Sylvane Ferris & Bill Merrifield

This is the story of Theodore Roosevelt's first ranch hands at the Maltese Cross Ranch.  I wrote this for the NPS.

“The only security he had for his money was our honesty.” -Sylvane Ferris, on Theodore Roosevelt

Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield were ranch hands at the Maltese Cross Ranch when Theodore Roosevelt first arrived in the badlands in 1883. Originally from New Brunswick, Canada, the two cowboys were tending a herd of 150 head of cattle on shares for investors from Minnesota, a common practice in those days. Merrifield made extra money by providing passenger trains with fresh venison. Both were known for being simple, quiet, and tough men.

Ferris and Merrifield were understandably skeptical of Roosevelt upon meeting him as he prepared for his initial buffalo hunting trip. Roosevelt wanted to borrow a horse for his hunting excursion. The cowboys knew nothing of the outsider, did not trust anyone who wore spectacles, and certainly did not want to loan a horse to a man they had only just met. For all they knew, the dude would ride off with their valuable horse. They finally agreed to loan the horse, but only after Roosevelt offered to buy the horse instead.

During his hunting expedition, Roosevelt held lengthy conversations about cattle ranching with another newcomer to the badlands, Gregor Lang, before deciding to invest in his own ranch. Roosevelt asked Lang to tend his cattle, but Lang politely refused and suggested Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield would be good ranch hands instead.

Shortly thereafter, Roosevelt, Ferris, and Merrifield met in Lang’s cabin to discuss the proposition. Roosevelt offered to buy the cattle the men were already tending and handed over a check for $14,000. Merrifield later recalled that when he asked Roosevelt if he wanted a receipt, Roosevelt said, “Oh, that’s all right.”

The Maltese Cross Cabin, originally constructed by Ferris and Merrifield

The two cowboys set to work building the Maltese Cross Cabin during the winter of 1883-1884. Following the death of his wife Alice on February 14, 1884, Roosevelt invested in a second ranch, the Elkhorn, and hired two trusted Maine woodsmen to run it, Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow. Roosevelt preferred the Elkhorn, which he called his “home ranch,” which might have come as a disappointment to Ferris and Merrifield. When Roosevelt visited the Maltese Cross Ranch, Ferris and Merrifield would climb up into the attic to sleep at night, giving Roosevelt ample living space and a private bedroom on the main floor.

Engraving on a rifle given to Bill Merrifield by Theodore Roosevelt to commemorate their 1884 hunting trip in the Bighorn Mountains

Ferris and Merrifield were capable ranch hands. In the spring, they were busy with the round-up, as range cattle from all over the area were brought together and sorted out to be counted, branded, and sold. As Roosevelt’s representatives, they were periodically sent to Minnesota to buy more cattle for Roosevelt’s ranches as TR added $82,500 to his original investment of $14,000 between 1884 and 1885. Roosevelt trusted their judgment in all matters of managing the cattle ranch, including selling some of the livestock at their discretion. They were also the ranch hands who stayed on the longest, tending the remainder of Roosevelt’s cattle after the Elkhorn Ranch closed in 1887. The two men worked together until Merrifield quit in 1892. Ferris continued on alone until Roosevelt finally sold out in 1898. Sylvane and his brother Joe Ferris were two of a handful of residents that remained in Medora after the cattle ranching collapse of 1887.

Joe Ferris, Sylvane Ferris, and Bill Merrifield in 1919

Though the cattle ranching boom is a distant memory, the handiwork of Ferris and Merrifield lives on in the form of the Maltese Cross Cabin. If it had not been for them, Roosevelt might not have procured the horse for his thrilling hunting trip, and Roosevelt might not have found someone to run a cattle ranch for him. No one else showed much trust in Roosevelt. In a way, Ferris and Merrifield’s cooperation with Roosevelt allowed him to have an experience that, in the end, was very influential in the young politician’s life, philosophy, and politics.

A rifle given as a gift to Bill Merrifield from Theodore Roosevelt commemorating an 1884 hunting trip in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming is on display at the South Unit Visitor Center. The Maltese Cross Cabin, which Ferris and Merrifield constructed, is open for public viewing year-round.

Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow

Some more of my historical writing for the NPS.  I really enjoyed discovering the quote I used at the end.

