by Roger Pinckney | Nov 8, 2025
Young Theodore Roosevelt wasn’t exactly the strong, confident leader of American history that we know today. Like many of us, Little Teedy started small. Young Theodore Roosevelt, or “Little Teedy,” was a sickly child and the doctors didn’t offer...
by Theodore Roosevelt | Oct 17, 2025
Shocked and angered by his friend’s horrible death, the old trapper was determined to get revenge. Almost every trapper past middle age who has spent his life in the wilderness has stories to tell about exceptionally savage bears. One of these stories was told in my...
by Wayne van Zwoll | Sep 19, 2025
With horse and rifle he explored frontiers, indulging a lust that would transcend politics. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. defined the bully pulpit, spared the teddy bear and led the strenuous life. “I do not believe,” he declared in a late retrospective, “that any...
by Roger Pinckney | Sep 3, 2024
Daddy sent Theodore off to Harvard in 1876 with this advice: “Take care of your morals first, your health second, and your studies third.” Predictably, young Roosevelt was a better boxer than student, much preferring independent inquiries rather than activities...
by John Seerey-Lester | Aug 8, 2024
Instead of just two bulls, Theodore Roosevelt and his party were suddenly confronted by a huge herd of angry Cape buffalo. The buffalo rose like massive black warriors from the papyrus swamp. Theodore Roosevelt and his party had just come face-to-face with one of...
by Duncan Dobie | Jun 12, 2024
After the honorable David Crockett of Tennessee, Ben Lilly was said to be the greatest bear hunter in American history. He reputedly killed more bears with a knife in hand-to-hand combat than Ol’ Davy ever attempted to “grin” down. In truth, Ben Lilly no doubt killed...
by Peggy Robbins | Jun 28, 2023
Roosevelt had said, “I want Uncle Sam to have a better African collection than anybody else”; he accomplished his purpose. Well-known African explorer-hunter Carl Akeley, a contemporary of Theodore Roosevelt, had a simple answer about why Roosevelt’s...
by Roger Pinckney | Mar 18, 2021
Roosevelt’s cowboy cavalry, the Rough Riders, and their victory at the Battle of San Juan Hill made Roosevelt the most famous man in America in 1898. Back East, Theodore Roosevelt co-chaired a commission to beautify Niagara Falls and rooted out corruption from...
by Roger Pinckney | Sep 16, 2019
In August of 1886, Roosevelt set out with two companions for the Wyoming Big Horn Mountains, some 300-odd miles southwest of his Elkhorn Ranch. There was a prairie schooner wagon, a string of horses—saddle, pack, and draft. Barrels of water, flour, and lard, bacon,...
by Duncan Dobie | Sep 10, 2019
Roosevelt greatly enjoyed his time with Ben Lilly. He later wrote: “I never met any other man so indifferent to fatigue and hardship. The morning he joined us in camp, he had come on foot through the thick woods, followed by his two dogs, and had neither eaten nor...
