Map illustrating the location of Theodore Roosevelt’s ranches (Historical Map)
Dublin Core
Title:
Map illustrating the location of Theodore Roosevelt’s ranches
Subject:
Theodore Roosevelt's Ranches
Description:
This undated map, courtesy of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, shows ranches along the Little Missouri River during the 1880s. The map contains the following description on the bottom: "Map of part of the Little Missouri River Valley, in Billings County, North Dakota, showing the location of Theodore Roosevelt's Ranches." Roosevelt's two ranches, Chimney Butte to the South of Medora and Elkhorn to the North, are labeled in red text, while ranches not belonging to Roosevelt are labeled in black. The map surrenders some of its value as a result of its unknown date and authorship, but given that the source is provided by the National Park, it maintains its legitimacy as a source. The map combines hand-drawn natural features with a focus on the streams that feed into the Little Missouri, with a superimposed grid that traces surveying designations. Each grid square represents a square mile; groups of 36 squares, or parcels 6 miles by 6 miles, form the township subdivisions that the U.S. Department of the Interior used to survey the land. This information is missing from the map--in fact, there is a rather dismaying lack of a legend--but the system of township surveying matches sources from the same time period, and therefore the assumption of scale seems safe (please see Rand McNally's 1873 map of Dakota or the U.S. Department of the Interior's 1882 map for corroboration).
By using this grid to judge scale, we can get a sense of how much open, uninhabited space there was in the area during Roosevelt's time there. Only four ranches other than Roosevelt's are depicted on the map, spread over a North to South distance of 36 miles. This relatively sparse distribution of ranches along the Little Missouri reflects Roosevelt's description of habitation in the area during his time there. Throughout his writings from the period, he revels in the abundance of open space. In Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, his 1885 book on his time in Dakota, he describes the distribution of ranches: "The land is still in great part unsurveyed, and is hardly anywhere fenced in, the cattle roaming over it at will. The small ranches are often quite close to one another, say within a couple of miles; but the home ranch of a big outfit will not have another building within ten or twenty miles of it, or, indeed, if the country is dry, not within fifty” (Roosevelt, 5).
The map is striking in how vertical it is; it shows the specific watershed of the Little Missouri and little else. But it does not show the entire Little Missouri Basin. The very selective area depicted, along with the red text used for Roosevelt's ranches, suggests that the map was made expressly to indicate Roosevelt's own holdings. This suggests that the map was produced as a retrospective document meant to tell the story of Roosevelt's time there, rather than as an actual artifact from the 1880s.
Creator:
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Source:
Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Publisher:
Theodore Roosevelt National Park - National Park Service
Date:
Unknown
Language:
English
Type:
Map
Identifier:
Accession Number: 474 / 6490f
Coverage:
Scope: local geography. Selective portion of a small river basin.
Historical Map Item Type Metadata
Type:
Individual Map
Format notes:
5.625 x 17 ins.
Collection:
Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Call Number:
Accession Number: 474 / 6490f
URL or Unique Identifier:
http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o275261
Date Published:
Unknown