"They were tough, hardy, resolute fellows, quick as cats, strong as bears, and able to travel like bull moose." -Theodore Roosevelt writing on Sewall and Dow

"We were very close in those days and he talked over about everything with me.” -Bill Sewall reflecting on Theodore Roosevelt in the 1880s

Bill Sewall, Theodore Roosevelt, and Wilmot Dow

William Wingate Sewall and Wilmot Dow first met Theodore Roosevelt in the 1870s, when they served as hunting guides for Roosevelt in Maine. Although they were skilled outdoorsmen, hunters, and woodsmen, that hardly qualified them for work as ranch hands; Sewall was more comfortable riding logs than he was riding horses. Nevertheless, when Roosevelt asked his two trusted companions to manage his new Elkhorn Ranch in 1884, they agreed.

Sewall designed the Elkhorn Ranch House, and he and Dow built up Roosevelt’s home ranch site in 1884-1885. Their contract, similar to that of Roosevelt’s other ranch hands, Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield, allowed them to manage the ranch and sell cattle as they saw fit but not so as to reduce the herd below its size at the inception of the ranch. They were to keep 1/3 of the proceeds of any sales while Roosevelt kept the other 2/3, a slightly worse deal that Roosevelt had previously worked out with Ferris and Merrifield at a 50/50 split. Upon his arrival, Sewall was concerned that the badlands did not seem to be a good place for ranching cattle, but Roosevelt was optimistic.

Sewall and Dow were trustworthy companions for Roosevelt, and Roosevelt spent most of his time in the badlands with them at the Elkhorn Ranch. Their loyalty was undeniable. When it appeared for a brief time that Roosevelt might have to duel the Marquis de Morès, it was Sewall who offered to act as Roosevelt’s second. When thieves stole Roosevelt’s boat from the Elkhorn Ranch in early spring 1886, it was Sewall and Dow who built a new boat and accompanied Roosevelt downriver to capture the desperate men despite the dangers.

In 1885, Sewall and Dow brought their wives to live at the Elkhorn Ranch. Mrs. Sewall was toting a toddler named Kitty, who was about the same age as Roosevelt’s daughter Alice. The women kept up the ranch house and did most of the cooking and cleaning. They also tended gardens in the inhospitable badlands soil. Both Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Dow bore sons jocularly known as "the Badlands Twins," in August 1886. As the families grew, Roosevelt began to feel somewhat of a stranger in his own ranch home. He married Edith Kermit Carow later that year. While honeymooning in Europe, Roosevelt was unaware of the toll the deadly combination of overgrazing and a ferocious winter was taking on his cattle. By the time Roosevelt returned to the United States, he had lost over half his herd. He decided to close down the Elkhorn.

After the Elkhorn Ranch closed permanently in 1887, the historical record for Sewall and Dow runs thin. Wilmot Dow died from an unexplained, acute illness at a fairly young age in 1891. Bill Sewall returned to Island Falls, Maine and did not see Roosevelt again for sixteen years though they exchanged letters from time to time. In the interim, Roosevelt had written ten major literary works, fathered five children, fought with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, served as New York Police Commissioner, U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, U.S. Vice President, and was inaugurated the 26th President of the United States following the assassination of William McKinley. Shortly after assuming the Presidency, TR invited Sewall to the White House. On seeing Theodore Roosevelt at the White House for the first time in sixteen remarkable and momentous years, Sewall wrote the following:

"[President Roosevelt] was not there when we arrived, for it was in the afternoon and he was out riding. By and by we heard a door open, then we heard his quick step in the hall, and it was for all the world like the way he used to come down the long hall at Elkhorn Ranch; and when he came into the room in his riding-clothes it seemed as though these sixteen years that lay between had never been and we were all back in the happy ranch days again."

Ranch clothing worn by Bill Sewall and a side saddle used by his wife are on display at the South Unit Visitor Center, as is a model of the Elkhorn Ranch House. The Elkhorn Ranch Site is protected within the park, and is accessible to visitors willing to take the time to travel to the remote location.

http://www.nps.gov/thro/historyculture/

The Marquis de Morès

Some more of my historical writing for the NPS.  Enjoy!

“I shall be the richest financier in the world!” - Marquis de Mores

The Entrepreneur

Antoine Amédée Marie Vincent Manca de Vallambrosa, more often called by his title, the Marquis de Morès, was an entrepreneurial Frenchman and a key player in the North Dakota badlands in the 1880s, coincident with Theodore Roosevelt’s ranching days. The Marquis was as well known for grandiose moneymaking schemes as for his skill as a rifleman. His wife, Medora Von Hoffman, the daughter of a wealthy Wall Street banker of German descent, was the source of his wealth. Using the wealth of the Von Hoffmans, he founded a meatpacking industry on the Northern Great Plains that he theorized would result in higher quality meat at lower prices for consumers.

