The carvers resist on the scaffold C offeet gamy , drape in overalls and expression masks , humble pneumatic hammers in hand . The clatter of exercise andgranite dustfills the breeze , as they have almost every day of construction on Mount Rushmore . For year , these man have worked to sculpt four presidential look out of the mountain , and now , they ’re about to begin finishing work on the massive sculpture ’s final human face .
Work on the face had begun in1937 , and it had been devote with much flash — including a pyrotechnic show — two years by and by , before it was even unaired to finish up .
To get to this point , men call in pointers had stigmatize where and how cryptic to drill;powder monkeys — or worker in charge of the dynamite — had dangled from the top of the mickle and carefully placed little charges to precisely blast away scratchy exterior rock to reveal white , sparkling granite . Drillers using air - power jackhammers had further remove Isidor Feinstein Stone to get to the cutting surface ; and carvers — many of whom had worked their way up [ PDF ] from other jobs on the mountain — had created polka battery-acid - esque honeycomb power system on the stone , using a cock and chisel to remove extra granite . Throughout the process , the feature article on the60 - pes - tallface hadslowly , slowly egress and derive definition : Two 11 - foot - wide eyes . A 20 - foot - tall nose . A monumental moustache . And the mere suggestion of glasses across the bridge of the olfactory organ and the upper cheek , an illusion which will face like full underframe to the spectators below .
It ’s now clock time for what sculptors call fine coating . The carvers switch on their pneumatic malleus , also known as “ bumpers . ” Each is equipped with four bits of brand that clatter against the rock , removing or “ chance ” it a fraction of an inch at a time . carefully , they implement the hammers to the I. F. Stone , furbish the honeycomb grid off of Theodore Roosevelt ’s massive chin .
We know that TR was an adventurer , a man who fought corruption and advocated for a Square Deal for all , the sporting hunter who lend his name to the Teddy Bear , a mortal who deal deeply about conserving nature for the next generation , and , yeah , the guy in the Night at the Museum movies and on Mount Rushmore . But there isso much moreto Roosevelt ’s legacy .
From Mental Floss and iHeartRadio , this isHistory Vs . , a podcast about how your favorite historical digit faced off against their greatest foes . I ’m your legion , Erin McCarthy , and for this , the net episode of our first season , we ’re taking a looking at back TR ’s bequest . This episode is History Vs . Theodore Roosevelt .
Mount Rushmore is likely one of the things people think of first when they think about Theodore Roosevelt ’s legacy . The mountain — named for New York attorney Charles Rushmore in the 1880s — is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota , and I head there on a humid August day with the end of talking to some other visitors about Theodore Roosevelt , his bequest , and why they think he ’s on the great deal . I do n’t know about you , but I hate striking up a conversation with strangers , so I spend a fair amount of time procrastinating . It rains , and then it herald , and in the prophylactic of the talent shop class , I speculate buying some TR windsock that say “ Speak softly and comport a big stick , ” and also giving up on this whole interviewing random people thing .
But when I head back outside , some interview subjects find me . They ’re the Popes — parents Ben and Sally , and kids Harry and Alice — and they ’re from London . They came here in part because Alice saw Mount Rushmore on an episode of Phineas and Ferb . Harry ’s favorite President of the United States on the muckle is Washington . But Alice choose Roosevelt , because he was inNight at the Museum .
That ’s Ben , Harry and Alice ’s dad .
Here ’s Harry .
Next I chat with Lane Johnson , who hails from Texas . Lane knows all about TR ’s trip to the Amazon , so his answer when I ask why TR is on the mountain makes sentience :
Sharon Wright from Wisconsin say alothas change since the first time she fare here .
Finally , I chat with Aretha Wilson from Ohio . Of the presidents up on the mountain , she state Roosevelt is her favorite .
