SEEKING ROMANTIC ADVENTURES. 
63 
of natural history. Irving, Hawthorne and Poe were great favorites 
of his and Robert Burns was a constant companion. We find in 
Theodore Roosevelt’s own book entitled: “Hunting Trips of a 
Ranchman; Being Sketches of Sports of the North Cattle Plains,” 
much to charm and instruct. Only a brief outline can be given 
here of the exciting times in the far west of the man who has 
become our most distinguished citizen. 
THE HOME RANCH OF COL. ROOSEVELT. 
On the Northwest border of North Dakota—six hundred miles 
from St. Paul—where the Little Missouri winds its course through 
the Bad Lands, is the town of Medora, surrounded by huge buttes of 
scorched clay. About eight miles from the little town is “Chimney 
Butte,” the home ranch of Col. Roosevelt. The little house is built 
of logs; in fact it is a log cabin one and a half stories high. The 
first story contains a kitchen, living room, and a private room for 
Col. Roosevelt when he visits the ranch. As cowboys sleep any¬ 
where little attention was given by cowboy Roosevelt to sleeping 
apartments. In bad weather they spread their blankets on the 
floor upstairs. To the right is the stable, while in front is the horse 
corrall. This is built in circular form to prevent crowding and 
jamming in corners. Whenever a horse is wanted the whole herd 
is driven in. 
The ranch building is most picturesque. From the low, long 
veranda, shaded by leafy cottonwoods, one can look across sand 
bars to a strip of meadow—behind which rises the sheer cliffs. 
From the doorway of his log cabin Col. Roosevelt has killed a deer, 
and big game abounds in the vicinity. He has worked here in a 
flannel shirt and overalls tucked into alligator boots, side by side 
with his cowboys during many an exciting round-up, at night to 
sleep on bear skins and buffalo robes, trophies of his skill as a 
hunter. “When he first went West they called him the Tour-eyed 
tenderfoot,’” says Mark Twain. The cowboys soon changed their 
mind about the “tenderfoot” from New York. 
Herds of cattle roam over the unsurveyed “Bad Lands” as far 
as 200 miles at times. The “Round-up” always brings them home. 
