Theodore Roosevelt Administrative History

1. Martyn J. Bowden conducts an illuminating discussion on how the Great Plains have been conceived and misconceived in "The Great American Desert in the American Mind: The Historiography of a Geographical Notion," in Geographies of the Mind: Essays in Historical Geosophy, David Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 119-147. See also Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains, reprint (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981), 152-160. First published 1931 by Ginn and Company, Boston.

2. North Dakota Statewide 208 Water Quality Management Plan: Water Quality Report (Bismarck: Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control, NDSDH, 1979), 50.

3. "State Coordinator's Monthly Report," 29 October 1971.

4. See Dickinson Press, 23 September 1973; Williston Daily News, 5 August 1974; and 208 Water Quality Management Plan, 53. For flowage, see for example 1974 Water Resources Data for North Dakota: Surface Water Records (Washington, DC: USGS, 1975), 106-110.

5. "NRM Plan," 29-30.

6. "Minutes, Little Missouri Scenic River Commission," memorandum, 2 June 1983 (THRO-A).

7. "NRM Plan," 28.

8. "State Coordinator's Monthly Report," 7 June 1983.

9. Ibid., 26 February 1982, 30 March 1983. Interestingly, the river was first held navigable on the basis of a passage from the journal of Meriwether Lewis.

10. "NRM Plan," 28.

11. Lawrence O. Anna, Ground-Water Resources of Billings, Golden Valley, and Slope Counties, North Dakota (Bismarck: USGS, 1981), 7, 15, and 45.

12. Kenneth F. Higgins, "Lightning Fires in Grasslands in North Dakota and in Pine-Savanna Lands in Nearby South Dakota and Montana (Review Draft)," unpublished MS, 1982 (THRO-A), 17.

13. "1982 Superintendent's Annual Report," 14; "1981 Superintendent's Annual Report," 15.

14. 1973 Master Plan, 22; "Chief Ranger's Monthly Report," 22 August and 14 September 1978.

15. Einar L. Johnson, "Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park Forest Fire Control Plan," unpublished MS, 30 July 1965 (THRO-A), 1.

16. Lary D. Barney (Acting Supt., THRO) to Reg. Dir. (MWRO), memorandum, 31 January 1969 (THRO-S). This is an instance in which the park poses the external threat to adjacent land uses.

17. First quotation: "Annual Forestry Report: 1955," unpublished MS, 10 January 1956 (THRO-S), 1. Second quotation: Strand, 50-51.

18. "1974 Superintendent's Annual Report," 9.

19. "NRM Plan," 63 (quote), 64.

20. Higgins, 18.

21. John O. Lancaster (Supt., THRO) to Associate Reg. Dir. (RMRO), memorandum, 8 July 1977 (THRO-A); and "NRM Plan," 63, 26.

22. Grazing of domestic livestock within the park—an open invitation to exotic species—was allowed well into the 1950s (see 1963 Master Plan, unpaginated) and into the 1980s in the case of the Elkhorn, supposedly in order to maintain the historical character of the site (but see text at nn65-69, Chapter 1): "Chief Ranger's Monthly Report," 18 September 1974; "1980 Superintendent's Annual Report," 11. There is a brief reference to restoring native vegetation to heavily disturbed areas in Mission 66 for Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park," unpublished MS, ca. 1956 (THRO-S), 2-3.

23. Osmer included a covert description, rough map, and photographs in his 1937 wildlife report (p. 9 ff.). The map seems to have been lost, or at least it is not extant with the park's original copy of the report.

Single-species research includes Donald Hazlett, "An Ecological Study of Artemisia Dominated Vegetation in Western North Dakota With Special Reference to the Concept of Allelopathy," master's thesis, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, 1972; Robert Dean Ralston, "The Structure and Ecology of the North Slope Juniper Stands of the Little Missouri Badlands," master's thesis, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1960; Benjamin L. Everett, "Use of Populus Sargentii in Tracing the Recent History of a River Channel," senior thesis, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1965.

24. "NRM Plan," 25. In the 1950s old homesteads within the park were overseeded. "Annual Forestry Report: 1958," memorandum, 16 January 1959 (THRO-S).

25. "NRM Plan," 6.

26. Ibid., 18; Hellickson to author, 14 May and 8 October 1985.

27. Final Environmental Statement: Wilderness Proposal, 16.

28. "1974 Superintendent's Annual Report," 9.

29. "NRM Plan," 18; "1975 Superintendent's Annual Report," 8.

30. "NRM Plan," 18, 20.

31. "North Dakota and the National Park Service," 3.

32. Geologic research includes: Michael B. Clark, "The Stratigraphy of the Sperati Point Quadrangle, McKenzie County, North Dakota," master's thesis, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, 1966; Mark A. Steiner, "Petrology of Sandstones from the Bullion Creek and Sentinel Butte Formations (Paleocene), Little Missouri Badlands, North Dakota," master's thesis, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, 1978; Bernard M. Hanson, "Geology of the Elkhorn Ranch Area, Billings and Golden Valley Counties, North Dakota," North Dakota Geological Survey Report of Investigations #18 (Grand Forks: NDGS, 1955), reprinted 1959; and John R. Tinker, Jr., "Rates of Hillslope Lowering in the Badlands of North Dakota," doctoral dissertation, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, 1970. Also useful is the booklet by John P. Bleumle and Arthur F. Jacob, Geology Along the South Loop Road (Medora: Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Assn., 1973).

33. See Yoder, 50.

34. For example, Donald J. Berg and John A. Brophy, "An Investigation of Fossil Wood From the South Unit, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park," unpublished MS, 1963 (THRO-L), 9. The authors ventured "a highly tentative guess" that identified the wood as Sciadopitys, but the research done in 1983 by Harold Coffin of Loma Linda University might contradict this.