We ’re all standing here today thanks to South Dakota state historiographer Doane Robinson , who wanted to create a tourer destination in the Black Hills so more people would come to South Dakota . Initially , he want to carve renowned figures from the chronicle of the West into granite spires place nearby , but the artist select to produce the memorial , Gutzon Borglum , had all different location , and imaginativeness , in mind : the presidents .
When it came down towhichpresidents to put on the mountain , most were no - brainers : Jefferson was the source of the Declaration of Independence and had expanded the country through the Louisiana Purchase . Washington was the Father-God of the country and allowed Jefferson ’s ideas to become a realism . Lincoln kept the country together in a time of great discord .
But TR ? Well , TR was controversial . Here ’s Maureen McGee - Ballinger , chief of rendering and public affairs at Mount Rushmore National Memorial .
Borglum also experience TR personally — he had campaigned for the Bull Moose when he unravel for president in 1912 .
Mount Rushmore consist of a fine - grained granite cry the Harney Peak granite . The fine grain means the rock music holds together well when you carve it , but it also take a shit it hard to carve . On the plus side , that mean it takes for a while to erode .
In other words , mass are go to be staring at those faces on the mount for alongtime .
produce Mount Rushmore was not easy work ; cease the sculpture took 14 years , and Borglum go before it was discharge . His son , Lincoln , took over for him . TR ’s boldness was the last one finished , in 1941 . grant to Rex Alan Smith in his bookThe sculpture of Mount Rushmore , at its dedication in1939 , 12,000 people attended — the large attendance of any of the side dedications . Today , the remembrance come more than 2 million visitors annually .
Here ’s one amusing thing about TR being on Mount Rushmore : He credibly would havehatedit .
That ’s Michael Cullinane , a professor of U.S. history at the University of Roehampton in London and author ofTheodore Roosevelt ’s Ghost : The story and Memory of an American Icon . Cullinane is a presidential historiographer and a diplomatical historian , and he ’s expend the last 10 eld looking into TR ’s bequest , as well as his accomplishment and foreign policies .
Miley ’s tattoo apart , or maybe included , Cullinane depict Roosevelt ’s bequest over the last 100 class since his dying as a “ rollercoaster . ”
That all changed when historiographer Henry Pringle published his life of TR in 1931 . Cullinane describes Pringle ’s rule book as a “ purposeful revision ” of Roosevelt that downgrade him from a saint and helped inaugurate what has been call the ‘ Crazy Teddy ’ full point . That ikon of Roosevelt as a juvenile guy rope who made driving conclusion lasted until the 1960s .
TR ’s mob was highly protective of his legacy — especially Edith .
TR ’s bequest was so complicated that even his own syndicate could n’t accord on exactly what it was . The Hyde Park Roosevelts — a.k.a . Franklin and , by wedding , Eleanor — and the Oyster Bay Roosevelts — Alice , Ted Jr. , etc.—famously bunt heads over it .
When we blab out about TR ’s legacy , we often talk about how he was the firstmodernpresident . As Kathleen Dalton write inTheodore Roosevelt : A Strenuous Life , “ He is herald as the architect of the modern presidency , as a world leader who boldly reshape the government agency to meet the needs of the young century and redefined America ’s seat in the world . ” When Roosevelt became Chief Executive , technology was commute rapidly , and so was life story for everyday Americans , thanks to industrialisation . Here ’s Tyler Kuliberda , education technician at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site .
In my opinion , it was also Roosevelt ’s image control that made him a decidedly modern president . When he make into politics , he bug out writing “ descendants varsity letter ” for historians to meditate , and he was doing it for the ‘ gram , as the tiddler say , long before societal medium was a affair .
To crop his desired cowboy image , for example , he had a exposure snap of himself in a buckskin suit that he ’d had made for his meter in the Dakotas , but someone who knew him latercommentedthat it “ was sure evidence of the rank and file tenderfoot . ” Also , though the photo appeared to have been taken in a forest , it was really taken in a studio apartment in New York . When he engage boat stealer down the Little Missouri River , TR made sure to bring a photographic camera with him — and to get a photo of himself watching over the bandits . But it was a re - portrayal . And according to some , the military personnel in the picture were n’t even the real thieves .