On April 1, 1883, the Marquis de Morès claimed a six square mile area of Little Missouri riverbottom and founded the town of Medora, which he named after his wife. He founded his town intentionally close to the lawless settlement of Little Missouri as an affront to its unwelcoming residents. He built a slaughterhouse, or abbatoir, where cattle and other livestock could be slaughtered, dressed, and loaded onto refrigerated rail cars and shipped to markets in the east. As his economic theory went, cattle that came straight off the range to slaughter would be of higher quality than those who were shipped live by train to the Chicago stockyards, losing weight while in transit. The business intended to capitalize on the booming cattle ranching industry in the Dakota Territory in the 1880s. For a variety of reasons, including a lack of attention by the Marquis as he continually looked for new investments and his legal troubles stemming from the shooting of Riley Luffsey, the de Morès meatpacking empire never saw its full potential before it closed in 1886.

Medora von Hoffman

Disagreements with Theodore Roosevelt

The Marquis de Morès and Theodore Roosevelt were two men with extraordinarily large personalities, and, although relations between them were generally cordial, they occasionally clashed. Twice, they had disagreements over land rights, and once Roosevelt backed out of the sale of some of his cattle when the Marquis lowered the price per pound from the agreed upon 6¢ to 5.5¢. While the Marquis was in jail during his trial for the killing of Riley Luffsey (he was later acquitted), he shot a letter to Roosevelt on September 3, 1885 that expressed concern that Roosevelt’s employee and friend Joe Ferris had been “very active against me and has been instrumental in getting me indicted,” and asked “Is this done by your order?” The letter closed with the threat, "If you are my enemy I want to know it...between gentlemen it is easy to settle matters of that sort directly." [Emphasis added].

Roosevelt, in fact, had not acted against the Marquis, but if he could not convince the Marquis of his innocence, the disagreement might very well have been settled in a duel, implied by the word "directly," in the Marquis's letter. Privately, Bill Sewall offered to be Roosevelt's second in the duel TR wanted to avoid. Carefully, TR wrote back to the Marquis, “Most emphatically I am not your enemy; if I were you would know it, for I would be an open one, and would not have asked you to my house nor gone to yours." TR closed that he was "ever ready to hold myself accountable for anything I have said or done." TR's tactful response cooled tensions between the two giants of Medora. The Marquis backed out of any direct confrontation with Roosevelt.

Legacy

The Marquis's influence on Medora has been lasting, though his attitudes and actions serve to highlight how popular Theodore Roosevelt was with the people by comparison. The Marquis tended to use his wealth to inflict his will on people whether or not they agreed with him. He founded his own town to spite the settlers who did not like him, and was one of the first in the area to put up barbed wire fences, which irked free range cattlemen. Theodore Roosevelt showed more concern for the area and its people, organizing Medora’s first Stockmen’s Association, dealing fairly with the locals, and pursuing justice as deputy sheriff. Despite their differences, the Marquis de Morès’s legacy is not that of an antagonist to Roosevelt, but of a bold dreamer who embodied the spirit of the Wild West.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota operates the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site, located near the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s South Unit in Medora. The site is composed of three separate parts: the Chateau de Mores, De Mores Memorial Park in downtown Medora, and Chimney Park. The Chateau de Mores site includes a visitor center, museum, and guided tours of the Marquis's home. De Mores Memorial Park features a statue of the Marquis. Chimney Park, where a picnic area and ruins of the abbatoir are located, stand as a quiet reminder of the Marquis's unfulfilled dreams.

Remains of the de Mores meatpacking plant.  The plant burned down in 1906.

Fire Management in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The following is an article I wrote for Theodore Roosevelt National Park last year about wildfire and how the park manages fires.  Spring is one of the times of year when the danger for wildfire goes up between the time the snow melts and the time the grass turns green again, plus high winds.  The article was a collaboration with the park's Fire Management Officer.

