $14,000 into a ranching venture with Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield, a sum the National Park Service says was well above his annual salary.

The Maltese Cross crew built a cabin originally located about seven miles south of Medora. The North Dakota Studies site describes Roosevelt as a Badlands rancher who became the 26th U.S. president, and the ranching years were a short but formative chapter before that.

The Maltese Cross and the Chimney Butte Ranch

The Maltese Cross was the first of his two ranches. The National Park Service's Elkhorn page notes that the Maltese Cross name belongs to the Chimney Butte operation, not to the second ranch. The Theodore Roosevelt Library's page on the Maltese Cross ranch is a good starting point for the details of that foothold.

Roosevelt was an investor and an occasional resident, not a full-time hand. His partners ran the daily work, which is a pattern the record repeats at the Elkhorn.

Building the Elkhorn Ranch in 1884

In 1884 Roosevelt chose a site about 35 miles north of Medora on the Little Missouri River and named it the Elkhorn. The park service says he bought the rights to it for $400. His friends Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, who managed the place, moved onto the site by mid-October 1884 and finished the main building by spring 1885.

The Elkhorn Ranch history describes a cottonwood log house measuring 30 by 60 feet, with eight rooms and a porch on the east side, plus a barn, a cattle shed, a chicken house and a blacksmith shop. Roosevelt planned to add 1,000 head of cattle once his herd wintered well.

The Winter of 1886-87

Roosevelt became chairman of the Little Missouri Stockmen's Association in 1885, and the same year he published Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, which predicted that the Badlands cattle industry was unsustainable. The winter proved him right. Blizzards and temperatures as low as minus 41 degrees killed roughly 80 percent of the Badlands cattle, and the park service says Roosevelt lost over half his herd.

The Elkhorn page gives a different figure, about 60 percent of his cattle, so sources differ on the exact loss. He returned from abroad in late March 1887, found the damage, and decided to leave the business.

Why the Ranch Disappeared

After a visit in 1890, Roosevelt apparently abandoned the Elkhorn and said the house would not stay open another year. By 1901 a local stockman reported that every scrap of the ranch had vanished except a couple of half-rotted foundations. The two park service pages differ on when his divestment ended, and one date in the Roosevelt article may be a typo, so read the dates with care.

Visit or Learn More

The Elkhorn Ranch Unit is part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which keeps directions and multimedia on its website. For more on the cattle country, visit farm.FM's ranching section or read a farm.FM story about Roosevelt's Badlands ranch.