North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt National Park map and highlights

Theodore Roosevelt park, North Dakota on the map. National Park Theodore Roosevelt  ( North Dakota state) on the map of US.   

Below: Late summer on the prairie in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, with the bluffs rising in the distance.   

Theodore Roosevelt, North Dakota   

Established: 1978   Acreage: 70,416   

In the North Dakota Badlands, where many of  Theodore Roosevelt's personal concerns gave rise to his later  environmental efforts, he is remembered with a national park that bears  his name. Roosevelt first came to Dakota to hunt, but found that the  bison had virtually been exterminated. The ranges upon which countless  numbers of bison had once roamed were covered with native grasses that  were well-suited for the grazing of cattle. Roosevelt soon became  interested in the cattle business and joined two other men as partners  in the Maltese Cross Ranch. The next year he returned and established a  second open-range ranch, the Elkhorn, as his own operation.

    

The park consists of two separate areas,  known as the North and South units, and the Elkhorn Ranch site. In the  park's North Unit visitors may encounter longhorns, similar to the  cattle raised by ranchers in Roosevelt's time. The park is also home to  herds of bison that graze the Badlands as they once did, though now  their numbers are few. The efforts of Roosevelt and other  conservationists helped to save the bison

    

from extinction. Mule deer, whitetail deer  and prairie dogs also inhabit the park. More than 125 species of birds,  many of which are songbirds, can be found (and heard) within the park.  Near the visitor center is a series of slump blocks, huge sections of  bluff that gradually slide intact to the valley floor. This is not  uncommon in the Badlands, where canyon walls are too steep to support a  top-heavy formation.

    

At the museum in the South Unit one can see  personal items of Theodore Roosevelt's, ranching artifacts and natural  history displays. The restored Maltese Cross cabin is nearby. A major  feature of the South Unit is a paved, 36-mile, scenic loop which lets  visitors explore the landscape. Although the park may seem barren and  inhospitable, the land is rich in geologic history. Many areas of the  park contain bands of lignite coal and petrified trees, both of which  were formed from the trees that lay buried under sediment on the  alluvial plain during the Tertiary period. The lignite coal continues to  shape the Badlands. Lightning can ignite the coal, which then burns for  many years, heating the rocks above. The heated rocks grow harder and  are then more resistant to erosion.

    

On the edge of the South Unit is the DeMores  State Historic Site, a 27-room chateau that the Marquis DeMores built  in 1884. The marquis, an acquaintance of Theodore Roosevelt, was a  wealthy French nobleman who built a slaughterhouse to process beef from  the large local herds for shipping to market in the then new  refrigerated railroad cars.