But there were also side to Roosevelt that he would n’t lease the public see — like how he would n’t allow himself to be shoot in his tennis outfit . Just one more example of his persona dominance .
For Cullinane , it was Roosevelt ’s use of the rowdy pulpit as a PR instrument that made him the first modern president .
He point to the war in the Philippines as an instance . Roosevelt declared the warfare over in 1902 … but it was n’t over .
Many of TR ’s activeness during his land tenure fundamentally changed the post of the Chief Executive . Like , say , his decision to get thing done via executive order . He ’d make the call , and then forget Congress to deliberate it .
TR ’s view that he could do anything not expressly forbidden by the Constitution or by law was also a game - changer for the presidency .
According to Cullinane , TR ’s conclusion to interpose internationally has been one of the most lasting legacy of his governing . Many other presidents have followed suit .
historian today are still debate about some of TR ’s actions on the international stagecoach , including those he drive to speed up the Panama Canal .
In other words : Should America stand passively as an exercise , andhopeothers follow suit ? Or should America be more proactive ?
Some of TR ’s other actions on the global stage perhaps sent the content they meant to at the clip , but did n’t needfully change the course of instruction of chronicle . I ’m talking about TR ’s presentation of American naval powerfulness , the Great White Fleet .
We ’ll be aright back .
I came into this podcast wanting to show Roosevelt not as a impersonation but as a real someone . And no discussion of Theodore Roosevelt ’s bequest would be gross without spill about his perspective on airstream , which we ’ve touch on a bit in other episodes .
Cullinane is right . I ’ve read a clump of Word about TR for this podcast , and have learn that his views of race were “ complicated , ” that he had a “ divided heart on subject of race , ” and that when it came to African Americans , his attitude was “ enlightened . ” Many books seem to only advert on the topic , perhaps because TR ’s thought process on raceareincredibly complex .
So , with that said , we wo n’t be capable to unpack all of TR ’s views on subspecies here . If , after you listen to this , you ’re interesting in learning more , I ’d recommend pick up Thomas Dyer ’s Word of God , Theodore Roosevelt and the Idea of Race .
In previous sequence , we ’ve discussed how TR ’s thoughts on backwash impact how he dealt with other Carry Nation . So in this discussion , we ’ll be focusing mostly on his attitudes toward African Americans and Native Americans .
But before we get into TR specifically , it ’s important to put his views into context . We all know that TR was a singular guy cable who conceive of himself as a scientist , so what were the quote - unquote “ scientific views ” of race at the meter ? To find out , I called Dr. Justene Hill Edwards , an assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia whose centering is on African - American history , the chronicle of slavery , and the chronicle of capitalism .
Dyer spell that TR “ grew up in an atmosphere of Victorian privilege , was bombarded from early childhood with ideas that stress the transcendency of the white race and the lower rank of non - whites . ” And his privilege doubtless shape his survey of race .
Growing up , TR ’s mother had told him stories about her childhood in the South , which painted slaves as childish dependents and ignored the horrors of slavery ; the taradiddle must have had some influence on his view . He also read a heap : Dyer writes that Roosevelt “ gloried in Longfellow’sSaga of King Olaf , which fete the Nordic tradition , a key component in 19th - one C theory of clean domination ” and that he was also influenced by the Teutonic mythNibelungenlied , which he read during his clock time living with a German family when he was a stripling . ( Dyer pronounce that its influence can clearly be seen in Roosevelt’sWinning of the West . )
Mayne Reid ’s books and the magazineOur Young Folkswere among TR ’s favorites affair to read , and they contained ugly racial stereotypes about Native Americans and African Americans .
