Theodore Roosevelt National Park

One of the nearly 60 American national parks is located in the US state of North Dakota. The Theodore Roosevelt National Park is quite popular with up to 477,000 visitors annually on an area of ​​282 square kilometers. Theodore Roosevelt National Park was established on November 10, 1978 and was named after former US President Theodore Roosevelt. See a2zdirectory for tourist attractions in North Dakota.

Naming the Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Theodore Roosevelt was American President from 1901 to 1908. That is not the only reason why the name was given. Roosevelt owned a ranch in western North Dakota prior to his tenure. He ran this from 1880 to the 1890s. Roosevelt was a rancher and owned several thousand cattle.
Roosevelt was a great animal and nature conservationist. For this reason the national park was named after him.
In the middle of the park is Roosevelt’s former ranch, the Elkhorn Ranch. Unfortunately, there are no more buildings and the area is overgrown and has not been further developed.
In general, the entire area is characterized by severe weathering and very sparse vegetation. The problem: very long dry periods are followed by heavy downpours, which wash out important nutrients from the soil. In addition, there are large temperature differences in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which hinders the growth of plants.

History of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park

According to archaeological finds, people were already 12,000 years ago in what is now the area of ​​the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. From the 10th century the area was in the hands of the semi-settled Mandan. In the middle of the 18th century it was mounted peoples like the Dakota-Sioux and Cheyenne who ruled the area. As in many of today’s national park areas, the occurrence of bison was particularly high here. Therefore, the livelihood of the peoples living here was the hunt for these animals.
They had the area to themselves for about a hundred years. Then the first white settlers came who, after their arrival, began the systematic extermination of the people and animals living here.
In a very short time they drastically reduced the bison population. Of the original 60 million bison and huge herds of elk, bighorn sheep and pronghorns, there were hardly any left. After the establishment of the national park, some animal species had to be resettled.
Today the animal population is good again, but unfortunately as many animals as they did then no longer live here.

Flora in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located in a heavily weathered region. The vegetation is very sparse and barren. There are areas where nothing grows at all.
The group of plants that is most likely to assert itself in the park is grass. There are all kinds of grass here.
A few individual junipers or cedars are also in the park. However, they are not available in the usual size, but rather small and meager due to the inhospitable living conditions. In contrast, the drought-loving yuccas and cacti thrive here. On the banks of the Little Missouri River, there are thin strips of forest, which mainly consist of cotton poplars.