Box 7
Medora, ND 58654
(701) 623-4466 (South Unit)
(701) 842-2333 (North Unit)
The North Dakota badlands provides the scenic backdrop to the park which memorializes the 26th president for his enduring contributions to the conservation of our nation's resources. The area was first established as a Memorial Park in 1947. It gained National
Park status in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter.
A young Theodore Roosevelt first visited the area around the park in 1883. Before returning to New York, just two weeks after he arrived, he entered into a partnership to raise cattle on the Maltese Cross Ranch. The next year he returned to the badlands and started a second open-range ranch, the Elkhorn. Theodore Roosevelt returned again over the next few years to live the life of a cowboy, explore, invigorate his body and to have the Little Missouri Badlands renew his spirit. Theodore Roosevelt wrote: "I would not have been President, had it not been for my experience in North Dakota."
As a memorial park, it was the only one of its kind in the National Park System. Eventually, in addition to a connection with a president, the land was recognized for its diverse cultural and natural resources.
The paved 36 mile scenic loop road with interpretive signs that explain some of the park's historical and natural phenomena, your first introduction to the park is the Painted
Canyon Overlook, about seven miles east of Medora. Here on the upper margin of the badlands is a magnificent panorama of the broken topography in its colorful hues. At the overlook, a visitor center, restrooms, picnic shelters, tables, and water are available generally April through October. A short walk provides access during winter when facilities are closed.
East of Painted Canyon you can sometimes see wild horses, the descendants of former domestic ranching stock. No admission fees are charged at Painted Canyon.
During the warm, rainy periods that followed, dense vegetation grew fell into swamp areas, and was later buried by new layers of sediments. Eventually this plant material turned into lignite coal. Some plant life became petrified; today considerable amounts of petrified wood are exposed in the badlands. Bentonite, the blue-gray layer of clay , may be traced to ash from ancient volcanoes far to the west. But even as sediments were being deposited, streams were starting to cut down through the soft strata and to sculpt the infinite variety of buttes, tablelands, and valleys that made up the badlands we know today.
Though at first glance this landscape appears inhospitable and barren, it is home to a great variety of creatures and plants. when the wildflowers bloom in bright profusion, they add their vibrant colors to the reds, browns, and greens of the earth and grasses. At home here, too, are over 180 species of birds, many of them songbirds.
The varied and colorful, badland formations of western North Dakota are the result of geologic processes at work for millions of years. Whether you are a casual observer driving or hiking through the badlands, or an amateur or professional geologist, all can appreciate the fascinating geologic story of this rugged land.
The present-day badlands contain bands of lignite coal and petrified trees plus fossils of freshwater clams, snails, crocodile, alligator, turtle and champsosaur that indicate a wetter climate and changing past environments. Petrified trees can be found throughout the
badlands, many easily accessible by car or foot. Quantities of volcanic ash were blown or carried by rivers into the region and accumulated. The ash then decomposed to the bentonite clay that forms the distinctive gray or blue-gray layers in the badlands.
Running water continues to change the badlands. Yearly precipitation in the badlands averages 15 inches. Rain, usually comes in hard downpours which are very erosive. Water running downslope causes gullying. some of it soaks into clay-rich rocks and soil, making them swell, weaken, and eventually sag or flow downhill. If you hike through the badlands after such.a downpour, you will find that the soil is very loose and crumbly. The river and its tributary streams, swollen by rainwater, cut more actively into cliff sides, scour their own channels, and carry away sand and silt brought in by smaller tributaries.
Lignite coal continues to help shape the badlands. Lightning or spontaneous combustion can ignite coal beds which then may burn for many years. When a coal bed burns underground, it bakes the overlying sediments into a hard, natural red brick known as clinker--locally called "scoria." The red color is due to the mineral hematite, an iron oxide formed by the burning or oxidation of tiny amounts of iron that occur naturally in the rocks. The burning lends both color to the badlands and helps to shape them. The rocks that have been heated are hardened to various degrees: clays and silts are fired as hard as brick, and sands melted and fused into glass. As you might expect, the fire-hardened rocks are more resistant to erosion than the unbaked rocks nearby. Over time, erosion has worn down the less resistant rocks, leaving behind a jumble of conspicuous knobs, ridges and buttes topped with durable red clinker caps.
CAMPING:
There are four campgrounds in Theodore National Park. In the South Unit, there are Cottonwood Campground and Halliday Wells Group Horse Camp. In the North Unit there are Squaw Creek Campground and a Group Camp. Camping is on a first-come, first-served basis. A free backcountry permit is required for overnight camping in the wilderness.
LODGING:
There is no lodging available at the park. However there is lodging outside the park at, Roosevelt Inn & Suites, Ragged Butte Inn, Four Eyes Motel, Mc Kenzie Inn, Americinn Motel and Suites, Badlands Motel, Diamond Bar Bed and Breakfast, Medora Motel, Rough Riders Hotel, Sully Inn, and the Villa Vallombrosa Bed and Breakfast.
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Last updated July 16, 2000