Darwin ’s possibility of evolution was also an influence , as were some of Roosevelt ’s prof at Harvard . TR continued to read voraciously after his college career , and also corresponded with a number of scientist of his epoch . concord to Dyer , you could see all of these influences in TR ’s views and writing about race , which he viewed both in terms of nationality and in damage skin color .
Roosevelt believed that the clean , English - speaking backwash was the most advance subspecies . But he was also a advocator of neo - Lamarckianism . The estimate hail from a French scientist mention Jean - Baptiste Lamarck , who predated Darwin and trust that certain trait could be crop and pass to later coevals .
This does n’t mean that one daylight you decide you want your succeeding child to be a genius and thenbam — they’re a genius . There are differences between Lamarckian and Neo - Lamarckian opinion , but a Neo - Lamarckian talking to from the 1890s discusses the idea . A Darwinist would see at thechildren of pianistsand say that they might inherit dexterity or a honorable capitulum , but they wo n’t inherit piano accomplishment . They ’ll require to get a line the forte-piano the same room their parents did .
A Neo - Lamarckian would counter that the child must inherit pianissimo acquisition , otherwise human race would have the same degree of piano attainment forever . As an example , they say that gymnast have been getting steadily better . This is the result , according to the talking to , of “ womb-to-tomb training of the baby of acrobat and of their children . ” The improvement in gymnasticsthereforeis “ mostly due to the transmission of the qualities directly acquired by grooming . ”
This kind of mentation , concord to Edwards , grant people to feel more in control of their destiny , as defend to Darwinism , where characteristics arehardwiredinto your desoxyribonucleic acid , shift only by mutation . And it was n’t just white people of that clock time who carry these ideas about determinism .
Part of Roosevelt ’s neo - Lamarkianism was the concept ofequipotentiality . Historian Kathleen Dalton write that “ Lamarckians … tended to accept the idea that all human capacity , include racial electric potential , was fictile and could be changed . ” Here ’s Michael Cullinane again :
We ’ve cover Roosevelt ’s hypothesis of the “ stages of growing ” before , but here ’s a prompt refresher course : TRbelievedthat all races , nationality , and civilisation run short through certain stage . The lowest stage was savagism , which was marked by bedlam ; next , barbarism , during which , in Dyer ’s Good Book , “ military ‘ virtues ’ were educate . ” Then come “ social efficiency , ” which blended military virtue with a lovemaking of order . It was followed by a stage , where , Dyer compose , “ the keen ‘ virile merit ’ decrease and were replaced by lovemaking of informality , softness , willful sterility … and too much tension upon material possessions . ” And then , finally , the stage of decadence , or destruction .
This thinking inform his views on race , both at home and afield . Edwards calls TR ’s experience fighting in the Spanish - American warfare “ transformative . ” After that state of war , of course , the U.S. was ceded Guam and Puerto Rico , and get reign of the Philippines .
harmonise to Dyer , Roosevelt conceive that certain members of other subspecies had develop to the point where theycouldparticipate , even if their races as a whole had n’t gotten there yet . Dyer write that what Roosevelt said in public and in private suggests that he trust that “ the black was largely unequal to of assuming the role of citizen , ” and that that legal opinion grew stronger after his presidency . “ Roosevelt rest convinced that blacks would become full citizens only very slowly , ” Dyer write . “ In the lag , full citizenship would go only to those ‘ right , ’ inner blacks like Booker T. Washington , William Crum , and Minnie Cox . ”
Roosevelt did take a stand when it came to the appointments of African Americans Minnie Cox and William Crum . Cox was a college - school black woman who had been appointed to a postmaster lieu in Indianola , Mississippi , by Benjamin Harrison . Her time in office was smooth until a white-hot man decided he need her side — and a local politician began criticizing the Ithiel Town for the fact that they had accepted her in that role . The torment got so tough that she give up her C. W. Post . But Roosevelt refused to take over her surrender and in reality suspended the Wiley Post function in Indianola for a fourth dimension .
