Theodore Roosevelt and the Dakota Badlands: Historic Handbook
Brooks CL and Mattison RH. 2004. Theodore Roosevelt and the Dakota Badlands: Historic Handbook. Washington, C.C.
Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park was established to commemorate the enduring contributions of Theodore Roosevelt in the conservation of our Nation's resources and to portray his part in developing the northern open range cattle industry, a phase of history in which he was an enthusiastic participant. While in the Badlands he witnessed the passing of one of the last frontiers of the West. In 1888 he wrote, "Up to 1880 the country through which the Little Missouri flows remained as wild and almost as unknown as it was when old explorers and fur traders crossed it in the early part of the century."