Cattle Country

Gordon Louis Mortensen

Theodore Roosevelt first came to the Badlands of the Dakota Territory from New York in 1883 to hunt bison. Having been a sportsman-hunter all his life he gradually realized that natural resources were not inexhaustible. Roosevelt became one of the greatest conservationists of all time and, while serving as President of the United States between 1901 and 1909, he created the United States Forest Service, established 150 national forests, fifty-one federal bird reserves, four national parks, and eighteen national monuments.

The proposal of a national park to honor President Teddy Roosevelt was put forth shortly after his death on 6 January 1919. After more than two decades of studies, tours, proposals, and political maneuvering, the Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge came into being in November 1946. The following year it was established as a national memorial park and, thirty-one years later in 1978, it underwent boundary changes and was designated the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. President Jimmy Carter signed the bill that changed it from a memorial park to a national park. Today the park encompasses 70,448 acres.

Cattle Country, a color reduction woodcut by Gordon Mortensen, gives the viewer a breathtaking vista of a broad swath of the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Over the millennia, the canyons were carved and the rock formations were stacked, painted, and pushed upward by the forces of nature. Despite the title, it is difficult to imagine wranglers managing a herd of cattle over such rugged terrain.