Unfortunately , it never got good enough for Cox to come back to body of work , and after she and other black leaders tell Roosevelt it would be impossible for any black somebody to serve in Indianola , he reopened the post office and appointed a snowy person . According to Dyer , “ It is clear that Roosevelt ’s defence of Mrs. Cox was made well-fixed by his categorization of her as one of the few blacks who had go beforehand of the masses and thus deserved keep . ”
Dr. Crum was a physician whom TR undertake to appoint to head up the customs house in Charleston , South Carolina ; the disputation over the appointment go for years . Dyer writes that Roosevelt hoped “ to raise his standing with black Republicans in South Carolina and in the North , ” and that he achieved those ends .
Still , Dyer mention , “ It would be erroneous to paint a picture that TR ’s administration had developed a policy stand for to promote the cause of black civic rights … the incident stands as another example of Roosevelt ’s committedness to the procession of individual blacks when political advantage cooccur with ideology . ”
TR ’s presidency also co-occur with an increment in fierceness against African Americans . While he was horrified by and publicly denounced lynching , he did n’t do anything to cease the ferocity .
Race was also a element in what many today consider to be thebiggest mistakeof Roosevelt ’s presidency : The Brownsville Affair .
On August 13 , 1906 , a white world was pop and a police policeman hurt in a riot in Brownsville , Texas . One hundred - and - sixty - seven grim soldier at a nearby military base were pick for the incident , but they all proclaimed their innocence . Roosevelt demanded that the culprit be brought forward ; when no one confess orimplicateda colleague , Roosevelt dishonorably discharged them all . He did not drop the livid soldiers .
Though some tried to get him to walk back his conclusion , Roosevelt pass up . He would not admit that he had been wrong .
Outside the American Museum of Natural History is a statue of TR on horseback . Next to him , on the priming coat , are two figures : One African , one Native American . The statue is controversial today , because it presents those two figures as submissive to Roosevelt — a clear picture of racial hierarchy . The museum is address that , and Roosevelt ’s views on airstream , in an exhibition called “ address the Statue . ”
That ’s David Hurst Thomas , a conservator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History , and he isright . Roosevelt believed that Native Americans , according to his point of development theory , were at the barbarian stratum , and he did not hold in back in awfully and incorrectly malign them . He wrote that Native Americans had an “ cold love of cruelty for inhuman treatment ’s sake , ” and would torment men , womanhood , children , and even animals ; he also indulged in stereotypes of Native Americans as drunkard .
In 1886 , Roosevelt give a lecture in which hesaid , “ I do n’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the deadened Indians , but I consider nine out of every 10 are … The most vicious cowhand has more moral principle than the modal Indian . ”
The fact that white men were labor Native Americans out of their fatherland did n’t bother Roosevelt in the least . In his scene , it was destiny for the clean airstream to take over the continent , and it was n’t surprising that the superior white backwash had inhibit the fell Indian slipstream . Here ’s Edwards .
As prexy , Roosevelt stand the assignation arrangement , which split up up arriere pensee and forced Native peoples onto smaller , individually possess destiny , with the end of assimilate them into white society . He also said that programs like Pennsylvania ’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School , established in 1879 , “ do a extra and peculiar work of great grandness . ” At these schooling , which were located far from reservation , students were given new name and , quite often , christen . They also were n’t permit to mouth their native languages . In his 2nd address to Congress , Roosevelt wrote that , " In contend with the Indians , our aim should be their ultimate absorption into the dead body of our multitude . ”
But , again , Roosevelt ’s view were complicated . He admired the ferocity of Native American fighters , and condemned snowy viciousness against Native Americans that he had find . And agree to his biographer , Hermann Hagedorn , he treated item-by-item Native Americans with respect , despite his “ detestation of the race ” as a whole .
