DICKINSON — Just ten months following Theodore Roosevelt’s death, a UND professor’s written history of his life in Medora appeared in The Dickinson Press. The account details how he acquired his land, his growth in the cattle industry and his many connections in the Medora community, including with the Marquis de Mores.

“An Intimate Study of Teddy Roosevelt,”  November 30, 1919

The following partial account of the ranch life of Theodore Roosevelt was written by Albert Tangeman Vallweiler, formerly professor of history at the University of North Dakota and reproduced in the Quarterly Journal issued last month:

It was into this region that Theodore Roosevelt came in September, 1883. He had never been naturally robust and, therefore, by hard effort, he had learned while yet in his teens, to box, to ride, to shoot, and to stay out of doors with nature till he loved to do this. After he had served several terms in the New York assembly, when he was yet a slender young man of twenty-six, he came over the Northern Pacific for a hunting trip in the Little Missouri Valley.

When he arrived at the squalid shack town of Little Missouri on the west bank of the Little Missouri river, opposite which Medora was later built, he went to the rude hotel, taking his baggage along. This consisted chiefly of a fine collection of rifles. One was an Express, inlaid with gold plates engraved with hunting scenes. The one he usually used, however, was a Winchester of 45-90 caliber. The hotel was known as the Pyramid Park hotel. It was built of logs and was managed by E.H. Bly of Bismarck, who made his living by cutting logs for ties and by boarding such men as came to Medora. It was the only building at Medora besides the station. The entire upper floor of the hotel consisted of a room which contained 14 beds, and Roosevelt occupied one of these. The next day he met a ranchman, J.A. Ferris, who happened to be in town and, after a bargain had been made, the latter took him eight miles southward to his ranch, Chimney Butte. Here the party outfitted and, with ponies, blankets, rifles and food, proceeded 50 miles southward. They returned late in the fall after a successful hunt. If this country supported such numbers of wild animals it would also support herds of cattle and so, before leaving, having been attracted by the health-giving life of a cattle ranch, Roosevelt purchased Chimney Butte ranch. This included the horses and cattle that were marked with a Maltese cross on their left hips, a few rude buildings and corrals, together with grazing rights over the surrounding region. Roosevelt retained the services of the former owners, Sylvane Ferris and A.W. Merrifield, to manage his new property.

Most good cowmen used a Texan breed of cattle because of their size and their ability to withstand the winter. This was especially true of experienced cowmen who came from the south. Easterners usually made poorer stockmen unless they staid long enough to learn the cattle business by experience. Roosevelt labored under this handicap. The cattle business was new to him and to his foreman, Sylvane Ferris. The latter had come from Canada and had previously hunted or worked on the Northern Pacific railroad. The year following Roosevelt’s purchase of Chimney Butte, he had shipped in to his ranch many carloads of Minnesota dogie cattle. They had no pride of ancestry, nor great size nor hardiness to withstand the winter. These things tended to preclude the possibility of making large profits.

Government Land Used

Roosevelt never owned any land in North Dakota. The land of the government was used freely by all ranchmen before it was surveyed and homesteaders came. Since there were no fences in the early stages of the ranching industry, the brand indicated the owner. The region was well adapted for cattle raising. The buttes break the forces of the winter winds and the clusters of plum and buffalo-berry bushes, ash, box-elder, elm and cedar trees afford natural shelter for stock. Grazing is good the year round, for the short nutritious grass ripens early. It thus escapes frosts and retains its food value and is as good as hay when obtained on exposed places in winter.

The region soon built up rapidly. Eastern capitalists invested their money and men of intelligence, sometimes with a college education, and hardy, trusty pioneers managed their ranches, while Texan cowboys came to work on them. The latter formed the bulk of the population, so that the country west of the Missouri resembled the southwest more than the country east of the Missouri.

Soon, the valleys held great herds of cattle that found there abundant food both summer and winter. The cattle with the Maltese Cross brand now numbered about 3,000. Eighty ponies were kept to help take care of them. Six men were employed in summer and three in winter. Their wages were about $35 to #40 per month with “room” and board. The foreman, Sylvane Ferris, was financially interested in the undertaking. In 1884, Roosevelt started a new ranch on untrodden ground in Elkhorn, also on the Little Missouri river, 40 miles north of Chimney Butte. Here he built a very substantial log cabin out of logs that were all squared. It was a much better cabin than the one at Chimney Butte and served as Roosevelt’s headquarters. After he abandoned it, it was used as a lumber yard by the surrounding settlers. In 1904 there were only a few logs left to mark the spot where it stood. This ranch used an elkhorn and triangle for its brand and was managed by Sewall and Dow. The largest number of cattle on Roosevelt’s two ranches at any one time was about 5,000. They roamed from the Killdeer mountains on the north to the Chalk Buttes on the south.

