Hoeven Welcomes President's 1 Visit to North Dakota for Teddy Roosevelt Library

Q: Beyond holograms, how will visitors experience the wild landscape that shaped a young Roosevelt?

Visitors will experience Roosevelt’s formative landscape largely by stepping into it. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora is built into the Badlands on a 93-acre site, with a walkable prairie roof, rammed-earth walls made from local material, and outdoor paths and overlooks designed to make the land itself part of the visit. Beyond AI and hologram exhibits, guests will be able to walk restored native grasslands, use boardwalks and trails across the site, and take in sweeping views of the same rugged country that Roosevelt said changed his life. The design links directly to the surrounding Badlands and to regional trail systems, including access points connected to the Maah Daah Hey Trail and nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The experience also extends to hands-on historical and outdoor elements. Visitors are expected to move through a recreation of Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch cabin and explore the broader landscape through hikes, wildlife viewing, scenic drives and ranger-style interpretation in the park and adjacent grasslands. The setting offers direct contact with bison country, prairie, river valleys and buttes rather than only indoor storytelling. In effect, the library’s planners are treating the landscape as an exhibit of its own. The goal is for visitors to understand Roosevelt not just through technology, but through the wind, scale, terrain and open sky of western North Dakota that helped shape his conservation ethic.

3 articles · Updated · KFYR · Jun 30

Minot, N.D. — Sen. John Hoeven said he is excited about the president’s planned trip to North Dakota for the Teddy Roosevelt Library opening.
Hoeven said he met with the president in the past week and that the visit would put North Dakota “front and square” on the national stage.
The senator framed the event as broader than the library itself, saying the opening would spotlight both Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy and the state as a whole.
KMOT said it will air more from Hoeven this week on the library opening and other issues facing North Dakota and the country.