In 1905 , six Native Americans ride on horseback in Theodore Roosevelt ’s inaugural parade — a bid , according to Gilbert King at Smithsonian , who cites a contemporary newspaper , to show that they had “ inter the hatchet forever . ”
One of those Native Americans was Geronimo . Though fib about him were exaggerated , the Apache ’s repute imply that he was the tale parents in the American West told their nestling to get them to behave . But he had surrendered in 1886 . He and his workforce had agreed to an exile of two age . They were shuttled to Florida , and while they were there , hundreds of Apache children were relocate to the Carlisle Industrial School in Pennsylvania .
The prisoners of warfare were finally reunited with their families in Alabama in 1888 , but their journeying was n’t over . The Apaches ended up in Oklahoma , where the captives were allowed to live around Fort Sill .
By the prison term Geronimo conform to with Theodore Roosevelt on that March day in 1905 , he had been a prisoner of war for almost 19 years . Kingwritesthat the warrior begged Roosevelt to post him and the relief of the Apaches back to Arizona , saying , “ Take the Mexican valium from our hands . ”
But Roosevelt secern Geronimo that he had a bad heart : “ You kill many of my people ; you burn villages … and were not just Indians . ” He enjoin he would wait “ and see how you and your multitude play . ” Commissioner of Indian Affairs Francis Leupp remarked , “ It is just as well for Geronimo that he is not allowed to return to ‘ Arizona ’ … If he went back there he ’d be very likely to discover a rope awaiting him . ” He was safer in Oklahoma .
Geronimo had converted to Christianity in 1903 , joining the Dutch Reformed Church , likely in part to tempt Roosevelt . But Roosevelt never switch his psyche . afterward , after prognosticate toconferwith the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Secretary of War about his case , he told Geronimo that there was no hope of letting him return to Arizona . It would only guide to more warfare . TR apologise , enjoin that he had “ no feeling against ” Geronimo .
Geronimo never returned to Arizona . He died , still a POW , in 1909 .
According to David Hurst Thomas , Roosevelt ’s views toward Native Americans may have shift , however somewhat , toward the remainder of his life , thanks in part to a trip taken out to the Four Corners in 1913 .
Roosevelt keep an eye on the Hopi Snake Dance , a complex ritual that admit elements of handling rattler . But it was theordinary livesof the Hopi that really had an impact on him . He called them “ a sanely advance , and still progress , semi - civilization ; not savagery at all . ” He noted that there was “ big way for betterment ; but so there is among E. B. White . ”
He still wanted the Hopi to be gradually assimilated “ to the life of the best white , ” he said , but now , he wanted that assimilation to be form “ as to preserve and acquire the very substantial element of native culture possessed ” by the Native Americans , which , he said , “ in the goal may become an significant contribution to American ethnic life-time . ” He hope they would be “ absorbed into the white population , on a full equality . ”
In Roosevelt ’s four - volumeThe Winning of the West , he write not just about Native Americans but also about slaveholding . And , just a warning , this segment include terms that some might bump nauseous .
slaveholder , hewrote , were “ the bad foes , not only of humankind and civilization , but especially of the white airstream in America ” : “ The negro , unlike so many of the inferior backwash , does not dwindle aside in the presence of the white man . He holds his own ; indeed , under the conditions of American slavery , he increased faster than whites , threaten to supersede him . "
And it gets even worse from there : “ He actually has supplanted him in sure of the West Amerindic islands , where the sinning of the egg white in enslaving the lightlessness has been visited upon the brain of the wrongdoer by his victim with a dramatically terrible completeness of retaliation . … Slavery is ethically abhorrent to all right - minded men ; and it is to be condemned without Erolia minutilla on this priming coat alone . From the standpoint of the master caste it is to be condemn even more strongly because it invariably in the closing threatens the very existence of that maestro caste . From this point of view the mien of the blackamoor is the real problem ; [ the ] thraldom is merely the worst possible method acting of solving the problem . ”
For someone who really admires Roosevelt , it can be hard to square up these views and doctrine with his incredible life and accomplishments . But to gloss over this would have left us with a two - dimensional view of Roosevelt , and an incomplete characterization of our own history .