While the country was building up and Roosevelt’s venture succeeding, an interesting chapter came to this region — the Marquis de Mores, a dashing young Frenchman of the old, aristocratic type. He married Medora, daughter of L.A. Von Hoffman of New York. De Mores and Medora, a siding and a station, respectively, received their names from these persons. He built a packing plant at Medora, costing about $86,000, intending to grow or buy the stock and kill it on the range and ship the meat in refrigerator cars to eastern markets. This plan seemed better to him than the plan of Armour & Swift, who moved the live stock eastward and then killed it. It failed to be successful and he returned to France. He had also established the Deadwood Stage Coach line, a cattle ranch, and purchased eleven sections of land. The following story is one of the many that are told of Roosevelt in this region and is an interesting sidelight on his character and reputation, even though it may be only a folk-tale:

Once the marquis seems to have taken offense at something which his near neighbor 15 miles away, Roosevelt, was reported to have said and therefore wrote him a curt note relating what he had heard, and adding that there was a way for gentlemen to settle their quarrels to which he invited his attention. Roosevelt promptly replied in a letter that the Marquis de Mores had heard a lie, that he had no right to believe it upon such evidence, and that he himself would follow the letter one hour later. The letter he sent by one of his men and followed it himself. A short distance from the marquis’ home he was met with an apology and an invitation to dinner.

Young Roosevelt, like any new comer in the west, found people waiting for him to show what kind of a man he was. Bull-whackers, buffalo-hunters, broncho-busters, cow-punchers and mule-skinners stated that this new Eastern dude would soon be returning home. “Four-eyes,” one of them called him, because he committed the unpardonable offense in the country of wearing spectacles, though most people called him “Mr. Roosevelt.” When he brought in cattle they looked with furtive glances at the “stuck up tender foot shasayin’ ‘round, drivin’ in cattle and chasin’ out game.” Even the unprejudiced waited askance till he made good.

This he soon did. At intervals he would go out hunting for a day and sometimes make long trips. The hunger, cold and wet inevitable encounters were lost on him. Though no crack sharpshooter or broncho-buster he was a good shot, a good rider, and took his medicine like a man. “Fer a critter with a quint he war plum handy with a gun,” remarked one pioneer. On the roundup he neither asked nor received any favors. He worked hard like any other cowboy, whether it was in the sweltering heat of midsummer or in the blinding blizzard in early winter. He helped break his ranch horses and rode both good and bad. Once he was thrown from his saddle and broke the point of his shoulder; an another he cracked a rib. Being 100 miles from a doctor these injuries had to heal themselves and, besides, he has to get through his work as best he could. Dantz tells us that the hard work on the round-up told on Roosevelt till he became rather gaunt, yet with grim, bulldogged energy, he went through it. On all occasions he fraternized with the cowboys; he rode, ate and slept with them; and at night listened to their simply told stories before a campfire. At times he would join in on the chorus to the cowboys’ quaint songs. Their singing was fostered by the cowboys who had come from Texas and the Southwest. Singing was never very popular among the cowboys of the Northwest.

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – We are in severe weather season on May 24.

On this date in 1896, an F4 tornado hit the Des Moines Iowa area injuring at least 60 people and killed at least 21. This tornado drove a steel railroad rail 15 feet into the ground, which would have weighed six to nine hundred pounds.

In 1930, one of the slowest moving tornadoes hit Pratt, Kansas. This tornado appeared stationary at times because it was only moving at five miles per hour.

The first tornado was seen on radar on this date in 1973 for an F4 tornado near Union City, Oklahoma. This led to the term tornadic vortex signature showing the rotation on radar.

1990 saw the largest tornado outbreaks in Wyoming. This brought roughly a dozen tornadoes through open landscape. One report also had tennis ball sized hail.

DICKINSON — A portion of 30th Avenue West was closed Saturday afternoon just west of Dickinson Middle School while authorities said they were investigating a “serious crash involving a scooter.”

Late that evening, North Dakota Highway Patrol (NDHP) announced that a juvenile had died at the scene of the accident after her scooter had struck a light pole between 18th Street West and 19th Street West, According to NDHP, she had veered right while traveling southbound, and the scooter overturned.

