Theodore Roosevelt

The words

1. Buck Hill

   Buck Hill’s summit in the South Unit provides a high vantage over the badlands. Its short, steep trail leads to views across the surrounding broken terrain.

   Park Service: Badlands trail landscapes (opens a new tab)

2. Cannonball

   Mineral-bearing water cements loose sediment together around a core, building a concretion outward. Erosion later uncovers these rounded stones in the North Unit, revealing formations once hidden inside a butte.

   Park Service: How concretions grow (opens a new tab)

3. Caprock Coulee

   Caprock Coulee’s North Unit trails pass through dry washes and varied badlands habitats. The longer route climbs onto a grassy butte and follows a ridge before descending.

   Park Service: Badlands trail landscapes (opens a new tab)

4. Cottonwood

   Cottonwoods shade the Elkhorn Ranch site beside the Little Missouri River. Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow also used cottonwood logs to build Roosevelt’s ranch house during the winter of 1884–1885.

   Did you know?

   The house contained eight rooms and an east-facing porch; the ranch complex also included stables, a chicken house and a blacksmith shop.

   Park Service: The Elkhorn Ranch site (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Building Elkhorn Ranch (opens a new tab)

5. Elkhorn Ranch

   Roosevelt established Elkhorn in 1884 while seeking solitude after his wife and mother died. Sewall and Dow built the house he regarded as his principal Dakota home.

   Park Service: Building Elkhorn Ranch (opens a new tab)

6. Lignite

   Soft coal formed from compressed ancient plant material.

   Lignite seams in the badlands preserve evidence of ancient swamps. Fallen leaves and branches accumulated as peat, then changed under the pressure of later sediments into coal.

   Did you know?

   Roosevelt and his ranch hands dug lignite from nearby hillsides to fuel their stove, putting the landscape’s ancient plant remains to practical use.

   Park Service: Reading the badlands rocks (opens a new tab)

7. Longhorn

   Longhorn cattle were driven north from Texas to Dakota grazing lands. The park’s demonstration herd began in 1967, recalling the cattle drives that crossed the future North Unit on the Long X Trail.

   Park Service: Longhorn cattle drives (opens a new tab)

8. Maltese Cross

   The Maltese Cross Cabin belonged to Roosevelt’s first Dakota ranch, also called Chimney Butte. Its ponderosa pine walls enclosed three rooms, with a loft above for ranch hands.

   Did you know?

   During Roosevelt’s presidency, the cabin traveled to the St. Louis World’s Fair and Portland’s Lewis and Clark exposition before returning to North Dakota.

   Park Service: The Maltese Cross Cabin (opens a new tab)

9. Medora

   Roosevelt’s Maltese Cross Ranch lay seven miles south of Medora. The town anchors the cabin’s original setting, although the preserved building was later moved to the park.

   Park Service: The Maltese Cross Cabin (opens a new tab)

10. Painted Canyon

    Painted Canyon’s colored rock bands record layers of ancient river sediment and volcanic ash. Unequal erosion of hard and soft layers produced its buttes and protective sandstone caps.

    Park Service: Painted Canyon Overlook (opens a new tab)

11. Ranchman

    Roosevelt entered Dakota cattle ranching as an investor in 1883, employing experienced local managers. He also joined roundups and helped organize the Little Missouri Stockmen’s Association to represent ranchers’ interests.

    Park Service: Roosevelt’s ranching years (opens a new tab)

12. Roosevelt

    Roosevelt’s Dakota ranching experience helped shape his conservation outlook. Overgrazing and the devastating winter of 1886–1887 exposed the cattle industry’s limits and contributed to his concern for natural resources.

    Park Service: Roosevelt’s ranching years (opens a new tab)

13. Scoria

    The regional name for clinker, sedimentary rock baked by burning coal.

    Burning coal seams bake the sediments above them into durable red rock. These hardened layers resist erosion, helping form caps on badlands buttes as softer surrounding material wears away.

    Park Service: Reading the badlands rocks (opens a new tab)

14. Wild Horses

    The park’s free-ranging horses descend from domestic stock used in open-range ranching. Bands that escaped a 1954 roundup remained, linking the herd’s history to the landscape’s ranching past.

    Did you know?

    Stallions herd their mares by lowering and stretching their heads and necks in a gesture called snaking.

    Park Service: Horses and ranching history (opens a new tab)

15. Wind Canyon

    Wind Canyon in the South Unit has been sculpted by wind. Its nature trail follows the canyon and climbs to a viewpoint over the Little Missouri River.

    Park Service: Badlands trail landscapes (opens a new tab)