Theodore Roosevelt, 24 years old, came to the North Dakota badlands from New York City to hunt his first buffalo. For a week there was nothing but rain - at last some fresh tracks. And after hard riding, and a lot of missed shots, Roosevelt finally downed a large bull.< Left Sidebar : >He was looking for a taste of Wild West adventure. But something about the badlands made a deeper impression. Swift rides in the early morning, the songs of unfamiliar birds, the rock formations at night, all were part of the spirit of the place and he returned often during the years before his Presidency.< Left Sidebar : >Even during his earliest stays in the badlands, Roosevelt sensed a unique time passing away. Land was becoming overgrazed, the wild animals hunted off. And be began to fear that a wilderness lifestyle he had grown to prize might vanish . . . "The grass-land stretches out in the sunlight like a sea, every wind bending the blades into a ripple, and flecking the prairie with shifting patches of a different green from that around, exactly as the touch of a light squall or wind-gust will fleck the smooth surface of the ocean."- Theodore Roosevelt, inRanch Life in the Far West
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