For reference, the area of 18th Street West and 19th Street West described by law enforcement is south of the traffic light near Dickinson Middle School on 21st Street West, while still north of 15th Street West road that accesses Cornerstone Bank off 20th Avenue West.

According to NDHP, the driver of the scooter – a juvenile – was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

The scooter, according to the statement, was a 2021 Honda WW150.

The area of the accident is posted with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour. 30th Avenue West is a four lane road.

A scooter or a motorcycle?

NDHP described the vehicle – a 2021 Honda WW150 – in Saturday’s accident as “a scooter”, a description that begs explanation. Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc. (IAAI) has four separate Honda WW150s listed in stock, and all four are described as follows:

• Vehicle: Motorcycle
• Body Style: Scooter
• Engine: 157 cc

Further complicating the matter, most sources describe Honda WW150s as the same vehicle as the Honda PCX150.

Scooters are not allowed on city streets in Dickinson, according to Section 58-391 of city code. Motorcycles, however, must operate on streets.

The most recent information from the City of Dickinson on the definition of similar vehicles was posted just days ago by the Dickinson Police Department (DPD). The statement, which sparked heated discussion across social media and to which DPD even responded publicly, stemmed from a recent update to city municipal code Section 58-1 which aimed to clarify the definition of e-bike.

There is no explicit definition for scooter in the glossary at the top of of the

newly-updated format of Section 58-1 attached to the video from DPD

. Multiple references in Section 58, however, define how scooters can be operated. Further on in Chapter 58, however, Section 58-390 which can be found in the city’s online Municode database defines a “motorized scooter” as a “a self-propelled device which has a motor or engine, a deck on which a person may ride and at least two wheels in contact with the ground and which is not otherwise defined in N.D.C.C. § 39-01-01(47), as amended, as a motor vehicle,” even though the definition is not listed in the glossary.

Dickinson Press file photo

The word “scooter” does not appear in Chapter 39 of North Dakota Century Code.

However, North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) clearly states alongside licensing requirements that “a maximum piston or rotor displacement of 49.98 cc (3.05 cubic inches enabling a speed not to exceed 30 mph on a level surface” is one of the qualifying factors of “a motorized bicycle/scooter.”

RubyAnn Stiegelmeier / The Dickinson Press

A motorcycle, according to NDDOT alongside licensing requirements, has “a minimum piston or rotor displacement of 49.99 cc or greater enabling a speed greater than 30 mph.”

A Honda WW150, according to the specifications listed on the IAAI website, has a 157 cc engine, and most online sources agree that a Honda WW150 has a top speed of 60-75 miles per hour.

Section 58-1 of Dickinson city code, as found in the newly-updated version posted by DPD, also says that “motorcycle means every motor vehicle having a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, regardless of the engine components (electric, gas, etc.), but excluding implements of husbandry. The term “motorcycle” does not include an electric bicycle as defined.”

Dickinson Press file photo

So, was the juvenile driving a motorcycle or a scooter?

“The definitions at the state level are a little different than ones we use locally,” said Lt. Mike Hanel of the Dickinson Police Department (DPD) in a conversation with the Press.

What does the City of Dickinson have to say?

The Press reached out to city administrator Dustin Dassinger to clarify whether the city views a Honda WW150 as a motorcycle based on municipal code. Dassinger forwarded the question to the chief of police in lieu of answering, and no response was received from Chief Cianni at the time of reporting. However, Lt. Mike Hanel responded to the question, sharing more information from DPD’s point of view.

Dickinson Police Department said that the Honda WW150 is “most definitely considered a motorcycle,” based on the engine combustion.

“We will most likely have to address this in our next round of ordinance reviews,” Hanel added.

People with further questions should reach out to Dickinson Police Department, he said.

“We want to make sure that the public doesn’t have any lingering questions about what constitutes an e-bike or a motorcycle,” Hanel said.

Toy vehicles and scooters are “on the horizon” for the city to address in upcoming ordinance changes, according to Hanel. Deputy Chief Hanson is spearheading those efforts, according to Hanel, and no specific timeline is in place for the changes, but “it’s something we want to address sooner rather than later.”

Do teens need a motorcycle license to operate one?

Adjacent to the information about a “motorized bicycle/scooter”, NDDOT states that a person as young as 14-15 can obtain a motorcycle permit or a motorcycle license in North Dakota. Plus, according to NDDOT, if the person completes a Basic Rider Course from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation within the prior year, the road test for obtaining a permit or license is waived.