Given the many ways other historian have characterise TR ’s views on race , I ask Edwards how she would key his views .
And on that note , we ’ll take a quick break .
I do n’t know about you bozo , but I opine about substitute histories , or parallel existence , a fortune . ( This might have something to do with my compulsion with the TV showLost , but … I stray . ) I ’ve been thinking about them a lot during this podcast , too .
We live in a timeline where Theodore Roosevelt became president , but there ’s probably a timeline out there where he was a successful rancher , or pursued natural story . Or perhaps a timeline where he never overleap out of constabulary school day and rather became a lawyer . In another , he was focused on writing . And in another , Theodore Roosevelt was never even deliver .
So what does the man see like in these universes ?
That ’s Will Shafroth of the National Park Foundation , who notes that , in addition to creating wildlife refuges — which protected the nation ’s wildlife — and greatly expanding the National Forest System — which lay out aside millions of demesne for preservation — TR also planted the seeds for the National Park Service .
Here ’s David Hurst Thomas .
But of grade , Roosevelt did more than just continue nation . He quite literally changed the international landscape by helping to make certain the Panama Canal got built . Here ’s Clay Jenkinson .
Without TR , it probably would have just occupy longer . A lot longer .
There would have been political implications , too , if TR had never been Chief Executive . Here ’s Michael Cullinane .
And there ’s one other big thing that in all probability would n’t have befall if TR had never been president .
We be in the timeline where TR was president , where his mug end up on Mount Rushmore . Bully for us . After visiting that site , I pick up Tyler Klang , one of the producers on this podcast , and we drive from Rapid City straight up into Medora , North Dakota , where TR retreated after the death of his married woman and female parent in 1884 .
When TR come here from New York , he was clearly an foreigner : A sheik in a buckskin suit of clothes , with a knife from Tiffany . In my all - black ensemble , I , too , palpate a small bit like a dude when we roll into Medora , universe 112 .
Medora has made much of its affiliation with TR : Tyler and I are staying in the historic wing at the Rough Riders hotel , which has small Teddy Bears , dressed as Rough Riders , on the bed . There ’s a statue of TR as a Rough Rider , a one - human beings TR show starring Joe Wiegand , whose vocalisation you ’ve get a line in this podcast , and a beefburger place called The Maltese Burger , after TR ’s ranch , Maltese Cross . And , of course , Theodore Roosevelt National Park is here , with the literal Maltese Cross cabin .
Roosevelt also run a function in the Medora Musical , which is delineate as “ the rootin'-tootinest , boot - scootinest show in all the Midwest . ” Before the show , Tyler and I give ear a cowboy cookout , during which steak are prepare on pitchfork — they are literally stacked on pitchforks and stuck into a grill!—and it is WILD . Then we resolve in for the musical , which is a variety show that feature Medora ’s far-famed and infamous eccentric with a healthy back breaker of melodious theater belting . It isextremelymy matter .
We see TR ’s comer in Medora and the charge up Kettle Hill .
And then the show end with TR belting out a song from “ The Greatest Showman . ”
Afterwards we chat with Ken Quiricone , one of the Burning Hills Isaac M. Singer , who plays TR . Quiricone has been with the show for eight time of year but has only played TR since last twelvemonth .
We only had a twosome of days here in North Dakota before we have to turn around and make the trek back to the Rapid City airport . Beyond visiting the Elkhorn site , we did n’t have clip to journey into the car park , which is a bummer , because we were both really , really hoping to see a bison .
We opt against get up at 6 a.m. to drive through the park and decide instead to make a quick plosive consonant at the Painted Canyon on the way of life out of town . Maybe , I recount Tyler , we ’ll see a bison there .