When you think about the word “wildfire,” what do you imagine? Do you imagine a destructive fire burning everything in its path? Do you also imagine the fire’s aftermath as fresh, green growth returns shortly after the fire? Both are true. Fire is a natural process that can be both dangerous and beneficial depending on the circumstances. Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s fire management program helps to promote the positive aspects of fire while preparing for, reducing the chance of, and extinguishing wildfires.

The National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 broadly mandates that national parks are to conserve and manage resources in a manner that will leave them “unimpaired for future generations.” In that regard, fire is an important natural process and a tool to promote sustained health of plant and animal regimes. Further, current National Park Service policy requires that park areas with burnable vegetation must have a fire management plan. Other fire policies and procedures are defined by the National Interagency Fire Center. Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s Fire Management Plan contains operational plans for fire preparedness, preplanned dispatch, prescribed fire, and fire prevention.

Wildfires occur in Theodore Roosevelt National Park on average once or twice per year. Many variables contribute to the incidence of wildfires including weather, lightning, and human activity. Lightning is the most common cause of wildfires. Many fires that start in the uneven badlands terrain extinguish themselves as they run out of fuel on the sparsely vegetated slopes. Other naturally-caused wildfires may be declared “Wildland Fire Use” fires that can be used to achieve natural resources management goals. Fires started by humans, that threaten human lives or property, or that otherwise cannot be declared “Wildland Fire Use” fires are extinguished by firefighters.

NPS Photo (by me!)
Bison grazing in regrowth shortly after a prescribed burn

For most of the 20th Century, wildfires were extinguished immediately with the assumption that doing so would protect lives, property, and natural areas. However, following the unusually intense fire season of 1988, agencies including the National Park Service began to rethink their policies. After many decades without fire, fuels had built up as woody plants grew and died. When wildfires started in these fuel-rich areas, they burned with great intensity. In the grasslands, just as in the forests, periodic fire plays a role in removing plant material and in promoting new growth, both essential for maintaining a mosaic of habitat age and promoting diversity. In places like the grasslands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the absence of fire allows woodier plants such as sagebrush and junipers to become established, displacing many of the grasses and forbs that many animals require to survive.

Fire is essential for grasslands diversity. From one year to the next, the makeup of plant species in grasslands can change dramatically as early successional forbs and grasses give way to other plants. By returning fire to the landscape in a responsible way, prescribed fire allows Theodore Roosevelt National Park to sustain a mixed-age grassland, to increase forage and habitat diversity for wildlife, and to reduce the impact and intensity of wildfires.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s prescribed fire program addresses three important and interrelated goals: to benefit the natural resources, to reduce hazard fuels, and to address the wildland/urban interface. “Resource benefit burning” is intended to impact certain species or groups of species, and may be done to benefit or to be harmful to one or more species. Examples are to promote grass growth by reducing woody plants, or to control non-native plants like leafy spurge. “Hazard fuel reduction” removes the buildup of fuels, such as woody plants, that contribute to larger, hotter wildfires. Lastly, “Wildland/Urban interface” fires remove fuels adjacent to populated areas to protect lives, property, and to aid in controlling wildfires. Hazard fuels and Wildland/Urban interface management goals can also be achieved by mechanical means including cutting and haying. A prescribed fire can address one or more of these goals simultaneously, and a burn is typically performed at a precise time of year and under favorable weather conditions to attain the maximum benefit.

NPS Photo
Wildland firefighters igniting a prescribed fire

The prescribed fire program in Theodore Roosevelt National Park has been successful in returning the land to a proper fire return interval, resulting in a turnover of habitat from woody plants to new growth on a timescale that approximates the frequency of natural fires. Prescribed fires have helped to set back unwanted non-native plants, reduce woody vegetation encroachment in prairies, and to positively affect wildlife grazing patterns. The Park utilizes vegetation data and maps to chart the incidence of plant species and regimes before a prescribed fire and how they change years after the burn. The vegetation data and maps are studied and used to adapt future fire management decisions to achieve desired results.

In allowing fire to play a vital role in the ecosystem while preparing for, preventing, and extinguishing dangerous wildfires, Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s Fire Management Program addresses both the positive and negative aspects of wildfire. The program has been successful at using fire to establish healthy and vigorous ecosystems that reflect the natural landscape, to combat non-native plants, to reduce fuels, and to protect human lives and property from uncontrolled wildfires.

