The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Is Long Overdue

Tristan JusticeApril 5, 2023

Despite more than 100 years passing since Theodore Roosevelt’s death, his legacy continues on through the upcoming opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, slated for 2026. Situated in proximity to Roosevelt’s ranch and hunting grounds in the North Dakota Badlands, the library will be the first and only presidential library accessible by horseback or bike.

In January, Harold Hamm, an oil tycoon, donated $50 million as a catalyst for construction, with the hope of attracting other donors to fund the project. According to Ed O’Keefe, CEO of the library, “We are still actively fundraising… Harold’s gift is a game-changer, and we want everyone to get in the arena for the T.R. Library.”

The library is a fitting tribute to Roosevelt’s legacy as a conservationist and cowboy president. As president, Roosevelt established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game reserves, and five national parks, doubling the size of the National Park system in the White House after formative years in the American West. He was instrumental in developing Western water resources and played a significant role in creating the U.S. Forest Service.

Located across 90 acres of U.S. Forest Service land near Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the proximity to this park will make the library one of the most visited presidential libraries in the USA. Moreover, the location reinforces Roosevelt’s conservationist legacy by paying homage to him as “the conservation president.”

Roosevelt’s formative time in North Dakota makes it a more fitting destination for his presidential library than New York City, where he served as governor. The official Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library webpage states, “T.R. was a New Yorker by chance, and a North Dakotan by choice. He was an easterner and a westerner but, above all, he was quintessentially American.”

The tradition of presidential libraries began in 1939 when Roosevelt’s cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, donated presidential records to the federal government to be archived. Since then, every president, except Donald Trump, has established a presidential library.

The library’s collection will include Roosevelt’s original manuscripts, letters, and photographs, as well as interactive exhibits and immersive galleries that will highlight not only his presidential accomplishments but also his conservation and Naturalist values. Visitors will also enjoy viewing Roosevelt’s ten-foot-tall equestrian statue, which infamous because it depicts him flanked by an Indian man and a Black man, which caused controversy for its supposed glorification of American colonialism. New York’s Museum of Natural History took down the statue, and North Dakota officials agreed to display it at the library while providing appropriate contextualization.

Tristan Justice, the author of Social Justice Redux, is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He graduated from George Washington University, where he majored in political science and minored in journalism.