It ’s difficult to report Painted Canyon , but … I ’m go to hear .
In some other timeline , it ’s potential that this landscape would be dotted with oil derrick or machines digging out the coal , but in this one — the one where Theodore Roosevelt prioritise lay aside terra firma like these — there are cumulation of various sizes as far as the eye can see . The mounds have been worn away by erosion to reveal colorful layers : The brown and tan layers are sandstone , siltstone , and mudstone ; the blue - gray layer are bentonite clay , a.k.a . the stuff that ’s used in some brands of pool litter , which was create by the ash from volcanic eruptions . Black is a level of coal , and cherry isclinker , which is created when the bed of coal apprehension fire and ready the layer above it , and also a countersign I will never get tired of saying . Some faces of the mounds are covered in gage and tree diagram . The sky above is full of gray cloud , and I can see aloof pelting .
It is breathtaking .
We turn around to head back to the car , and …
The bison is across the road from the visitant ’s shopping center , guide down , grazing on supergrass , his after part flipping away file . Male bison can weigh up to2000 poundsand support 6 feet tall , and this guy ishuge .
In 1885 , Theodore Roosevelt write , “ The liquidation of the buffalo has been a regular tragedy of the animal existence . ” At that percentage point , less than a thousand of the animals exist . Twenty years afterward , as Chief Executive , he became one of the founding member of the American Bison club , which used bison from the Bronx Zoo in New York to bolster wild herds .
The bison we ’re depend at is a very physical symbolic representation of Roosevelt ’s legacy . So is the undisturbed beauty of the Grand Canyon , the sequoia in Yosemite , the hill of Painted Canyon .
As I ’ve twine up work on this podcast , I ’ve been thinking a lot about something Michael Cullinane sound out — about how we can never really know what TR would do in site today , or who he ’d support politically , or even who he really was .
Theodore Roosevelt ’s bequest might be malleable . We might never be able to really hump who he was . But stand in these places he helped preserve , staring at a species he helped economise , maybe we can tap into how they made him finger , and why he palpate it was so important to save them — and , in the end , how favorable we are that he did .
So , this is it — the final regular episode of the first time of year of History Vs . I have hadsomuch fun making this podcast . This has been my cacoethes task , but it was n’t just me who bring it to spirit : Behind every podcast host is a smashing team help to make it happen . This project would n’t have been possible without the Mental Floss staff , who help me write script as well as supplemental TR content on mentalfloss.com/historyvs , or without the financial support of the the great unwashed at our parent companionship , Minute Media .
And I really could n’t have done this without the incredible yield squad at iHeartRadio , who very patiently walked me through this process and made these episodes vocalize so amazing . Finally , I want to give thanks the experts who very generously gave so much of their time to this project , and I require to thankyou — yes , you!—for listening . If you have any motion for me about TR , or just desire to see pics of all the TR stuff on my desk , you may find me on Twitter @erincmccarthy .
We ’ll be dropping fillip episodes from time to clock time , and our 2d season will add up out later on this class . Until then , speak softly , and carry a big stick !
CREDITS
History Vs.is host by me , Erin McCarthy . This sequence was write by me , with fact agree by Austin Thompson . Field recording by Jon Mayer .
Joe Wiegand voiced Theodore Roosevelt in this sequence .
The Executive Producers are Erin McCarthy , Julie Douglas , and Tyler Klang .
The Supervising Producer is Dylan Fagan .
The show is edited by Dylan Fagan and Lowell Brillante .
Special thanks to the Popes , Lane Johnson , Sharon Wright , Aretha Wilson , Justene Hill Edwards , Michael Cullinane , Tyler Kuliberda , Clay Jenkinson , Will Shafroth , Maureen McGee - Ballinger , and David Hurst Thomas .
To learn more about this episode , and Theodore Roosevelt , check out out our website atmentalfloss.com/historyvs .
account Vs.is a production of iHeart Radio and Mental Floss .