A teen must hold a permit for at least two months prior to obtaining a license.

However, in the portion of Dickinson municipal code cited by DPD in their e-bike ordinance videos, Sec. 58-459 states clearly that “no child under the age of 12 years shall operate a motorized skateboard, motorized scooter or an electric bicycle.”

The gap between the age of 12 listed in Dickinson municipal code and the age of 14 listed in NDDOT licensing regulations raises further questions about the matter.

Can scooters be driven on the roadway, or only sidewalks?

The newly updated Section 58-458 of Dickinson municipal code states the following under the heading ‘prohibited operation’:

“No person shall operate a motorized skateboard, motorized scooter or an electric bicycle:

• (1) On any sidewalk in the City, except for use in crossing such sidewalk by the most direct route to gain access to any public or private road or driveway when operating at a speed 15 miles per hour or more. Any operation under 15 miles per hour is permitted.
• (2) In any City parking structure or City park, except for use on public roadways or designated community paths or trails within such park; (3) On any public property that has been posted or designed by the owner of such property as an area prohibiting skateboards;
• (4) On any public roadway consisting of a total of four or more marked traffic lanes, or having an established speed limit of greater than 25 miles per hour; or
• (5) On any private property of another, or any public property which is not held open to the public for vehicle use, without the written permission of the owner, the person entitled to immediate possession of the property, or the authorized agent of either.”

Dickinson city code also mandates in Sec. 58-460 that “a person operating a motorized skateboard,motorized scooter or electric bicycle on a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic, at the time and place and under the then existing conditions, shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway…”

Dickinson Press file photo

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In response to questions about the Saturday accident, Lt. Hanel clarified that the vehicle the youth was driving on was classified as a motorcycle based on its engine displacement, and that the vehicle was required to operate on the roadway, not the sidewalk.

If she had been driving a scooter, could she have used the sidewalk?

A sidewalk exists on the east side of 30th Avenue West, but there is no sidewalk on the west side of the road, despite homes and businesses – even newly-opened ones – being located west of 30th Avenue West, especially in the busy I-94 business corridor.

A lack of visible crosswalks complicates travel, as well.

RubyAnn Stiegelmeier / The Dickinson Press

There is no crosswalk across 30th Avenue West at 19th Street West, even though a home is located in the immediate area.

Also, it is difficult to ascertain whether crosswalks are present at 15th Street West and West Ridge Drive to allow people to cross from the eastern sidewalk to the businesses and homes in the area west of 30th Avenue West. Yellow padding is in place at the curb in each street’s location, but no striping is visible across 30th Avenue at either street to alert motorists of a crosswalk. At West Ridge Drive in particular, the yellow padding leads – not to a sidewalk – but a grassy gap area without any official marking that it’s even a walkway.

The Press asked Lt. Hanel whether he was aware of any plans to upgrade safety measures in the area of 30th Avenue West and West Ridge Drive.

Hanel did not share any specific information, but directed the Press to the city’s engineering department to ask about any potential plans to upgrade the sidewalks or crosswalks in that portion of 30th Avenue West. The Press reached out to the engineering department but did not receive a response by the time of publication, likely due to the timing of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

RubyAnn Stiegelmeier / The Dickinson Press

Gray areas and further remaining questions

Dickinson municipal code still leaves several questions unanswered, especially in regards to Saturday’s accident.

When will the city address the discrepancy in the definitions of the term “scooter”?

Many small electric scooters are capable of traveling over the speed of 15 miles per hour, so does requiring scooters traveling above the speed of 15 miles per hour to travel on the roadway improve the safety of Dickinson, or does the regulation push scooter drivers to use the roadway alongside other larger, faster vehicles?

Will the city enact a stipulation in municipal code that youth without a motorcycle license must operate scooters on sidewalks or bike paths only? Since city code allows children as young as 12 to operate scooters, and scooters are required to be on the road if they’re going over 15 miles per hour, how will the city address this?

Why have no sidewalks been built on the west edge of 30th Avenue West, despite extensive business development – including apartment complexes – going on in the area? Why is the sidewalk incomplete at West Ridge Drive? Also, most strikingly, why are there no clearly marked crosswalks for either pedestrians or scooter users across that area of 30th Avenue West?

Most of all, will Section 58-460 of municipal code, which requires scooter drivers to “travel as close as practicable to the right-hand curb” contribute to future incidents, since the juvenile was traveling southbound and then according to NDHP, “veered right, overturned, and struck a light post?”