Movement

We've been in a nearly perpetual fog for two weeks as the snow is slowly melting but not making it far in the atmosphere.  Winter is slowly receding, though there is still most of a foot of snow to melt.  The good news around here is that the gradual warm-up has allowed the ice to break up slowly on the river, so we probably won't see as exciting of a flood event as last year.  The same can't be said for other parts of North Dakota.  It's also nice to have the smells of water, mud, and grass, rather than winter air and wood stove smoke.

I managed to spot one redpoll, the first I've seen all winter, visiting my new thistle feeder.  The feeder has been very popular with the goldfinches, who found it the first morning it was out there.  The male goldfinches are just beginning their summer moult.

In other wildlife news, I spotted a bald eagle along the river.  They don't stick around here, but seem to pass through in March.  Mountain bluebirds have returned and I saw dozens of them recently.

I took a bold course of action and drove to the Peaceful Valley Ranch area, where I lodged my car in the snow.  After trying to get it out for an hour, I gave up and called for a ride.  By that time, the great-horned owls were hooting and looking at me, and their hooting sounded more like mocking laughter.  Amber and I both noticed an unusual sound that almost sounded mechanical - a high pitched tone with a regular cadence.  I thought it sounded like a rope clanging against a flagpole or a machine squeaking or something.  Research proved it to be a Northern saw-whet owl.

The sun was working yesterday and it should approach 60 degrees today - tropical - so I'm hoping to get the car out with the help of the sun rather than the shovel.  In the meantime, I hope the bison aren't rubbing on it or taking it for a joyride.

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park Facebook fan page, which I created and have been administrating, is approaching 1000 fans.  It was my goal to get 1000 before I leave the park in April, and we just might get there.

America’s First Nobel Prize

“I know perfectly well that the whole world is watching me…”

Theodore Roosevelt, 1905

Japan and Russia had been at war since February, 1904 as the two nations struggled for control of Manchuria and Korea. Among the battles on land and at sea, Japan annihilated Russia’s Baltic Fleet on May 27, 1905, in the largest naval engagement in the world in 100 years, sinking 22 ships and capturing seven with minimal losses.

For a variety of political reasons, President Theodore Roosevelt sought to end the conflict. Among Roosevelt’s motivations was his desire to assert American influence abroad, a mode of diplomacy new to the American presidency.

Roosevelt convinced the Russians and the Japanese to send delegates to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to negotiate a settlement in the summer of 1905. Meanwhile, Roosevelt sent his 21-year-old daughter Alice with William Howard Taft on a diplomatic mission to Japan. There, Alice enjoyed a certain celebrity and hammed it up with the press while Taft skillfully negotiated with Japanese officials.

Alice Roosevelt and William Howard Taft en route to Japan.

Diplomatic negotiations are typically the function of the Secretary of State, but Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, John Hay, who had once held the same post in the Lincoln administration, was ill at the outset of the negotiations in Portsmouth and did not participate. Without a Secretary to handle the negotiations during Hay’s illness and eventual death on July 1, President Roosevelt took on Hay’s role. In so doing, Roosevelt entered into a historic role for an American President.

The negotiations took weeks, with Roosevelt carefully acting as mediator. On August 29, Russia and Japan agreed to end hostilities, though Russia was forced to cede the southern portion of Sakhalin Island to Japan. Roosevelt had demonstrated extraordinary skill in mediating between the two warring nations. For his achievement, Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December of 1905.

Theodore Roosevelt poses with Russian delegates Sergei Witte and Baron Rosen on the left and Baron Komura and Ambassador Takahira on the right, August 5, 1905.  The disparity in the delegates' height was not lost on political cartoonists.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first American to win the Nobel Prize. However, he decided that it was unethical to accept the award or the $37,000 prize earned while a public servant, and delayed accepting the award until he was out of office. Roosevelt used the prize money to establish a trust to create an Industrial Peace Committee, though it never came to fruition. When World War I broke out, Roosevelt instead parceled the money out into a variety of war relief efforts including the Red Cross. Roosevelt never kept any of the prize money for himself or his family.

In the long run, the resolution of the Russo-Japanese War was eclipsed by vast changes in both Russia and Japan in the 20th century. Embarrassed, Russians lost faith in the Tsar and in their country’s apparent inability to manage or protect itself; the Bolshevik Revolution occurred in 1917. Japan was empowered by its successful war and continued to expand militarily through the first half of the 20th century, culminating in the World War II. At the close of World War II, Soviet troops dislodged Japan from southern Sakhalin Island and retook the land ceded in the 1905 treaty. The territory is still disputed.