Photo: National Park Service
	A sunset silhouettes parts of The Badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora, N.D.

North Dakota: Plenty of presidential tender around here

© 2012 Group Tour Media Article,
February 21, 2012

BISMARCK, N.D. — Granted, it was 123 years ago President Benjamin Harrison welcomed North Dakota into the the United States.

However, many other U.S. presidents have since left their marks on the state.

The 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, was bullish on conservation. His legacy is celebrated at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, which shares his vision for conserving North Dakota’s Badlands.

Besides its natural splendor spread across 70,476 acres, other park highlights are Roosevelt’s ranch home, Elkhorn Ranch; Roosevelt’s Maltese Cross Cabin, located behind the South Unit Visitors Center; and two other visitors centers (North Unit and Painted Canyon).

Scenic drives are also available in both South and North units. Guided tours, ranger walks and hikes, campfire programs and guided horseback rides are also available.

 In Dickinson, groups can visit Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University. Learn about his passion for the West, and his road to the presidency at the center, which has more than million Roosevelt documents and artifacts. 

It was President Thomas Jefferson who commissioned the Corps of Discovery to explore the Northwest from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center at Fort Mandan in Washburn fetes the corps, which was led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark from 1803 to 1806. 

President Abraham Lincoln appointed the Dakota Territory’s first two governors. On Nov. 19, 1872, Fort McKeen south of Mandan was renamed Fort Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln’s honor. It is now Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, and it offers tours and special programs at On-a-Slant Mandan Indian Village, Fort Abraham Lincoln cavalry post and its visitor center.

	Photo: Dawn Charging/North Dakota Tourism
	A fountain splashes with a sunset in the background at the International Peace Garden in Dunseith, N.D.

A second Fort Lincoln, built in Bismarck in 1903 for training and an internment camp during World War II, is now United Tribes Technical College’s campus.

President Herbert Hoover didn’t make it for the 1932 dedication of the International Peace Garden, but sent a message of congratulations. The International Peace Garden in Dunseith remains steadfast 80 years later, symbolizing peace on the North Dakota-Manitoba border between the U.S. and Canada. It boasts colorful floral displays as part of its 2,339-acre botanical garden, an interpretive center, conservatory, 120-foot-tall Peace Tower, seven Peace Poles and a 9/11 memorial. Group tours are available. 

Presidents Calvin Coolidge, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all made it to Bismarck, staying at what was Patterson Hotel during their North Dakota visits. The former hotel’s history lobby is home to Peacock Alley American Grill & Bar.

President Ronald Reagan implored the Soviet Union’s leadership to "tear down" the Berlin Wall. Eventually, the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union broke up and the Cold War ended. Some of the weaponry from the Cold War era remains, and can be visited at Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Site near Cooperstown. The site is the last remnants of the U.S. Air Force’s 321st Missile Wing near Grand Forks Air Force Base. 

In Fargo, President George W. Bush’s handprints are among 110 enshrined in the Fargo Walk of Fame. 

For more about visiting North Dakota, visit North Dakota Tourism online or call (800) 435-5663 or (701) 328-2525.