A GOP power trio look to Teddy Roosevelt for America's next 250 years | On The Road

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**Jonathan Martin** (0:31)
Roosevelt is really the quintessential American in so many ways.
He's big, he's brash, he's got big appetites, he's got big flaws. But he's got a hustle and a drive and an ambition that cannot be kept down. And he reflects the big city and the small town. How can we go on forward for the next 250 years, honor Roosevelt, and make America the place that people like Theodore Roosevelt wanted it to be?
Welcome back to On The Road with Jonathan Martin, where food, politics, and place meet. We're starting season two in the Badlands of North Dakota, where the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library just opened. And I was joined by the three leaders who know each other quite well, and they were instrumental in bringing this library, and let's be honest, this play for tourist dollars, to the state. Former Governor and current Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Governor Kelly Armstrong, and Senator Kevin Cramer. They're all Republicans, they're all long time friends, and of course, we're talking some politics with them too. But we're really focusing on this convergence of the past and the present. We ate what else here on the plains? Bison burgers and walleye at the Little Missouri Saloon. An homage to the river, the Little Missouri, which runs through town. And what better way to celebrate our country at 250 than in a wide open space, a place that evoked possibility in the 19th century, and did so again this century, for those who were audacious enough to, yes, drop a Presidential Library for a long dead president out on the range.
Hey, folks, coming at you on the road, season two in a very special place, Medora, North Dakota. We're here with three special guests, but the real star of the show is the land all around us. We're here in the Badlands of North Dakota, the place that Theodore Roosevelt came as a young man seeking solace and purpose and became the eventual president he would be. And we're joined by three North Dakotans who know from Theodore Roosevelt, know from Medora, and know from the library that's being built here. So how did this start, and why are we talking about Theodore Roosevelt in western North Dakota?

**Doug Burgum** (2:55)
Well, first of all, a huge team effort, and kudos and congratulations to Kevin, Kelly, and you know, success has a thousand fathers. Yeah. If we'd have failed, I think, you know, failure is an orphan. I think we know who they'd have been pointing at. We had a great success. We had a great dedication yesterday with the president here, and kicking off a great celebration. But you build a presidential library in a place like this, at the entrance of Theodore Roosevelt National Park for three reasons. One is, we want to make sure that we understand the past, and Theodore Roosevelt had such an impact on our country today. US Fish and Wildlife Bureau of Electromation running 400 dams. And without irrigation, there's no Arizona as a state. There's no California agriculture. National Park system may be considered by many, you know, the nation's best idea, TR, all that. So massive impact, but also on foreign policy, Panama Canal, building a strong military. I mean, all these things that he did to contribute, really realigning capitalism to set up the whole century. We need to understand that and be proud of it. But then the second thing we need to do is inspire future generations. And I think when people come to this thing, you're speaking to an eight year old girl this morning, and I said, what was your favorite part? She goes, why do they call it a library if there's no books?
Because this is not a library in that sense.

**Jonathan Martin** (4:17)
The train is going through BNSF, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which is fitting because this was a rail town. Roosevelt came here for the first time 1883 on a train. He gets off dusty Dakota territory, and that rail is still coming through town that he arrived in here, and the land really hasn't changed since then. But Kelly Armstrong, you're from Western North Dakota. You grew up in Dickinson, which is about 35 miles to the east.
Tell me why this is in Madora, and how this thing started about 10, 12 years ago or something?